Easy way to switch Gmail?

veganrun · 30-07-2014 05:27PM #1

I have a Gmail account that I've been using for years and I recently also got an Android phone so I use my Gmail/Google account with it.

I'd like to be able to shut the email account down completely.

There's two issues with this though, the first one being that this has been my main email account for the last few years so most people have it as my contact address. I've also used it with a lot of website logon's/registrations, probably including things I've completely forgotten about. The second issue is that I'm not sure what would happen with my Android phone. Would I have to create a new Google account?

Just wondering has anyone here recently switched/closed down an email account and how they went about it. I feel like there's an easy solution that I'm not thinking of but perhaps that's just wishful thinking

GerardKeating · 30-07-2014 05:50PM

veganrun wrote: »

I have a Gmail account that I've been using for years and I recently also got an Android phone so I use my Gmail/Google account with it.

I'd like to be able to shut the email account down completely.

There's two issues with this though, the first one being that this has been my main email account for the last few years so most people have it as my contact address. I've also used it with a lot of website logon's/registrations, probably including things I've completely forgotten about. The second issue is that I'm not sure what would happen with my Android phone. Would I have to create a new Google account?

Just wondering has anyone here recently switched/closed down an email account and how they went about it. I feel like there's an easy solution that I'm not thinking of but perhaps that's just wishful thinking

Creating a second gMail account is easy and you could put the old account on auto forward to the new account.

But if you are using the email for various websites you might have to visit them in turn to change over, you might also need to do a full reset of the phone to switch to the new email, you cannot easily remove the old one.

A lot depends on why exactly you need/want to change to a new eMail address and is there another way to achieve this need.

AnCatDubh · 30-07-2014 07:31PM

unless you are morally outraged with google over something (and you may well be), then there is probably no need to 'shut it down'.

Simply stop using it, and put an autoforward to your new email address so that all your contacts email will still get through. I've done something similar, though took time to run through everything that was in the account and update all important stuff that was getting through with the new email address. I just log into it on a very odd occasion.

You could even add a rule to delete every message after gmail does the autoforward thing if you wanted to be rid of new email from that account.

Or a third option, you could put an autoresponder on the account (again, leaving the account active) to respond to messages saying i'm no longer at this address and please email me at <<new address>>.

Otherwise you have no fool proof way that your current contacts will start using your new email. At best, they would get a bounce back of their email and if they were paying attention to it they may seek you out again at your other email account.

Easy way to switch Gmail?

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