# Change of e mail address **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 25, 2017, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-of-e-mail-address/783015 "2017-03-25T18:06:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-of-e-mail-address/783015/1 "2017-03-25T18:06:07Z")
Is there any mechanism for forwarding e email after an address change? ---
**Author:** ![yearofglad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/b782af/32.png) [@yearofglad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yearofglad)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-of-e-mail-address/783015/2 "2017-03-25T18:27:40Z")
Most email providers have an Auto-Forward feature; presuming you still have access to the old email address and are transitioning to a new one, you can set the old one up to auto-forward to your new address. Which email provider are you wanting to forward FROM? (The one you’re forwarding to is not important.) ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-of-e-mail-address/783015/3 "2017-03-25T19:19:31Z")
E-mail is different from snail mail in that there is no centralized system for processing all of it. There’s no internet equivalent of the US Postal Service. Instead, each individual e-mail server handles your e-mail. For example, if you have a gmail account, that’s handled by a server owned by google. If you have a yahoo account, that’s handled by a server owned by yahoo. If you have a comcast account, that’s handled by a server owned by comcast. Let’s say for example you have a comcast e-mail account and you drop comcast as your internet provider and change to time warner. Now you no longer have a comcast e-mail account so any e-mail sent there will simply bounce back as undeliverable. Since there is no central e-mail authority on the internet, there is no mechanism on the internet to automatically forward those e-mails from comcast to time warner. Let’s take another example. Suppose you have a yahoo account and you want to switch to a gmail account. In this case, you keep your yahoo account. This is the type of situation that **yearofglad** is talking about. Yahoo, like most e-mail providers, will let you forward e-mail to another account. All you need to do is go under the settings for that account and set up the forwarding. Now, as long as you keep the yahoo account valid, all of your e-mail sent to the yahoo account will be automatically forwarded to your gmail account. So it depends on what type of address change you are doing and whether or not the old e-mail remains valid. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-of-e-mail-address/783015/4 "2017-03-25T19:33:51Z")
I currently an using AOL. I have a lot of problems running programs while signed on. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-of-e-mail-address/783015/5 "2017-03-25T19:44:05Z")
Also note that even when an e-mail address becomes invalid, in practice it often takes a while before it’s actually de-activated. Often, there’s a manual step in the deactivation process that happens whenever some techie gets around to it, which might be as much as years later, if the techie has a lot of other responsibilities and doesn’t much care about decrepit e-mail accounts. ---
**Author:** ![barbitu8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/839c29/32.png) [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-of-e-mail-address/783015/6 "2017-03-25T20:14:14Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Also note that even when an e-mail address becomes invalid, in practice it often takes a while before it’s actually de-activated. Often, there’s a manual step in the deactivation process that happens whenever some techie gets around to it, which might be as much as years later, if the techie has a lot of other responsibilities and doesn’t much care about decrepit e-mail accounts. If you use your email provider’s email and change providers, you will be given 30 days before your account with them is closed. At least that’s what Comcast told me when I switched to AT&T. ---
**Author:** ![4kad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/7cd45c/32.png) [@4kad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/4kad)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-of-e-mail-address/783015/7 "2017-03-25T21:07:18Z")
> [@barbitu8](#): > > If you use your email provider’s email and change providers, you will be given 30 days before your account with them is closed. At least that’s what Comcast told me when I switched to AT&T. Makes sense to me. I never used my Comcast email but I may consider it since I am getting sick of Gmail. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-of-e-mail-address/783015/8 "2017-03-25T21:30:45Z")
Obviously you manually contact as many people and sites as possible to tell them about the change. Then: **How to Forward Incoming Emails From AOL** > **[How to Forward Incoming Emails From AOL | Synonym](https://classroom.synonym.com/forward-incoming-emails-aol-14400.html)** > > You can automatically forward all your email communication from AOL to another provider so you have all your messages stored in one place. Even though AOL does not directly provide this feature, you can set up a Gmail, Outlook or Yahoo account to... ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-of-e-mail-address/783015/9 "2017-03-25T22:10:09Z")
If the option exists, you’re probably better off bouncing emails from the old address with a message that gives human correspondents your new address. If you set up forwarding, some of your contacts won’t ever bother to learn your new address, and will eventually be cut off when the old address eventually stops working. ---
