Connecting a Google Workspace account to a Personal Gmail Account
Let’s say you have two Gmail accounts. I want to receive emails in hello@gmail.com that are both sent to that address, as well as emails from megan@designelixir.studio. We can do so by setting up IMAP access .In this example, I’ll be using these:
This article also acknowledges the infamous “Server denied POP3 access for the given username and password” error and “Server returned error: We were unable to locate the other domain. Please contact your other provider” error.
So many errors. Haha.
1. Check your IMAP access.
While logged into the source account (megan@designelixir.studio) go to Settings > See all settings
Click on the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab. Under “IMAP access”, Enable IMAP. Note — this setting will not apply unless you scroll to the bottom of the page and click “Save Changes”.
You’ll be taken out of the settings — go back to Settings > See all settings > Forwarding and POP/IMAP and under POP Download, you have two options:
- Enable POP for all mail (even mail that’s already been downloaded)
Choose this if you want a copy of every existing email from your source account delivered to your base account. This was absolute chaos when I did my setup, my phone was buzzing for 2 hours pulling in over 4 years of emails! - Enable POP for mail that arrives from now on.
Select this if you only want emails from your source account delivered to your base account, starting after setup.
Click Save Changes.
2. Add the source account to your base account.
Access the Gmail inbox of your base account (hello@gmail.com). Go to Settings > See all settings. Click the Accounts and Import tab. Underneath “Check mail from other accounts:”, click Add a mail account.
3. Add the mail account
After clicking Add a mail account in step 2, a pop up window will appear.
The first prompt is to type your email address — type the address of the source email. Click Next.
“Import emails from my other account (POP3)” will likely be selected as the only option. This is great! If it isn’t, select it, and click Next.
Unless you are connecting a personal Gmail to another personal Gmail, you will need to change the POP Server. Google Workspace accounts will prefill the POP Server with something different, as shown above. If you try to run setup with this, you may run into this error:
Make the following changes:
- Type your entire email address into the Username field.
- Type the password you use to login on Gmail.com to your provided email address into the Password field.
- Replace the POP server with pop.gmail.com
- Change the Port to 995.
Additional Options:
- “Leave a copy of retrieved messages on the server”
Select this if you do not want email actions to be synchronized between accounts. For example, if this setting is checked, when I read and delete an email on my base account, it remains unread and in the inbox on my source account. I recommend leaving this unselected for organizational purposes. - “Always use a secure connection (SSL) when retrieving mail.”
I’d select this for sure. Security is good! - “Label incoming messages:”
Applies a label to source emails and creates a label folder for all emails sent to your source account. Provides clarity, I recommend! Here’s how it appears in my base account inbox:
- “Archive incoming messages (Skip the inbox)”
I recommend leaving this unchecked, unless you don’t want your source emails to appear in your base account inbox. The source emails will only appear under labels (if you have the above checked) and search.
When that’s all said and done, click Add Account.
4. An Error — Server denied POP3 access for the given username and password.
If you are not getting this error, skip to step 6! This error occurs mostly with Google Workspace accounts.
If you receive this angry error “Server denied POP3 access for the given username and password”:
There are some additional steps. Sigh! You’ll need to create an App Password for Google to allow a sign on to an Application (it’s own application, smh) that it doesn’t recognize.
While logged into the source account, go to your Manage your Google Account.
On the left side menu of the Account Management window, select Security. Scroll down to Signing in to Google. Click 2 Step Verification.
You’ll see an on boarding window explaining what 2 Step Verification is, click Get Started. You’ll be prompted to login to verify it’s you — make sure you’re logging into the source account. Next, you’ll see some options for 2-Step Verification. If you’re logged into Gmail on a mobile device, you may see Google Prompts as a verification option. However, to enable App Passwords, you must have text message verification enabled.
Under Show more options, select Text Message or Voice call. Then click Continue.
Enter your phone number, click Next. You can have the code texted to you or delivered by phone call. Enter the code, and when you see this, click Turn On.
Woohoo! Now, you can create an App Password. Click back to return to the Account Management Page.
5. Create an App Password
From the Security tab on the Google Account page, click App Passwords under “Signing in to Google”. If this isn’t appearing, make sure 2-Step Verification text codes (prompts alone will not work) are turned on (step 4).
Inside the App passwords window, you’ll see this, under “Select app” drop down, choose Mail. Under “Select device” choose the type of computer / device you are on at the moment. Then click Generate.
You’ll get a pop-up window that looks like this with a 16 digit app password:
Write down the 16 digit code. You CANNOT view it again once you click out of the window! Note — spaces do not matter!
6. Back to Step 3 — now with the App Password
On the base account , go to Settings > See all settings. Click Accounts and Import, then under “Check mail from other accounts:” click Add a mail account. You’ll see the pop-up window, follow the same steps.
- Type your source account email address, click Next.
- Select “Import emails from my other account (POP3), click Next.
- Fill out the fields, this time using your 16 digit App Password. Do not include spaces!
Username — your full email address.
Password — your 16 digit app password, case sensitive and without spaces.
POP Server — pop.gmail.com
Port — 995
Check the boxes that are applicable to you. I recommend SSL connection and labels.
Click Add Account.
7. Send mail as your source account
Once you are approved to retrieve mail to your base account from your source account, you should see this lovely message:
To fully integrate the accounts, you’ll want the ability to send emails as your source account. This is how it looks when I have the option to send email from my base account as megan@designelixir.studio:
If that looks good to you, select “Yes, I want to be able to send mail as [source account]” and click Next.
Type the name you want users to see your Replies as, make sure “Treat as an alias” is selected, and click Next Step.
Now you’ll set up the SMTP (Secure Mail Transfer Protocol) server, these come prefilled. Leave the SMTP Server, Username, and Port fields the same. I recommended TLS. But here’s what happened when I tried to use my traditional password:
But! When I use my App password, I am brought to this window.
I checked my source email for the code —
And I verified in the pop up window. Woohoo! Setup complete. If you set your POP settings in step 1 to “Enable POP for all mail (even mail that’s already downloaded)” get prepared for an influx of emails — you’ll get a steady stream of every email you’ve ever gotten from in your source email.
You will now be able to receive and send email in one base account inbox, as both your base account and source account.
Congrats! ✨
