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How to Automatically Forward Received Emails in Gmail

Forwarding emails from your Gmail account to another email address can be very useful to manage your inbox more efficiently. While you can manually forward individual emails as needed, setting up automatic forwarding for all received emails takes things to the next level.

In this comprehensive guide, I will walk you through the step-by-step process to automatically forward Gmail emails based on my 10+ years of experience. Whether you want to forward all emails or only specific ones, this guide has you covered.

Why Automatically Forward Gmail Emails

Here are some of the most common reasons why people set up automatic email forwarding in Gmail:

  • Forward emails to a new email address after changing jobs or email providers
  • Forward important emails to a secondary account as a backup
  • Forward work emails to a personal account for easier access
  • Automatically share emails with a partner or team member
  • Move emails from an old account you plan on deleting

The main benefit of automatic forwarding is convenience. Once it’s set up, every email meeting your filter criteria will automatically be forwarded without any additional effort on your part.

Step 1: Add the Forwarding Email Address in Gmail

The first step is to add the email address you want your Gmails to be forwarded to:

  1. Open Gmail and click on the Settings icon (shaped like a gear)
  2. Select See all settings
  3. Go to the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab
  4. In the Forwarding section, click on Add a forwarding address
  5. Enter the email address and click Next
  6. Confirm the address and click Proceed

You will get a verification email at the forwarding address. Click on the verification link in that email to complete the process before moving to the next steps.

Step 2: Enable Automatic Forwarding

Once the forwarding email address is verified in your Gmail account, you can now enable automatic forwarding:

  1. Go back to Gmail Settings > Forwarding and POP/IMAP
  2. In the Forwarding section, select Forward a copy of incoming mail to
  3. Choose the forwarding email address
  4. Select Keep Gmail’s copy in the Inbox
  5. Click Save Changes at the bottom

And you’re all set! From this point onwards, all emails received by your Gmail account will automatically be forwarded to the configured address.

Step 3 (Optional): Forward Only Specific Emails

The steps above will forward ALL your received emails. If you only want certain emails to be forwarded automatically, you can create forwarding filters instead:

  1. In the Gmail search box, click Show search options
  2. Define a search filter, such as from:[email protected]
  3. At the bottom, click on Create filter
  4. Choose Forward it to and select the forwarding email address
  5. Click Create filter to save

Now only emails matching your filter criteria will be forwarded. You can create multiple filters to forward different types of emails.

Troubleshooting Automatic Forwarding

If your emails are not being forwarded automatically despite setting it up, here is how to troubleshoot:

  • Check if forwarding is enabled in your Gmail settings
  • Verify that the confirmation link was clicked when the forwarding address was added
  • Make sure forwarding is not disabled by your Gmail admin if you use G Suite
  • Check if your emails are going to spam at the forwarded account
  • Try forwarding to a different email address as a test

And that’s it! With these simple steps, you can easily set up automatic email forwarding in Gmail within minutes. The convenience it provides will be worth setting up forwarding so you never miss an important update arriving in your inbox.

Let me know in the comments if you have any other questions!

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