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I have 2 GMail accounts, but I want to use them as one. Which is the best option?

  1. Forward e-mails from one to another
  2. Download e-mails via POP3 from one to another
  3. Download e-mails via IMAP from one to anoter

6 Answers 6

4

I think it would be best just to forward them all to one. If you use a mail client like Thunderbird, download them in IMAP so you always still have a backup on the server if your machine crashes. POP will delete them once downloaded.

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  • +1: I do this with all of my accounts. Set them up to forward to your main account, and then work the rules from there. If you permanently download them locally, it kinda kills the point of webmail. Oct 5, 2009 at 18:11
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    If I remember correctly, then POP on Gmail will not actually delete things (though normal POP servers would). But you're right: one surely wants to use IMAP to keep things organised. (You don't want to have to organise everything again in case of problems.) Even better: use IMAP and a backup of your local storage.
    – Arjan
    Oct 5, 2009 at 18:35
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    To add to what Arjan said: I believe there's an option to allow Gmail to keep the mail in the servers (and not delete them) for POP3 accounts.
    – Isxek
    Oct 5, 2009 at 19:16
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You can add multiple GMail accounts to your main account.

  1. Go to 'Settings'
  2. Click 'Add POP3 Mail Account'
  3. Enter your Gmail address
  4. Finish the setup

And you're all set. Then you can organize them however you want with labels/filters, etc.

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  • I'll count it as a vote for the POP3 approach
    – Jader Dias
    Oct 5, 2009 at 18:08
  • This would be my choice as well. You get the benefit of Gmail's labels, as well as filtering. Just create a filter to label the secondary account's incoming messages as they arrive. It took me a long time to decide to make the shift away from Thunderbird, Outlook, and other e-mail clients, but I'm very glad I did.
    – JMD
    Oct 5, 2009 at 18:21
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    In fact, you can add other accounts than GMail accounts as well. I do this with all of my email accounts.
    – cdeszaq
    Oct 5, 2009 at 18:30
  • To clarify my own comment, the POP3 account info includes a checkbox/dropdown to label the POP3 messages on their way in.
    – JMD
    Oct 5, 2009 at 18:33
2

Depends on what you're trying to accomplish.

I chose to just forward all my other gmail accounts to one primary one, allow the primary one to send as the others, and set gmail to send replies using the address used in the original message.

For good measure, I also added a filter to automatically label incoming mail with the address that it was sent to (and you can also have it skip the inbox, if you really want a separate experience).

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Both 1 and 2 :) I forwarded my backup gmail account to my main account.And added my main gmail account to my Thunderbird.So I see both accounts' e-mails in my inbox of thunderbird.

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Apart from what others have suggested, you could also just open them in two different browsers. But that' not probably what you're after.

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  • There is no need for that, you can log at once, in the same browser, in both accounts and the there is no cookie conflict
    – Jader Dias
    Oct 5, 2009 at 18:28
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    I fail to do that with FF or Chrome. Opening a new tab will always open an already logged in account.
    – Rook
    Oct 5, 2009 at 19:40
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    We both are right, you are right when both accounts are normal GMail accounts. It happens that in my case one of the accounts is for my company's domain, so it works.
    – Jader Dias
    Oct 6, 2009 at 2:44
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It's a tradeoff. If you add the account as pop3 you might wait <60 minutes till a mail pops up in the right mailbox because google only checks the pop3 account every 60 minutes. On the other hand using pop3 allows you to add labels on the mails that go to the second account.

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