How to Move Your Business Email to Gmail (Fast & Secure Methods)

People often question “how to move my business email to Gmail” when they feel their current email provider is no longer providing the value they could get by choosing Gmail.

They are not wrong, since its release, Gmail has grown to become the default email service for more than 1.8 billion users worldwide. Such a large adoption is primarily due to the service and features present in Gmail. At the same time, many business emails fail to provide the same mix of speed, security, and scale at such a competitive price.

With the new AI features, Gmail is an even better alternative to traditional business emails. However, users may not know how to switch. Don’t worry, I have prepared this write-up to fill in those exact gaps, so read through the tutorial in its entirety, and soon you will be able to switch in no time. Let’s start with the most basic method that you may have already tried yourself.

How to Move My Business Email to Gmail? Try Forwarding

No matter which business email provider you subscribe to, the forwarding option remains open always. Moreover, it’s almost identical irrespective of the email service. Here are the general steps you need to follow.

• Step 1. Log in to your business email account.
• Step 2. Open a message inside your inbox.
• Step 3. Look for an arrow icon in the message ribbon and hit it.
• Step 4. A new email draft should open up, type your @gmail.com address in the “To” field, and press enter.
• Step 5. Repeat steps 2 – 4 for every other message you want to transfer.
• Step 6. Set up auto forwarding to redirect all upcoming messages.

This process may sound simple, and for the most part, it is quite easy to do, but that’s where the limitations creep in.

The most severe of which is the one email at a time forwarding limit. Unfortunately, there is no way to bypass it. Email providers do give you the option to send a single message to multiple recipients. However, if you try to send multiple messages to a single recipient all at once, you realize that it’s not possible.

For a small number of messages, it is no big deal, but total email account migrations are rarely limited to a few messages.

So if you forward emails from a business account to Gmail, you will slow down the transfer rate and stretch out the process unnecessarily.

Another problem you might face is that Gmail’s strict spam filters may block the messages from entering your account. So before you start sending emails, add your business email as a trusted sender in the Google Contacts app.

Instead of doing all this, there is a more clever way to move emails around by using something you already have on your computer.

How to Move My Business Email to Gmail with Desktop Mail Client

All computers, whether it’s a Windows or Mac, come with a preinstalled desktop email client. If you don’t have one on your machine, you can download it for free via the official app store or choose an open-source option like Thunderbird to carry out the transfer ritual.

No matter which client you choose, the steps remain the same. Here is what I did when I wanted to transfer my business emails to Gmail, so follow it step by step.

• Step 1. Install/Setup a client on the computer.
• Step 2. Add both the source business email and the destination Gmail account.
• Step 3. Then, open another instance of the same client and arrange both in a split-screen style.
• Step 4. Finally, grab a bunch of emails from the source business ID and, using your cursor, drop them into the Gmail account.
• Step 5. Repeat the process till you move every last single message.

This method, although faster than the forwarding procedure I told you about earlier, still has some major downsides that you must be aware of.

First and foremost, the drag and drop requires your active participation. You have to manually reposition all messages, making the process error-prone and time-consuming.

There is no way to track how much data has moved or how much is left. You have to make rough judgments on your own that can lead to missing data.

Setting up email accounts on email clients may be confusing for people who have only ever accessed their email via the web portal.

Moreover, if you are an admin who has to move not only your own account but also is in charge of moving emails for other employees, a single client won’t suffice.

Delegating the migration to account owners has its own problems in conducting training sessions and tracking multiple users at once.

Google knows how tough it can be to quit an existing business email and switch over to Gmail; that’s why it has a built-in option for such scenarios. Let me tell you more about it.

Use Gmail’s Internal Import Mechanism

If you explore the Gmail settings options, you will find that there exists an Accounts and Import tab. Using this, you can call in all of the email messages that reside in your business account mailbox. Here is how to use it.

• Step 1. Log in to Gmail.
• Step 2. Toggle Settings > See all settings
• Step 3. Go to the Accounts and Import tab
• Step 4. Click on Import mail and contacts.
• Step 5. Then follow the on-screen instructions as they appear on the small browser window.

You need to fill in a lot of details, so make sure they are correct; otherwise, the process will fail.

Also Read: Steps to migrate emails from one Gmail user to another

This method is for single-account transfers only. Not to mention the lack of post-process reporting and real-time tracking. So if your real problem is mass account movement, try out the automated solution discussed ahead.

How to Move My Business Email to Gmail Professionally?

SysTools IMAP Migration tool is the industry standard when it comes to moving large chunks of email data across two different platforms. In the same way, we merged two Gmail accounts.

 

Completely script-free and GUI-only options make it super simple to set up. Plus, it is available on both Windows and Mac. So, download your free copy today and follow these steps to move all Business emails to Gmail together.

Step 1. Launch the tool and skip over the IMAP selection or the Email workload section; these are already preset for you. Apply a date filter if you want to migrate a specific slice of the entire business email history, then hit Next.

Step 2. On the source screen, toggle the dropdown and pick your business email. If you don’t see it here, don’t worry, scroll to the bottom of the list and select Others. Fill in the server URL and Port number, then validate and press Next.

Step 3. Likewise, on the destination screen, you need to use the list, but this time, pick Gmail. The server URL and the IMAP port will fill in on their own; just validate and hit Next.

Step 4. From the user mapping screen, download the CSV template and fill in all the necessary details. Then upload it back into the tool.

Step 5. At last, review the user list, make final selections, apply priority to VIP accounts, validate, and start migration.

Conclusion

Now, the question “how to move my business email to Gmail” should not bother you anymore. I gave you multiple options to choose from: the age-old forwarding emails, using an email client, and adding a business email to Gmail via the built-in settings. However, the main problem with all these approaches is that you can only move one account at a time. In a business environment where emails are often in high volume its best to use a professional tool.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Is there a limit on how many business emails can be migrated to Gmail at once?

The limiting factor in most cases is your server/service provider. Unless you take the forwarding route, you are subject to the same restrictions, irrespective of your email provider, which is 500 messages per day and 100 messages per hour.

Q: How long will it take to move all of my business email to Gmail?

Depending on how much data is in the source, it could take anywhere from a few hours to an entire week. One thing is for sure: if you use the professional solution, then you can migrate emails a lot faster than the traditional manual means.

Q: How to move my business email to Gmail on mobile?

There is no direct way for it. Although there is a Gmail mobile app for both Android and iOS, you can’t use it to transfer mail. However, you can still set up your business email account on the app and maintain separate access to it.