Lifehacker: The Guide to Working Smarter, Faster, and Better, Third Edition

Hack 8: Consolidate Multiple Email Addresses with Gmail

Level Medium

Platform Web

Cost Free

After reading Hack 7, you’ve decided to move all your email online to Google’s web-based service, Gmail. Great! But what about messages still going to your old email address(es)? Are they destined to be lost in the Internet ether?

Fear not! Gmail is not only an email host; it’s also an email client that can fetch mail from any number of external services and consolidate it all in your Gmail inbox. You can avoid telling all your contacts to update your email address again, and you don’t miss a single message in your transition to Gmail.

Receive Messages for Other Addresses in Your Gmail Inbox

You have two ways to receive email from other addresses in Gmail: Either use Gmail’s Mail Fetcher feature or forward your other addresses’ mail to Gmail automatically.

Option 1: Set Up Gmail’s POP Mail Fetcher

Most likely, your former email provider offers Post Office Protocol (POP) access for retrieving messages. Gmail’s Mail Fetcher feature can retrieve those messages via POP and display them in your inbox alongside messages that come directly to your Gmail address. You can fetch email from up to five other email addresses via POP in Gmail.

To use Gmail’s Mail Fetcher, your old email account must offer POP access. Not all free addresses offer POP, but most do. Check the other account’s settings or contact customer support to find out whether POP access is available on your non-Gmail account. You need ...