GMail now allows more than one email address and migration

[bucolic_frolic]

A few years back, gmail required IIRC a "." - a period - in all addresses. I wound up with one I no longer like.

Anyone with experience in gmail migration?

The process is described as relatively simple. Create a new box, link the two, all the emalis in the first one to be copied over. BUT .. it won't allow Labels (Folders) to be moved over. Not sure what you do with that. AND gmail of course is tied up with YouTube .... so you have to change that, I think they allow you to append the new address to your existing YouTube in some way.

AND of course for Android users of smart phones, Google is omnipresent.

I'm beginning to wonder if the best idea is a slow move. Create a new address, and start to migrate one linked process or account at a time. Eventually the old one could just be left alone for archiving purposes.

Similar problems with Yahoo email. They are becoming more strict about frequency of logins. I have so much email from various things I do online, I don't even check one of my Yahoo accounts, but it probably gets 400 emails a week. I did that on purpose because who has the time to sort emails all week long??

Any ideas, warnings, success tales ... all appreciated.

[CurtEastPoint]

1. mine has . in it but I know that it ignores punctuation to the left of the 'at' sign, so no difference if you...

use johnsmith@gmail or john.smith@gmail

from Google: https://www.google.com/search?q=gmail+requires+.+in+address&oq=gmail+requires+.+in+address&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRigATIHCAIQIRigATIHCAMQIRigATIHCAQQIRifBTIHCAUQIRifBTIHCAYQIRifBTIHCAcQIRifBTIHCAgQIRifBTIHCAkQIRifBdIBCDg2NDBqMGo5qAIGsAIB8QU1_WMl8ntzww&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

[radical noodle]

2. I've had more than one gmail address for years

Last edited Sat Dec 6, 2025, 06:29 PM - Edit history (1)

I use one for close friends and family and the others are used for signing up for things. I made similar folders in each email address rather than trying to move things. I think your idea for slowly migrating with the new address and just leaving the other one alone makes more sense and is essentially what I've done. It's worked well for me.

[bucolic_frolic]

3. Thanks for the perspective, it sure is less time consuming.

[LVZ]

4. Gmail ignores periods in user names

[e-mail] is delivered to the same account as [e-mail]

You can use this to your advantage to see where some spam is coming from.

if you own [e-mail], try using [e-mail] or [e-mail] or [e-mail] as verification email for websites you may not trust or for limited free trial sites