What is the timeline?
We’ll stop support for new users by the first quarter of 2026. Existing users can still use the feature until it’s turned down later in 2026.
https://support.google.com/mail/answer/16604719
This affects anyone who is using the feature “Check mail from other accounts.”
Note: this does NOT affect *sending mail as* the other account. That will continue to work and doesn’t require a change; just make sure you don’t delete it. Also, all the mail that is currently in gmail is safe and won’t be deleted. New email won’t get imported after this change, but will still get delivered to the original account (yourname@domain.com or whatever), so you don’t need to worry about losing anything completely.
The reason I use POP3 in gmail (and have set it up for other people) is because it *imports* all the mail into gmail automatically, so you don’t have to worry about storage space, and if you change servers or something bad happens, all your email is already safely stored in gmail. With this news, something has to change. Some options:
#1: Forward all your email to gmail
You would set this up with your web host. This is the simplest solution, but has potential issues:
Unfortunately forwarding all email to Gmail from your other server is not a safe option. Not only does some forwarding not work (because the DKIM/SPF info of that sender forbids it), but some spam will inevitably get forwarded, which will eventually result in your email being incorrectly blacklisted as a spam source. I have personally encountered both these issues and was forced to switch to POP retrieval by Gmail instead, so they are not theoretical. Unfortunately there does not seem to be any way to fully restore the functionality that Google is now ending. For example email copied to Gmail via IMAP for backup does not trigger the automatic filters that apply to incoming email.
If you do this, you could always manually check the other email account on a weekly basis to see if anything didn’t get forwarded, but that’s not ideal if your emails are urgent.
#2: Switch to IMAP
Note: as of this writing, you can only do this in the mobile app, not on the web version.
The reason this isn’t the same as POP3 is because IMAP does NOT *import* your email into gmail — it simply lets you access your email via gmail. It keeps them as separate accounts (though you may see the mail grouped together in “All Inboxes”). That means if you switch servers, your email is not saved in gmail, and you would have to transfer it over to the new server. You also have to worry about storage space on the non-gmail account.
You might be able to manually or automatically have it copy the emails over to gmail, but as mentioned above, gmail will not filter them properly.
#3: IMAP with a desktop client (The solution I’m using):
I have always used a desktop email client on PC (Mozilla’s Thunderbird, free, also on Mac). Because of that, I can add my “domain” email as a separate account accessed via IMAP, and set up filters to automatically MOVE my emails into the appropriate folders in gmail (see below for a tutorial). Thus, it basically accomplishes what I had set up before — the emails are stored in gmail and deleted from the “domain” server. The one upside is that it’s faster to use IMAP (emails are received immediately, rather than having to wait for gmail to check the account, which could take up to an hour).
I also make sure that my OUTGOING settings always use gmail, so my Sent emails stay in gmail (even if it uses my “domain” server to send them).
On my phone, I can see new emails via IMAP in the gmail app, but they won’t get filtered or moved over until I’m on my PC, which is okay for me. If I’ve “read” the email in the app, that will correctly stay flagged when I log in on PC after the emails are transferred to gmail.
If you use the WEB version of gmail only, you will either need to start using a client (Thunderbird, Outlook, etc.), or:
#4: Do Nothing and use webmail instead
Use the webmail version of your domain email (via Roundcube, etc.), but then nothing will get moved over. In that case you will just have to deal with potentially moving the entire account to a new server in the future, and you’ll have to watch your storage space — all the attachments can really add up, so you may need to regularly delete emails.
How to set up filters in Thunderbird:
Let’s say you want all your family members to be moved into a “Family” folder. First, create that folder in your gmail account (you can do it within Thunderbird, just make sure it’s in the gmail account).
Go to Tools -> Message Filters. Select the account at the top (your “domain” email, not the gmail account).
Add a new filter, and make sure “when getting new mail” is CHECKED.
Select the radio button called “match ANY of the following”, then add each person’s email (click the + to add another) and make sure FROM is selected on all of them (either “contains” or “is” will work).
Now for the “action” select “move message to”, then choose your GMAIL account in the dropdown and select your FAMILY folder. It should look like this:
Create as many filters as you’d like. You can filter by subject line, people who are in your address book, etc. Then you want to add one final filter to catch EVERYTHING ELSE and move it into your gmail inbox:
Make sure that filter is at the very bottom of the list! That’s it! Whenever you receive email, they should get moved over automatically.