How to Migrate Yahoo Email to Gmail for Free?

I know exactly how to migrate Yahoo email to Gmail with minimal effort and still retain all my emails intact. Moreover, I know how difficult it can be for technically naïve users to explore all the methods independently.

You need not worry anymore, I will help you change your @yahoo.com account to a @gmail.com address. I have helped countless other users like yourself with my email migration guides.

First and foremost, it is essential to understand that you have multiple routes to make the switch. However, not every method is equal. That is why you must read through the explanations carefully and learn about the merits and demerits of each process.

Before I begin explaining the methods themselves, see the list of reasons that other users like you have reported as their reason for quitting Yahoo and choosing Gmail instead.

Why Migrate Yahoo Email to Gmail?

Earlier, Yahoo used to offer a large amount of storage space even to free-tier users. However, earlier this year, all of this changed when Yahoo announced a drastic 98% reduction in its storage space.

This is by far the biggest reason for forwarding all messages to Gmail and closing the Yahoo account.

In addition to the drastic storage reduction, many users were unhappy with the UI changes that Yahoo made on its platform. Its unpopularity is visible via continuous user requests on how to go back to the old Yahoo.

Yahoo Mail is also more blatant in showing ads directly inside your inbox, and users don’t like it.

Unlike Yahoo, a Gmail account gives you access to the state-of-the-art Google apps, ranging from business suite apps (Slides, Sheets, Docs), cloud storage (Google Drive), and recently, the new AI apps like Gemini.

Gmail, as an email service, is also more generous in terms of the features and facilities you get. Like you can set auto forwarding without paying.

Better search facility, superior spam protection, and many features available in Gmail that are missing from Yahoo. You can check out my in-depth Gmail vs Yahoo comparison guide to know more.

Now that the reasons are well understood, let’s cover all the methods one by one, starting with the best.

How to Transfer Yahoo Email to Gmail Professionally?

Use the SysTools IMAP to IMAP Migration Software for moving all emails between the two platforms. This tool is both well-documented by all major software review sites and widely recognized by users worldwide for its email transfer capabilities.

 

The locally run program is enterprise-ready and can perform a multi-user migration from Yahoo to Gmail. Being vendor-neutral allows users to deploy this tool in all common real migration scenarios like the one you are dealing with today.

Download the free demo now and move up to a hundred emails at no cost. I am confident you will upgrade to the full version after witnessing the tool’s sheer speed and efficiency.

Below are the steps to follow when using the program.

Steps to Use the Tool

Step 1. Install a genuine copy on your machine, activate it, and on the setup screen, pick the start plus end dates for the migration. You need not worry about the endpoints or selecting the email workload; the tool does it for you.

Step 2. On the source screen, toggle the dropdown and select Yahoo. The IMAP Server URL and port number are filled automatically. Press the Validate button and hit Next.

Step 3. Likewise, you need to repeat the same process for Destination Gmail. Select it from the drop-down; this also fills the Server URL and the port number, validate, & press Next.

Step 4. Then, to add the users, download the CSV template. Fill it with the correct credentials and reupload it to the tool.

Step 5. The user list will appear inside the tool’s UI Choose which ones you need to migrate, validate, and press Start.

There are other manual methods, which I will discuss in detail, and also explain why you should avoid wasting your time on them.

How to Forward Emails from Yahoo to Gmail​?

Email forwarding is the first thing that comes to your mind when you decide to switch away from Yahoo to Gmail.
Your intuition isn’t entirely wrong, but the way forwarding happens in Yahoo makes it a suboptimal way of data transfer.

The following is a process for forwarding a message in any Yahoo account, free or paid.

• Step 1. Inside the Yahoo Mail portal, open any email.
• Step 2. Press the Forward icon.
• Step 3. Fill in your @gmail.com address in the “To” section of the email draft.
• Step 4. Hit Send.

As you can see, it’s only possible to forward one email at a time. The moment you select more than one email, the forwarding option disappears. So you have to redo the steps for every message inside your inbox.

This will lead to another issue. There is a hidden limiter inside all email accounts to prevent spam. You cannot send more than 500 emails per day, with an additional limit of about 100 emails per hour.

Those of you who have a Yahoo Plus subscription get the option to automate this forwarding for all the new emails. Here is how:

• Step 1. Click on the Settings cog icon ⚙ . Then, choose More Settings •••.
• Step 2. Choose Mailboxes.
• Step 3. Pick your main Yahoo mailbox account.
• Step 4. Under Forwarding, type the @gmail.com address.
• Step 5. Press Verify.
• Step 6. Log in to Gmail and accept the forwarding request.

However, this also applies to all upcoming messages; as you are about to close your Yahoo account, it will not be helpful in the long run. You must manually forward all existing emails that have DMARC and SPF Failure Risk.

Additionally, you must be comfortable with the metadata alteration that occurs after forwarding.

Don’t Use Email Clients to Merge Yahoo Account with Gmail

As we saw, forwarding has several problems; so, what if we use email clients instead of forwarding?

The basic idea is to set up both of our accounts, i.e, Yahoo and Gmail, on a single client like  Thunderbird or Outlook. Then drag and drop all messages.

I, too, had the same idea, but whilst attempting it, I quickly understood all of its limitations. So learn from my mistakes and avoid this method altogether.

First of all, setting up an email client and adding not one but two different email accounts in it is not an easy task.

Email clients are quite hefty software that require decent memory and lots of local storage to run properly. If your computer lacks such hardware, then it becomes quite difficult for you to use it properly.

If you can add the accounts without issues, then you face the second, and in my opinion, the more severe problem, which is Data Integrity Risk (Loss of SEEN Flag).

Sometimes, while dragging and dropping, the emails lose their message metadata. This causes them to appear as unread in the destination Gmail, regardless of their original status.

So, Email clients are a strict no-go for migration. Is there any other method? Yes, there is. Gmail is one of the unique email clients that has its own import feature to pull emails from different accounts. Let me explain how it works and what issues you may encounter should you use it.

How to Use Gmail to Pull Yahoo Email Data?

Step 0. In Yahoo Mail > Settings > More Settings > Mailboxes > Select account > Enable POP access.

Step 1. Log in to Gmail on any browser > Click on settings (top right) > See all settings.

Step 2. Switch to Accounts and Import > click on Import mail and contacts.

Step 3. Fill in your Yahoo email address followed by the password.

Note: If 2FA is off regular Yahoo password works; otherwise, you must make an app password in Yahoo and use it instead.

Step 4. Gmail connects via POP3, configure import options, and start import.

This may sound simple, rough, but in reality is quite confusing. Moreover, Users complain about excessive processing time, which may stretch for weeks. It would be an issue if there were any live trackers, but this method has a complete lack of visibility on how much progress has been made. So you are always second-guessing whether the operation was successful or not.

Another limitation is that you can only migrate from one account at a time. Any attempts to bypass this may cause your Gmail to be compromised, and you can lose account access.

Conclusion

So now I am sure that you know how to migrate Yahoo Email to Gmail. All the methods that I described in this post were used by me, so I know the advantages and disadvantages of each. I have tried my best to make you aware of the same.

Now it’s up to you to choose the best method. I would once again reiterate that the tool is the one you should choose if you want to be safe and sure about the Yahoo to Gmail transfer.”