How to Set Up Automatic Forwarding in Gmail |

Do you manage multiple email accounts simultaneously and sometimes miss out on important emails?

The struggle of constantly switching tabs and not receiving timely email notifications is real. 

Wouldn’t it be great if you could manage all your important emails in one inbox and reduce overload? Enable automatic Gmail forwarding, the perfect method to get all your emails in one place. 

Gmail forwarding automatically sends incoming emails from a single Gmail address to another designated one. It keeps your inbox running smoothly, even when you’re not actively managing it.

Keep reading to learn how to set up automatic forwarding in Gmail!

Benefits of Automatically Forwarding Emails

Email forwarding redirects incoming messages using email servers. When you set it up, you specify the original email address and the target email address. The email server receives incoming messages from the source email and forwards them to the target address.

This process ensures that you promptly receive all incoming mail messages from different accounts to a single Gmail address. Some of the notable advantages of automatic forwarding include:

1. Convenience and better organization

All of us wish for an organized inbox, but only a handful of people can implement the ‘Inbox Zero’ strategy effectively. Inbox zero means decluttering your email by archiving, deleting, responding to, doing, or delegating tasks until your total number of unread emails is, you guessed it, zero. Imagine doing this for multiple inboxes.

Automatic email forwarding saves you the hassle of directing all important emails to your primary inbox. It makes inbox management easy by helping you sort emails using filters and labels.

2. Email filtering

Setting up an automatic forwarding filter in Gmail can make email management smoother by filtering non-productive, spam, or harmful emails and sending them to the junk folder. This keeps your inbox clean, making it easier to focus on high-priority messages.

3. Quick access to important information

Email forwarding helps you conveniently access emails from multiple accounts in one inbox. You can easily check any thread or email attachment, even if you are using a device with a different email account.

How to Automatically Forward Emails in Gmail?

Here is the step-by-step guide for setting up automatic forwarding in Gmail: 

Step 1: Log in to Gmail

Open Gmail in the browser and log in to the account from which you want to forward messages.

Step 2: Open settings

Click Settings (gear icon) in the top right corner and select See all settings.

Go to Forwarding and POP/IMAP.

Step 3: Add a forwarding address

In the ‘Forwarding’ section, click Add a forwarding address.

Enter the recipient address to which you want to forward messages, then click Next, Proceed, and OK.

Step 4: Verify forwarding address

You will get a verification link with a confirmation code to the specified forwarding address. Click on the verification link.

Step 5: Access the forwarding and POP/IMAP tab

Return to the settings page and refresh your browser. Go back to the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab.

Step 6: Set forwarding options

In the Forwarding section, select Forward a copy of incoming mail to.

Step 7: Choose an action for the Gmail copy

Select what happens to the Gmail copy of your emails. You can handle the original message in your inbox in four ways.

• Keep my copy in the inbox: You get a copy of emails in your original Gmail account
• Mark my copy as read: It won’t appear as a new message in your Gmail account
• Archive my copy: This moves the email out of your main inbox
• Delete Gmail copy: If you don’t want to keep it at all

Step 8:  Save changes

Click Save Changes to apply the automatic forwarding settings in Gmail.

How to filter and forward specific Gmail messages?

So, you’ve forwarded all your emails to another account, and now it’s drowning in messages? Filters to the rescue! You can apply a filter if you only want to forward certain kinds of emails. Here’s how to do it:

Step 1: Open Gmail

Access your Gmail account through a browser.

Step 2: Access search options

Go to the top of the page and click the Show search options button within the Search mail field.

Step 3: Specify filter criteria

Define your filter criteria. Whether you’re filtering by sender, keywords, or subjects, Gmail filters can sort it all. Once configured, click Create filter.

Step 4: Set the forwarding address

On the next page, check the box for Forward to and select the email group or address where you want to forward specific messages.

Step 5: Create a filter

Click Create filter, and voila! Your tailored email forwarding setup is ready.

How to turn off automatic forwarding?

