Transferring Email to Gmail

Owned by Former user (Deleted)
Last updated: May 15, 2017 by Charles Marr
5 min read

This is a one-time operation that should only be done when you are completely moving away from your WhitMail account. If you wish to use your own Gmail account side-by-side with your WhitMail account, you should instead set up email-forwarding.

Create a Gmail account 

Go to  https://www.gmail.com and  create a new account.  If you already have an account, login and skip to the next section.

  1. Select the Sign Up for Gmail link in the bottom right corner of the page.
  2. Complete the sign up form and when you have filled everything out select  I accept. Create My Account at the bottom of the page.
  3. You should see a screen that says congratulations on creating your account.
  4. Click the  I’m ready – Show Me My Account link in the top right.  

Prepare your WhitMail account

You will want to be logged in to both WhitMail and Gmail at the same time 

  1. First, update/reset your password using Whitman's Password Changer. You can keep your current password by entering it into all of the password fields.
  2. Then, log into WhitMail (http://whitmail.whitman.edu) and delete all the messages you do not need to save. This will make things easier to transfer and decrease the time taken for the transfer of emails from your Whitman account to Gmail.
  3. Next, make sure you activate POP support in your WhitMail account.
    • Go to your WhitMail Settings. There is a link in the top-right of your WhitMail screen.
    • Navigate to the "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" section.
    • Fill in the radio button next to "Enable POP for all mail".
    • Hit the "Save Settings" button at the bottom of the page.
  4. Set your WhitMail account to forward all new messages to your Gmail account.
    • Go back into your WhitMail Settings.
    • Navigate to the  "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" section.
    • Fill in the drop-down menu  "Forward a copy of incoming mail to...". If your Gmail address is already in the drop-down menu, you can select it now. If you have "no verified addresses", a pop-over dialog will come up.
      • Fill in your full Gmail address, and hit Next.
      • It will tell you that a "confirmation code has been sent to verify permission." Switch to a different web browser window, log into your Gmail account, and look for a new message from Google. In it should be said confirmation code.
      • Switch back to your Whitmail window, and look at the bottom of the "Forwarding" section. There is a text box for you to fill copy the confirmation code into. Do so, then hit "Verify".
    • Fill in the "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" drop-down menu  again , unless it is already filled in for you.
    • In the drop-down menu immediately below, choose what WhitMail should do with incoming messages after it has forwarded them on to your Gmail address.
    • Hit Save Settings at the bottom of the screen. 

Import your WhitMail messages

  1. Once you are at the main Gmail screen select  Settings in the top right corner of the screen.
  2. Navigate to the Accounts and Import tab.
  3. Hit the button titled "Import mail and contacts". 
  4. A new window should pop up, asking you to "sign in to your other email account."
    • Step 1 — For "What account do you want to import from?", fill in your full Whitman email address, then hit the "Continue" button.
      • When prompted for your Whitman account's password, fill it in and hit Continue. Gmail will spend some time attempting to connect to your WhitMail account, but will eventually fail.
      • You should then be asked for more information about your POP server. Fill in as follows:
        • POP Username — username@whitman.edu (your full  Whitman email address)
        • POP Server — pop.gmail.com (you will need to change this from the default)
        • Port — 995, using SSL. Hit the "Edit" link to change this.
      • When these settings are set, fill in your password again, and hit Continue.
    • Step 2 — "Import Options".
      • The checkbox for "Import mail" should be filled.
      • Leave the checkbox " leave a copy of retrieved messages on server" empty.
      • You might also want to have imported message be immediately archived, rather than having them land in your Gmail inbox (see below).
      • Optionally, you can also have all imported messages be filed under a label. This will be done by default unless you un-check the bottom checkbox. You can also specify the label name in the text box to the right.  
    • Hit the " Start import" button. Depending on the amount of data in your WhitMail account, it could take a significant amount of time for Gmail to pull your messages across. Be patient, and don't navigate away from this page.
    • If prompted, hit the No button when asked if you want to be able to send mail from this account.
  5. When the import finishes, you will be presented with a  Finish button.

Important Notes

  • Directly underneath the title of your Whitman account, you should see a message labled Checking Mail. Make sure you wait for this process to complete and do not navigate away from the settings page until the message under Whitman account changes to the time that the account was last checked.
  • Keep in mind that depending on the number of messages in your account, this process may take a long time.  Be patient, especially if you are on dial-up or a slow network connection.
  • You can go back to the Settings page and click on the Accounts tab and then click on Check Mail Now link under your Whitman account at any time to download any new messages that may have arrived in your Whitman account.
  • Keep in mind that Gmail only imports those e-mails in your Whitman inbox. In order for Gmail to import the e-mail located in your folders, you will need to move the e-mail from your folders into the inbox or use Thunderbird to access Gmail and your Whitman account, which can then transfer over Folders directlyand intact.

For those who have recently graduated, don't forget that your email account, along with your netFiles access, expires about one year after your graduation date.

Viewing your messages

When you are at the main Gmail page, click on the name of the label you entered earlier during the import process. This is under the Labels section on the left hand side of the page down past the list of all your Gmail folders.  By selectingLabels you will be able to see your Whitman account emails.