How to import mail into your gmail account
You may want to import already received mails to your Google Mail (Gmail) account if you plan to switch from a local mail client or other online client to Google's mail service.
One reason could be that you want to make the complete switch to Gmail and never use the old email client again.
There is unfortunately no import option to import email directly from other accounts, at least not at the current point in time (read the update below, this has changed in recent time).
Gmail Loader is the script that you need to do just that. It is a graphical cross-platform tool that lets youo import mail from many email clients including Netscape and Thunderbird. Gmail Loader forwards your mail to your Gmail account, pretty simple concept don't you think?
You can download a windows version which does not require python and a Linux / osx version which requires python and is distributed as source only. The author suggests that you use the command line tool readPST to import mail from Outlook to your Gmail account. Not sure how this is working, it could be that the tool converts the outlook format into a format that is readable by Gmail loader.
Update:Gmail Loader has been discontinued and is no longer available. You cannot make use of the application anymore to import emails to Gmail. Read on to find out what you can do instead:
It should be obvious that you can forward important mails to Gmail manually. And while this may work if we are talking about a couple dozens or so mails, it won't really be an option anymore if you want to forward thousands of mails.
Google recently introduced import mail and contact options to Gmail. To access those options, click on the preferences button in the Gmail window and select Account and Import (update: now only called Accounts) from the menu there. You can alternatively follow this link to get there directly.
Locate the import mail and contacts option and either click on Learn More to find out how the importing works, or click on import mail and contacts to start the process right away.
It basically offers to import contacts and the mails from the past 30 days into the Gmail account. Supported are web mail providers like Yahoo, Hotmail or AOL, and dozens of other providers.
Update 2: The process has changed slightly:
- Click on the Gears icon in the top right corner of the screen and select Settings from the menu.
- Select the Accounts tab with a click.
- Locate the Check mail from other accounts (using Pop3) option and click on the link to set up a new pop3 mail account on Gmail.
Tips
- The import mail option currently supports only Pop3 accounts.
- According to Google, Mail Fetcher will download old mails from the old server - if still available - and also new emails that arrive in the future.
You said that Outlook isn’t your main email client, so which is your main one?
I think its thunderbird
It is Mozilla Thunderbird.
Awesome! This actually solved my problem… what a stupid bug.
If this is the same bug that I’ve encountered, there may be another fix: (1) hover over open Outlook item in Taskbar, cursor up to hover over Outlook window item, and right-click; (2) this should give you Restore / Move / Size / Minimize / Maximize — choose Move or Size; (3) use your cursor keys, going arbitrarily N/S/E/W, to try to move or size the Outlook window back into view. Basically, the app behaves as though it were open in a 0x0 window, or at a location that’s offscreen, and this will frequently work to resize and/or move the window. Don’t forget to close while resized/moved, so that Outlook remembers the size/position for next time.
THANK YOU Claude!!! I could get the main window to launch but could not get any other message window to show on the desktop. You are my hero!!!!
Solved my issue! 6 years later and this is still problem…
Fantastic. Thank you. Size did the trick.
This solved my Outlook problem, too. Thank you. :)
Thank you so much, this started happening to me today and was causing big problems. You are a life saver, I hope I can help you in some way some day.
You are a god – thank you!
thanks a lot…. work like charm.. :-)
Yah…thanks Claude. I’ve been having the same problem and tried all the suggestions…your solution was the answer. It had resized itself to a 0/0 box. Cheers
Excellent post. This had me baffled even trying to accurately describe the problem. This fixed it for me.
Thank you
Thanks a lot for the article. Don’t know why it happenend, don’t know how it got fixed, but it was really annoying and now it works :-)
Thanks a lot. I was facing this issue from past 3 week. I tried everything but no resolution. The issue was happening intermittently and mainly when I was changing the display of screen ( as i use 2 monitors). The only option i had was to do system restore. But thanks to you.
I’ve been tried to sole this problem for 12hours. Your comment about changing the display of screen helped me a lot!! Thanks!!
Thank you…don’t know why this happened but your instructions helped me fix it. Running Windows 10 and office pro 2007
Great tip! Thanks!
Worked for me, too – thank you!!!
It’s Worked for me, too
thank you very much!
I had a similar issue with Outlook 2013 on Windows 10 and this helped me to fix it. Thank you very much!
Thank you so much. Solved!
Considering you published this in 2012, incredible not been debugged by Microsoft.
Thank you again. M
This problem was faced by only one user logging to TS 2008 r2 using outlook 2010.The issue was resolved.
Thanks.
Great tip. Thank you!!!! If it helps, I had to use the Control Key and the arrow keys at the same time to bring my window back into view. Worked like a charm.
Thank you, this worked !!!!
Man, you are a fucking god. Thanks a lot, what an annoying bug!!
Awesome, this post solved the issue. Many thanks!