If you use Gmail to manage your professional domain email (e.g., you@yourdomain.com) hosting here at reThink Your Hosting, you may have noticed some upcoming changes. Google is sunsetting its long-standing "POP3 fetch" service—the feature that allowed Gmail to "pull" mail from external accounts.
I have personally been using Gmail to manage my domain email this way since 2007, so I know exactly how vital this setup is for staying organized. Because of this sudden shift, I’ve had to transition my own workflow quickly to ensure no messages are missed.
To help you stay ahead of this change, I’ve developed a workaround that allows you to keep the exact same workflow you love: Gmail’s world-class spam protection, the ability to reply from your professional address, and the convenience of having everything in one central location.
The Solution: Transitioning to Forwarding
Instead of Gmail "pulling" your mail every few minutes, we are going to "push" the mail to Gmail using a Forwarder. This results in faster delivery and the same seamless experience you’re used to.
Step 1: Update Your Password & Set Up Forwarding
- Log in to your cPanel account.
- Navigate to Email Accounts and reset the password for your domain-based email address. (Keep this new password handy!)
- Go back to the cPanel home screen and select Forwarders.
- Click Add Forwarder and set your domain email to forward all incoming messages to your @gmail.com address.
Step 2: Update Your "Send Mail As" Settings
Once your mail is forwarding correctly, you need to ensure Gmail still has permission to send emails on your behalf using your new password.
- Log in to your Gmail account on a computer.
- Click the Settings (gear icon) > See all settings.
- Navigate to the Accounts and Import tab.
- Find the Send mail as section and click edit info next to your domain email address.
- Ensure the box "Treat as an alias" is checked and click Next Step.
- Enter your new password (the one you just created in cPanel). Leave the SMTP server and Port settings as they are.
- Click Save Changes.
- While you’re still in the "Accounts and Import" settings, confirm the "When replying to a message: Reply from the same address the message was sent to" option is selected to maintain your professional workflow.
Step 3: Test Your Setup
To ensure everything is working perfectly, send a test email from a different account to your domain email. You should see it arrive in your Gmail inbox almost instantly. When you reply, ensure the "From" field shows your professional domain address.
We’re Here to Help
I know how vital email is to your daily business operations. Since I’ve had to make this transition myself, I’m happy to share what I’ve learned to make this as painless as possible for you. If you're a rethink Your Hosting customer, check your email notifications for more information. If you need help, just reply to the email. If you're not a customer, you're welcome to ask questions in the comment section below.
FAQs
Yes. Even though the mail is being forwarded, it still passes through reThink Your Hosting’s server-based spam filters and Gmail’s security filters the moment it arrives at their servers. Gmail will continue to scan every incoming message and move junk mail to your Spam folder, keeping your inbox clean just like before.
Not only will Gmail still check the forwarded emails for spam, the reThink Your Hosting servers will, too. When you set up a forwarder from your host (cPanel) to Gmail, the process works like this:
1. The "Gatekeeper" Phase
Our domain hosting server receives the email first. Your reThink Your Hosting account has its own basic spam filters (like SpamAssassin) that will catch the most obvious junk. Anything else is then "pushed" (forwarded) to your Gmail address.
2. The Gmail "Filter" Phase
Once the email hits Google’s servers, Gmail treats it similarly to any other incoming mail. It scans the message using its advanced machine-learning algorithms.
- If it looks safe: It goes to your Inbox.
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