**Author:** ![AnalogSignal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/analogsignal/32/1085_2.png) [@AnalogSignal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnalogSignal)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-of-e-mail-address/783015/10 "2017-03-25T22:29:32Z")
This isn’t answering your question but when switching to a new email address, I suggest using gmail instead of your ISP’s email. Gmail has good security and the address will always be there as you move and change ISPs. Whatever you do, don’t use Yahoo email. Their security is an unmitigated disaster. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2017, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-of-e-mail-address/783015/11 "2017-03-26T00:23:13Z")
I suggest you go a step beyond **AnalogSignal** ’s suggestion: get your own domain and set your email to that domain, which then forwards to Gmail or whoever. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2017, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-of-e-mail-address/783015/12 "2017-03-26T00:27:49Z")
> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > I currently an using AOL. I have a lot of problems running programs while signed on. I’m not sure why that would be. I have AOL email and have never experienced such an issue. ---
**Author:** ![AnalogSignal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/analogsignal/32/1085_2.png) [@AnalogSignal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnalogSignal)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2017, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-of-e-mail-address/783015/13 "2017-03-26T00:40:07Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > I suggest you go a step beyond **AnalogSignal** ’s suggestion: get your own domain and set your email to that domain, which then forwards to Gmail or whoever. That’s a good approach too but requires a little more effort and technical know how. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2017, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-of-e-mail-address/783015/14 "2017-03-26T00:48:32Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > I’m not sure why that would be. I have AOL email and have never experienced such an issue. I use AOL as a browser most of the time. When I have problems I switch to my google browser. Thinking of just doing everything on Google. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2017, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-of-e-mail-address/783015/15 "2017-03-26T00:57:28Z")
> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > I use AOL as a browser most of the time. People still do that? I long ago gave up AOL as my Internet Service Provider, and even before that I was connecting to the Web using something other than the AOL software’s browser; but I kept my AOL email address and just access email through their website. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2017, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-of-e-mail-address/783015/16 "2017-03-26T01:35:01Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **barbitu8** : > > If you use your email provider’s email and change providers, you will be given 30 days before your account with them is closed. At least that’s what Comcast told me when I switched to AT&T. That might be, with a company dedicated to providing e-mail service. But if we’re talking about the IT department of a company that does something else, it’s a different story. Each time I graduated from a university, for instance, it was over a year before anyone got around to deactivating my old account. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2017, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-of-e-mail-address/783015/17 "2017-03-26T05:23:47Z")
On the other end of the spectrum, if anyone leaves where I work (quit, fired, or whatever), their e-mail is deactivated immediately as a security precaution, generally before they leave the building. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2017, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-of-e-mail-address/783015/18 "2017-03-26T13:41:28Z")
> [@barbitu8](#): > > If you use your email provider’s email and change providers, you will be given 30 days before your account with them is closed. At least that’s what Comcast told me when I switched to AT&T. And some allow you to keep your email addresses active ( for a fee, of course) even after you change your ISP Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![barbitu8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/839c29/32.png) [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2017, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-of-e-mail-address/783015/19 "2017-03-26T18:34:37Z")
> [@AnalogSignal](#): > > This isn’t answering your question but when switching to a new email address, I suggest using gmail instead of your ISP’s email. Gmail has good security and the address will always be there as you move and change ISPs. > > Whatever you do, don’t use Yahoo email. Their security is an unmitigated disaster. I use Hotmail as an alternate email server. I probably should drop the ATT in case I switched providers again, but most of my contacts have both. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2017, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-of-e-mail-address/783015/20 "2017-03-26T19:44:38Z")
1. Set up forward, with 2. an autoreply that tells the sender to update their records before [date], and 3. get your own email domain to save having to ever change it again. Having something as critical as a primary email in the hands of a third party is just asking for grief, eventually. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-of-e-mail-address/783015.md?page=2)