There was a time, not so many years ago when Google swore its users would never need to worry about running out of storage space. This promise only lasted until 2013, when Google gave everybody 15GB of free storage space for every service. People who use Google services regularly find themselves running out of this precious 15GB quickly.
And, since Google no longer offers its Photos service, space may be at a premium for many individuals. If your smartphone backs up its photos to Google, the uploads use your Gmail space, too.
Wouldn’t it be great if you knew how to free up space in Gmail without having to delete emails or pictures? Actually, you can!
First, you need to know how to set up a new Gmail account.
- Just visit the Google Account sign-in page and click on “Create Account”
- Type in your name
- Choose a username and type that in the username field
- Type in a strong password and click next
- Add a number and verify it (this is optional but offers added protection)
- Hit next
- Your Google account is now created
Or, you can do the following:
- Go to Gmail; create account with a new email
- Replicate the emails of the primary Gmail account, sending them to the new account
- Delete those emails from the primary account
Is there a drawback to starting up a new Gmail account? Mainly one! You have to toggle between two Gmails to read a message history. If you need to view older emails, you’ll need to search the second account.
This is an option many people use to help them free up space in their primary account. However, many of them find they don’t use the secondary inbox much. Still, it can save them money by doing it this way.
How To Create A Second Gmail Account
It’s easy to create yourself a second Gmail account. Go to Gmail and click the profile icon at the top right hand corner. Choose “Add another account.” On the next page, hit “Create Account.” Toggle between these accounts by clicking on this profile icon within the program. You can also manage the second account by going incognito.
Any notation made to your first account will be designated as primary account. Any notation to the second account will be called the secondary account. Be aware that you’ll constantly switch between the primary and secondary accounts.
How to Mass Forward Email
You can forward all your emails, or just a Gmail label with cloudHQ’s Multi-Email Forward app. You can follow the steps in this article and mass forward your emails in minutes.
How Can You Duplicate Primary Account Emails Using The Secondary Account?
Duplicating your primary account’s emails is not difficult at all. It just takes doing the following:
- Go to Settings
- Scroll to Forwarding
- Click on POP/IMAP of the primary account
- Make sure that POP is enabled for all emails
- Select “Keep Gmail’s copy in the Inbox” from the drop-down list
How Your Secondary Account Can Collect The Primary Account’s Emails?
When your primary account’s POP setting has been enabled, the secondary account will save the primary account’s emails. However, you’ll need to go to the “Settings” tool of the secondary account. Here, go to “Accounts,” then “Import.” Go to “Check mail from other accounts” and type in your primary email address. This causes the old emails of the primary account to transfer to your secondary account and grabs the mail that goes to the primary account.
7 Things To Be Mindful Of For Gmail Email Transfers
- It can take more than a day to duplicate all the emails, but you don’t have to remain at your computer for the process to continue.
- The transfer begins with the oldest emails, allowing you to fill the secondary inbox up with the older emails you want to keep until it no longer has space.
- Some emails could end up in the secondary account’s “Spam” box. Make sure to visit the Spam box to “Select All” at the top left corner to highlight all conversations in the Spam box. You can mark them as “Not Spam,” and they’ll transfer over to the inbox. Here, you can separate emails into the folders you want them to go into.
- If Gmail suspects a virus in email attachments, it won’t transfer the email. Google will inform you – by email – when this occurs. If the document is important, you can still download the attachment to your computer.
- Delete the old emails from the primary account.
- Stop any additional transfers once the secondary Gmail account is full by disconnecting the accounts.
- Go to “Settings” of your secondary account. Scroll to “Account and Important” and delete the primary email address under the “Send mail as” and “Check mail from other accounts.” The “Confirm” message will appear, but it’s only to ensure you want to sever the ties between the two accounts.
Delete Your Older Gmail Emails
Once the transfer is complete, you’ll need to delete the old emails to free up space. Choose a date range that you want the emails to be deleted. Type in dd/mm/yyyy for a date whose email is before that date.
In most cases, you won’t need to see emails from five years ago in your primary account. “Click the “Select All” at the top left corner, which causes all the conversations of this search date to go into the trash box.
These deleted messages remain in the trash box for 30 days, which still takes up precious space. Eliminate them immediately by clicking on “Empty Trash Now” in the trash folder. You may need to do this several times before it’s entirely empty.
Go back to your primary Gmail account and scroll to the bottom. The 15GB limit should be far less than it was initially. If you had a subscription to Google Drive storage, you can go ahead and cancel it.
Why Should You Consider Learning How To Free Up Space In Gmail?
Is it worth all the trouble of setting up a secondary account to save your older emails when paying Google a handful of dollars to have more space? It’s important to remember that Google is like any other business. It’s in the business of making money. If you’re running out of space, they want to dangle that “more space” carrot for mere dollars in the hopes that you’ll take them up on their offer.
The more and more tools Google offers to its users, the more precious space will be gone where you’ll have no choice but to “BUY” extra space. Rather than giving them your hard-earned money, you can create another account that will save your old emails and your cash.