Automatic forwarding in Gmail can make your workflow easier, but you never know when you might need to turn it off. Maybe you no longer need emails sent to another account, or perhaps you’re tightening up security.

Whatever your reason may be, here are the steps to turn off automatic forwarding in Gmail:

Step 1:  Log in to Gmail

Open the Gmail account from which you want to stop forwarding messages.

Step 2: Open settings

Click Settings in the top right, and select See all settings.

Step 3: Go to forwarding settings

Select the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab in the settings page.

Step 4: Turn off forwarding

Disable forwarding in the ‘Forwarding’ section.

Step 5: Save changes

Tap Save Changes to turn off automatic forwarding in Gmail.

How to manage forwarding notices in Gmail?

It’s perfectly fine if you see a forwarding notice in your inbox after setting up email forwarding—it is just a friendly reminder. However, if you see this notice and you didn’t set up forwarding, there might be something amiss. Here’s what you should do immediately:

• Secure your account: Change your password to block unauthorized access to your Gmail account
• Turn off forwarding: Use the steps above to disable forwarding

These measures will protect your account and prevent unauthorized forwarding of your emails.

Awesome! You can now forward any email message and manage your Gmail inbox without any issues.

Use cases of email forwarding

Email forwarding isn’t just about convenience—it changes how you manage your emails. Here is how it helps you optimize your email workflow and boost efficiency:

1. Efficient email marketing

If your team uses multiple emails to send personalized marketing campaigns, automatic forwarding can help you track and monitor all campaigns from a centralized place. This way, you can respond to queries immediately and handle customer requests easily.

Try the Email Marketing Template to streamline campaign management. It helps you plan, schedule, and track your emails effortlessly. You can also automate email outreach based on user behavior and send targeted messages at the right time.

Use features like custom statuses to track campaign progress and custom fields to manage essential details for easy access and organization.

2. Integration with CRM and sales software

Email forwarding works seamlessly with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems and sales software by helping teams create shared inboxes for effective collaboration.

By setting up forwarding rules, you ensure that important customer emails automatically go to your CRM or sales software. This helps you manage leads more efficiently, keep track of client conversations, and streamline your sales processes.

Automatic forwarding will instantly route the incoming email to the appropriate person or system. This means faster response times, better lead conversion rates, and an overall boost in sales efficiency.

3. Integration with marketing software and automation

By forwarding marketing-related emails to the right teams, you can enhance your marketing efforts. It becomes easier to manage campaigns and track marketing metrics.

How can help auto-forward your emails and streamline workflows?

While auto-forwarding in Gmail helps track all emails in workplaces, you still need to filter and sort threads. Some emails might get lost due to shuffle, making you miss out on important discussions. 

The Email Project Management Solution helps you manage your emails directly within . You can receive emails, send replies, attach emails to tasks, and link emails to tasks.

Easily create tasks

The best part is that you can even create and assign tasks through emails and notify your team automatically. Use the Gmail Integration to add starred emails as tasks in . 

To use email for creating tasks, go to any task in :

• Click the ellipsis … icon
• Select Send email to task
• Copy the link address and set it as a forwarding address in Gmail (as shown above in step 3)

Add comments and replies

Easily add comments and reply to task-related messages through emails, keeping all your communications and attachments in one place. Use email in to stay focused and minimize distractions by replying to notifications directly within your email.

Set notifications and attach emails

Attach emails to tasks to bring entire conversations into your workspace. You can also schedule tasks by setting start and due dates directly from your inbox, ensuring you never miss a deadline.

Email automation

Automate emails for seamless workflow management with the Email Automation with Template.

It helps you visualize the entire automation process, organize and manage email tasks to ensure everything is on the right track, and automatically trigger emails at the optimal times, reducing your manual effort. You can also track email campaigns by setting custom fields, such as ’email subject lines’ and ‘recipients.’ 

