There might be times when you need to close an email account because a member of staff is leaving the business, or you just don’t use the account anymore. If this is the case, and you have all the emails you need, you can just simply close the account and delete any data associated with the account.

However, if you are taking on a new role or you are rebranding and you need the emails, rather than forwarding yourself hundreds of emails, there is another way, and we show you how.

We have picked Gmail here, but the principles can be applied to other email account providers but do check first or consult your IT support company.

The easiest way is a two-step process where you can import all existing emails and then set up forwarding that can be used until the account is closed.

Import Emails

Sign into the new account where you want to send all the emails to using these processes:

• Settings, all settings, accounts and in the ‘Check email from other accounts’ section, click Add an email account.
• Sign into the other account using email and password. Once you get an “authentication is successful” you can move onto the next step
• Select import options – tick or untick as relevant – then click start import.

Once you do this it could take up to 2 days for the emails to appear.

In the meantime, you can set up email forwarding

Set up Forwarding

• Sign into your old account
• Click the Forwarding and POP/IMAP or Forwarding tab
• Click Add a forwarding address in the “Forwarding” section
• Enter the email address to forward messages to
• Click OK

You might find this Youtube video helpful.

There is also another option which you can use if your emails are archived, or you want to back up your data…

Use Google Takeout

Ever heard of Google Takeout? Us neither. But apparently to transfer archived emails from one Gmail account to another, you can use Google Takeout:

1. Go to the Google Takeout website

1. Log in to your Google account

1. Select mail to transfer to another Gmail account

You can use Google Takeout to download a copy of your data that is stored within Google products, so can be used for photos too, for example.

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