How to import old email and contacts into Gmail

If you’re a long-time Gmail user with email sitting in a handful of different non-Gmail accounts, then it just became a little easier to consolidate your messages into one inbox.

Google has just enabled its Gmail  tool that allows existing users to import emails and contacts from other non-Gmail accounts — new sign-ups for the service have been able to do it for a few months.

Sign into Gmail, click the Settings option and look under the “Accounts and Import” option for the button labeled “Import mail and contacts”. Click it to trigger a wizard that leads you through the steps necessary for grabbing old messages and contact lists from other non-Gmail accounts.

The process does hinge upon the messages still being on the server, of course — something that may not be the case with POP3 accounts. The tool is also different to the Gmail option for checking external POP3 accounts for new messages on a regular basis — the import is a one-off, while POP3 checks are ongoing.

With Gmail currently offering 7360Mb of free storage, now is a good time to consider consolidating all of your old messages into one place. Even if you don’t delete the old messages, copying them into the Gmail inbox will make them easily searchable and you’ll have a handy backup in case those old, unused email servers go down (or in Hotmail ’s case, your account gets closed after 365 days’ inactivity).

[ Gmail blog ]