Here’s how you can use the template:

• Set up automation: Connect your email account, create triggers, and map out the emails you want to send
• Craft emails: Personalize each message and add relevant content and visuals
• Schedule emails: Plan when your emails should go out using the Calendar view
• Monitor and adjust: Track the performance of email campaigns by looking at metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and unsubscribes

Considerations and Best Practices for Automatic Email Forwarding

When setting up automatic forwarding in Gmail, it’s important to use the right email management strategies so you can leverage email forwarding like a pro:

1. Privacy and data security precautions

Email forwarding is super convenient. But guess what? It’s even more convenient for hackers. When you forward messages, you can expose your sensitive information to unauthorized users. 

If cyber intruders get access to your email account, they can change the forwarding settings to send these emails to themselves, leading to potential data breaches. So, be cautious and keep your email account secure if you want to forward messages.

Fortunately, the following steps can ensure your safety:

• Regular audits and scanning: Regularly check auto-forwarding rules to spot and fix unauthorized or suspicious configurations. Use tools to detect security risks, such as unusual forwarding destinations or large-scale forwarding activities
• Proactive detection: Set up real-time tracking to quickly identify and address any unusual auto-forwarding behavior. Create alerts for security teams to act on potential threats immediately
• Encrypt sensitive information: Implement encryption for sensitive information. This will require a potential threat actor to obtain a private certificate and an encryption key before decrypting a message, adding an extra layer of security
• Disable Email forwarding: If you no longer need auto-forwarding, disable the feature

2. Monitor and manage auto-forwarded emails

Once you set up automatic email forwarding, it’s essential to monitor and manage the process properly to avoid missing important messages. Here is a break-up of how to monitor and manage auto-forwarded emails:

Comprehensive testing of Email forwarding rules:

• When you first set up automatic forwarding in Gmail, and anytime you change the settings, test everything thoroughly. Send test emails from different accounts using Gmail templates, and verify they reach their intended addresses

• Actively manage your primary email account. Don’t ignore your main inbox—this could lead to missed messages if forwarding gets interrupted

• Check your primary account regularly and set up notifications as a backup

Handling duplicate Emails in forwarding

• Set your forwarding to send emails as attachments rather than as text. This prevents the email content from being duplicated in a new message body

• Turn off the option to keep a copy of forwarded emails in your original inbox. This stops you from getting two copies of every email

• Ensure you don’t have multiple forwarding rules sending emails to the same address. Delete any redundant rules to avoid duplicates

• Ask recipients to check their spam folders for extra copies of emails, as duplicate emails sometimes get flagged as spam

Following these steps will help keep your inbox clutter-free and ensure you only receive one copy of each email.

3. Understand Internet Message Access Protocol and Post Office Protocol

IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) and POP (Post Office Protocol) are email protocols designed to fetch emails from the server.

Emails are a two-part system—the email client (an app on your computer or smartphone) and the email server. For these two parts to sync up properly, they need to speak the same language or protocol.

That’s where POP and IMAP come in. They are the common standards that allow email clients and servers to understand each other.

IMAP and POP play a crucial role in automatic email forwarding by determining how emails are accessed and stored:

Internet Message Access Protocol

IMAP lets you access your emails from multiple devices since it keeps emails on the server. When setting up automatic email forwarding, IMAP ensures that forwarded messages are consistent across all your devices, making it easy to manage your inbox wherever you are.

Post Office Protocol

POP downloads emails to your device and usually deletes them from the server afterward. If you use POP with automatic forwarding, you might only have forwarded emails on the device where you set it up. This can limit accessibility from other devices.

By understanding how IMAP and POP work, you can set up automatic email forwarding that suits you perfectly. It will ensure that emails are consistently and conveniently managed across your devices.

Automate Task Creation via Emails with

And there you have it! Now you know how to forward emails on Gmail both manually and automatically. It’s a game-changer for managing your inbox without the tedious task of copying, pasting, or individually forwarding each message.

For better project management, integrate with Gmail. By starring action items, you can automatically create new tasks in , keeping everything organized in one place. 

Sign up on to set up automatic email forwarding and streamline your workflow!

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