Your Gmail storage is sort of full — or worse, it is already full. What are you able to do?
If you happen to’re at or close to the restrict of your 15GB of free storage, you most likely have 1000’s of unread messages. The concept of cleansing out your Gmail inbox may fill you with dread. However earlier than you begin paying for additional storage, learn on: We’ll present you how one can get your account again to inbox zero whereas conserving your whole outdated e mail.
All it’s good to do is create a second Gmail account to retailer your whole present messages. There is no restriction on the variety of free Google accounts you’ll be able to personal, which implies you’ll be able to set one up as a devoted archive account, after which switch all of your outdated emails to it.
Transferring your Gmail messages can also be an amazing technique when you have a college or enterprise Gmail account that you just will not be capable of entry completely. Most universities and companies will deactivate your account as soon as you might be not a scholar or worker, so if you wish to view your outdated messages and information, you may must port them to a private account earlier than you lose entry.
Finishing the entire strategy of transferring your Gmail messages to a brand new account would not take too lengthy, however it’s going to depend upon simply what number of messages you will have. We’ll stroll you thru the straightforward strategy of transferring your emails out of your outdated account to a brand new one (together with the necessary step of backing all the pieces up first).
For extra about Gmail, study its new AI summaries or how one can use emoji reactions.
How a lot information are you able to retailer on Gmail?
Fifteen gigabytes of free storage could sound like lots once you make a Gmail account, but it surely will get stuffed up shortly. For starters, the 15GB is not simply used for e mail: It additionally consists of the information you have saved in your Google Drive and Google Pictures.
If you happen to continuously ship or obtain messages that include giant information corresponding to movies, or if you end up importing plenty of footage and movies to your Google Pictures, then it will not be lengthy earlier than you may see the “Account storage is full” notification. Because of this you’ll not be capable of ship or obtain emails on this account, so you may need to do one thing ASAP.
The quickest resolution is to improve to a Google One account. Even should you go for the least costly plan — 100GB for $20 a 12 months — you may nonetheless find yourself paying cash to retailer outdated emails that you just may not even want anymore.
If you happen to do not need to purchase extra storage, you’ll be able to all the time delete your outdated emails. You will get again a shocking quantity of space for storing by placing giant information within the trash. Gmail makes it simple so that you can determine and delete information by dimension. Even so, that possibility might sound tedious; perhaps you do not need to spend hours sifting by means of correspondence from a decade or extra in the past, deciding which reminiscences to maintain and which to eliminate endlessly.
There’s all the time the choice to obtain giant information to your desktop earlier than you delete them out of your Google account, however sooner or later, you may most likely run into the identical problem along with your native information and must handle the space for storing in your gadget.
This brings us to our “nuclear possibility:” Transferring all of your emails to a brand new Gmail account.
Tips on how to switch your Gmail messages to a brand new e mail account
Earlier than you begin the Gmail switch course of, we advocate that you just again up your emails. You are able to do this by downloading your emails both to your pc or an exterior onerous drive. You’ll be able to delete the backup after you end transferring the emails to your new account should you like, but it surely’s all the time a good suggestion to have an additional copy saved regionally.
To again up your Gmail messages, go to Google Takeout. Utilizing our take a look at Gmail account that held about 75,000 messages, we bought a obtain from Google Takeout in about 2 hours.
As soon as you have saved a replica of your emails, you are prepared to start transferring them. Listed here are the steps it’s good to take:
1. Begin by logging into your authentic Gmail account, clicking the “gear” icon within the prime proper and clicking See all settings.
2. Choose the Forwarding POP/IMAP tab, after which choose the choice Allow POP for all mail (POP stands for Publish Workplace Protocol).
3. You will have a number of choices beneath When messages are accessed with POP. To robotically delete the emails out of your authentic account after the switch, choose delete Gmail’s copy.
4. Choose Save Modifications.
Now it is time to create your new account and switch all of your messages there:
If you have not already finished so, create your model new, inbox-zero Gmail account — we’ll name this your archive account.
