I have a gmail account with an alias I like. The trouble is, I set it up on a sticky keyboard, and the name portion of the address (’[name]@gmail.com) is messed up. I’ve only been reminded of this account, when I wanted to post something on a news site and was asked to log in.
Is there a way to keep my chosen alias, but to associate it with a new gmail account? If so, how? Please use small words, as ISTR that gmail is a PITA to use (at least when you’re starting out), so I haven’t been there for a while and don’t know my way around.
IF there is any mail going to the old account that you’d like to receive in the new one, go to old account and set a filter to redirect stuff to new email.
I’ve got an old account I only use as a throwaway or when my brother sends something there by mistake. Made a filter to send to the new account anything he sends to the old one. Anything else going there can be eaten by the email demons for all I care.
Details on how to set that redirect in another post, my boss just woke up.
go to your mail,
select a mail that you’d like gmail to be able to forward,
the buttons available under the search field will have “More” as the righmost one. One of its options is “filter messages like these”. Choose it.
gmail will offer a window where it will have filled some proposed search criteria. Fix them until they show what you want them to. In the case of my brother’s emails, it was just his address as the “From”.
click on “create filter with this search”. Gmail will offer a list of options of what to do with those mails. You want the option “forward it”, which may be inactive but has a helpful “add forwarding address” link.
add the forwarding address (your new one), and then you can select the option of forwarding stuff to it.
To expand on this (for later readers) if an alias is NOT your username and doesn’t have to be unique in the system, then you can generally use that alias with any other account.
Also, what is it about gmail troubles you? I’ve used a variety of different email services and gmail was my primary account for a while, so I’m in a good position to explain anything you don’t understand (though I’m not up on the latest features or integrations).
Going on memory, but when I tried to use it before, there seemed to be a lot of ‘hoops to jump through’ to be able to use the email. I don’t remember specifically. One thing I was reminded of when I made the replacement account, is that you have to give them your phone number. I hate giving out my phone number. Not that we usually answer the phone, but now I suspect we’ll get even more spam calls. :mad:
You can omit the phone number when setting up a new gmail account, but they’ll nag you a bit to provide either a number or an alternate email address for account recovery/security purposes. I’ve never had any spam calls or suchlike from them, Google are pretty good about that sort of thing.
I’ve helped create dozens of new gmail accounts this year (legitimately, I hasten to add - to assist people with navigating a new UK benefits system) and the phone number field on the first sign-up page where you select the email handle and password etc is optional.
Are you thinking of the period shortly after gmail came out where you had to get an invitation to create an account?
Or is this in the period (around 2010) right after they launched google+, where they tried to make everybody put their real name on their account? If you wanted to use a nickname, you had to request a change and prove you’d been using that identifier for over a year.
No spam calls at all. It’s for a security feature which you can switch off: if you sign on from an IP-address google doesn’t recognize as “linked to you” or from a computer which doesn’t have their cookie, they send you a number via SMS to verify that yes, it’s you.
They’re quite good at the recognition thing, too. For example, I’ve had other accounts with that same feature and every time my provider reset a server somewhere I had to re-login until they’d collected every IP-address the provider assigned to people in that area. Google can recognize “calling from MyInternetAtHome, Buttfuck Province” and so long as the provider and general location are the same they’re happy. Move the same computer to “MyInternetAtWork, Buttfuck Province” and they’ll ask again.
I’ve tried leaving it out and was told it was required. And I couldn’t find a way to get around it. It is why my accounts that aren’t linked to my real life name are Hotmail accounts.
I also had older accounts that Gmail said I couldn’t get back into unless I verified them with a phone number. I tried closing it or just refreshing and anything else I could think of. I was just not allowed to get to my mail, which meant I couldn’t use that as my spam catcher email.
I have been able to keep my main account without a phone number, though. But that may have to do with having registered a credit card so I could buy some Android apps.