Batch forwarding old Gmail messages

There sure must be several ways to forward/copy Gmail messages from one account to another. Here we will see one of them using IMAP functionality of Gmail and Thunderbird, a free email client.

First, you will need to enable IMAP on each of your Gmail accounts: https://mail.google.com/mail/?hl=en&tab=wm#settings/fwdandpop. If the link does not work, please see Gmail Help on enabling IMAP here.

Then, see configuring Thunderbird to access Gmail via IMAP, see this help item.

After finishing with Thunderbird configuration, press "Get New Messages" button on Thunderbird toolbar. When finished you should have two accounts listed in the folders pane on the left of the Thunderbird main Window.

Now the last step, copying messages from one account to another:

1. Click the folder under the account you want to copy from.



2. Select the messages you want to copy. You can select multiple messages by Ctrl + click. You can also select them all by pressing CTRL+A.



3. Right click on the selected messages, move over the account and folder you want to copy the messages to and click on it.

Note: The IMAP folders Sent, Drafts, Junk and Trash in the email client will be created on Gmail as "[IMAP]/Folder" labels. When you are done with copying you can just remove those labels in the Gmail web interface.