1. Login to your new archive account, click on the gear icon on the prime and choose See all settings.
2. Choose the Accounts and Import tab on the prime, after which choose Add a mail account subsequent to Verify mail from different accounts.
3. Within the pop-up window, enter within the title of your authentic Gmail account. Choose Subsequent.
4. Choose Import emails from my different account (POP3), andchoose Subsequent once more.
5. Enter the password of your authentic Gmail account. You may additionally be required to create a Google app password (see observe beneath).
6. Choose 995 beneath Port.
7. Verify these 3 containers: At all times use a safe connection (SSL) when retrieving mail, Label incoming messages, Archive incoming messages (Skip the Inbox)
8. Choose Add Account.
You will most likely have to create a Google app password to switch Gmail messages
We examined this Gmail message switch course of twice, and each instances the usual password for the Gmail accounts didn’t work. After a little bit of analysis, we decided that we might have to create a brief “app password” to sync the accounts.
Google app passwords are 16-digit passcodes created for “much less safe” apps or gadgets to entry your Google account. They work precisely like your Google password.
In case your common Google password would not work for syncing Gmail accounts, go to https://myaccount.google.com/apppasswords to create an app password. Merely create a reputation for the password — we used “Switch Bulk E-mail” — after which hit the Create button. You will get a pop-up window along with your new 16-digit passcode.
As soon as you have created the app password, return to step 6 of the directions above and use that new app password as a substitute of your common password.
Essential: Google will solely show your app password as soon as. After you have created it, you’ll be able to’t ask to see it once more, so be sure you write it down or in any other case document it after it has been created.
Google’s personal Assist Middle mentions that “app passwords aren’t really helpful and are pointless normally.” So when you’re finished transferring your Gmail messages, we advocate deleting your app password.
What occurs after my Gmail accounts are synced?
As soon as you have efficiently linked your new Gmail archive account to your authentic account, your emails ought to start to switch robotically. The method may take a number of hours or days, relying on what number of emails you will have.
In our take a look at account with about 75,000 messages, we discovered that it took Gmail about 2 full days to switch all of them from the unique account to the brand new archived mail account.
Essential: After transferring your Gmail messages to your archived mail account, your authentic Gmail account will place all these messages within the Trash folder, which you may have to empty manually. Clearing out these 75,000 messages from the Trash took about an hour.
Earlier than transferring Gmail messages, our take a look at account was utilizing somewhat greater than 12GB, or 80%, of Google’s free 15GB. After transferring, the account was solely utilizing 0.66GB, of which 0.06GB was from Gmail.
What Gmail messages will not be transferred?
We discovered that Gmail transferred all of our messages besides for 2 classes — Drafts and Spam.
You will have to resolve what to do along with your Drafts manually. Spam messages are robotically deleted each 30 days, so you’ll be able to let Gmail deal with that, or go into the Spam folder your self after transferring your mail and delete or ahead these messages.
As soon as your whole emails have been imported to your new account, benefit from the expertise of inbox zero. You have given your authentic account a brand new lease on life.
At this level, there are two final steps: you may need to cease the automated switch course of so that you could proceed utilizing your authentic account, and you may need to delete that app password should you needed to make one.
1. Login to your new account, go into your Settings and choose See all settings.
2. Choose the Accounts and Import tab, after which choose delete to your authentic account (beneath Verify mail from different accounts.)
3. When prompted to Verify delete mail account, choose OK.
If you happen to needed to create a Google app password and need to delete it now, return to https://myaccount.google.com/apppasswords and click on the garbage can icon subsequent to the password you created.
Congrats, you are finished.
One necessary ultimate observe: Google will delete accounts which were inactive for greater than two years. So be sure you do not utterly ignore all of your outdated emails after transferring them. If you happen to do not plan to frequently use your archive account to ship e mail, you’ll be able to nonetheless preserve the account energetic by signing in no less than as soon as each two years.
