Email Forwarding: How To Set It Up and Use

What Is Email Forwarding And Why Do I Need It?

Electronic communication involves a lot of back and forth between individuals. Most of the time, this happens through the “reply” function. However, there are also times when a reply doesn’t make the most sense — and that’s when you forward email.

Email forwarding is a term used for the process of re-sending an electronic message you received to another address not included in the original message. When you forward email, the new recipient can see the entire chain of messages, plus any included attachments.

Furthermore, you can include new information or attachments along with the previous chain when you forward a message. In other words, email forwarding lets you share information and start new conversations about the included information.

Typically, people use this function to share information with other people or to share the information with themselves via a secondary inbox. For example, let's say you receive your work schedule for the upcoming month via your work mail. You can simply use email forwarding to share the information with a family member or send it to your personal address so you can add it to your calendar after work.

As you can imagine, there are lots of instances where manual or automatic email forwarding would be beneficial for you.

How To Forward An Email In Your Mail Provider

There are many instances where forwarding emails makes sense. Unfortunately, figuring out how to forward them can be an issue, especially if you are unfamiliar with the layout of a certain mail provider’s settings. Luckily, we have directions for all of the major mailbox providers out there so you can start sending your messages to others in no time.

How to forward an email in Gmail

1. Go to your Gmail inbox.
2. Open the message you’d like to forward.
3. Locate the three dots next to Reply. Click the dots.
4. Choose Forward from the dropdown menu.
5. Complete the message as normal and press Send.

How to forward Yahoo emails

1. Pull up your Yahoo Mail inbox.
2. Open the message you need to forward.
3. Click on the Forward button in the upper left.
4. Add the recipient’s address and anything else.
5. Press Send.

For more information, read our post on Yahoo email forwarding. Need something more specific? We also have a guide on how to forward Yahoo Mail to Gmail.

How to forward emails from Outlook

1. Go to your Outlook inbox.
2. Open the message you plan to forward.
3. Click the Forward button in the upper right corner.
4. Finish the message as usual.
5. Press Send when you’re ready to forward the message.

If you’re still having issues or need additional assistance, check out our post on Outlook email forwarding.

How to forward an email in AOL

1. Navigate to your AOL inbox.
2. Open the message you’d like to forward.
3. Click on the Forward button.
4. Add the recipient’s address and anything else.
5. Press Send.

For more information, read our post on AOL email forwarding.

How to forward emails in Apple Mail

1. Open the Mail app on your Mac.
2. Select the message you wish to forward.
3. In the Message Header section, press Forward.
4. Add the recipients you want to forward the message to.
5. Click Send when you’re ready.

Using your mobile device instead? Check out our helpful post on how to forward email from iPhone.

How To Automatically Forward Emails

Sometimes, you don’t just want to forward an individual message to loop someone in — you want to forward everything from one mailbox to another you use more frequently. Knowing how to do this can be especially important for those who have multiple mail addresses or those who need to navigate GoDaddy email forwarding for a brand’s website.

Keep in mind that automatic email forwarding sends all messages to the designated inbox. Therefore, it’s not a tool you should use to simply forward a few select messages. If you want to know how to forward multiple emails, then you’ll want to look into how to attach an email to an email.

If you are trying to learn how to forward emails automatically, we have created directions for most of the major mailbox providers who offer automatic email forwarding, including Gmail, Outlook, AOL, and iCloud.

How to set up automatic Gmail email forwarding

1. From your Gmail inbox, go to Settings → See All Settings.
2. Select the tab labeled Forwarding and POP/IMAP.
3. Find the Forwarding section, then click Add a Forwarding Address.
4. Type in your mail address for forwarding, then press Next → Proceed → OK.
5. Now, go to the email inbox you just entered in the box and click the verification email to confirm.
6. Once confirmed, go back to Settings → See All Settings → Forwarding and POP/IMAP → Forwarding.
7. Select Forward a Copy of Incoming Mail to.
8. Choose your settings for the Gmail copy.
9. Click Save Changes.

How to set up your mail from Outlook to forward automatically

1. From your Outlook inbox, go to Settings → View all Outlook Settings.
2. Now, navigate to Mail → Forwarding.
3. Choose Enable Forwarding.
4. Enter the mail address for forwarding, then press Save.

How to automatically forward in AOL

1. From your AOL inbox, go to Settings → General Settings.
2. Now, select the tab labeled Forwarding.
3. Select Forward a Copy of Incoming Mail to.
4. Enter the address for forwarding, then click Save Changes.

Automatic forwarding in Mail on iCloud

1. From iCloud.com, go to your Mailboxes list, then choose Settings → Preferences → General.
2. Select Forward My Email To, then enter the forwarding address.
3. When you have everything set, press Done.