STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS:
After spending a couple hours trying to figure out how to set-up a 2nd. email username or address linked to my primary email acct. I think step-by-step instructions are in order. Otherwise what you get is piece meal -- a little bit here and a little bit there, leaving you to try to figure out what they're talking about.
The first thing you have to do is go to the gmail sign-in page. Sign out of your existing (primary) acct. If you have it set to automatically fill-in your sign-in info, delete it in those boxes so they are blank.
Below the sign-in box there is a link to create an acct. click on it.
This will open a page to open a new gmail acct. as if you didn't already have one.
FIll it out. Where it asks for "Recovery email", enter your existing (original & primary) gmail email address.
Tip: If you want to access and send email with this username/email address from your primary acct. a simple way to assign a new username and password to this new acct. is to use the ones assigned to your primary acct and add a number to the end.
When this acct. is set up and you've signed-into it to verify the acct. is ready to go............sign out of it.
Go back to the sign-in page and sign-into your primary acct. You should find an email advising you your 2nd email address has been set up. It will provide a "verification code". Be sure to copy and save that email and the code information. You may need it in the future.
While still in your primary email acct., click on the "Settings" link in the upper right corner.
Once in settings, click on the link for "Accounts and Imports".
The 2nd. section is "Send mail as" that's the one you want to use.
Click on button for "Send mail from another address".
When that window opens, fill in the information from your 2nd. username/email address.
This will allow you to send email from your primary acct. /email address as if it were coming from your 2nd. acct./email address.
Once you've done that, there is also a choice provided in the "Send mail as" section to have your mail go out from your default username (usually your primary email acct.) or from the username that the email was sent to. Select how you want your username (email address) to read on outgoing email.
For ex: I wanted to be able to read & respond to email from my primary acct. regardless which email address (username) the email was sent to. If an email was sent to my 2nd. email address, I wanted the response to appear to come from that username/ address. Therefore, I selected the top choice: "Reply from the same address the message was sent to"
Your second email acct/address will be sent a confirmation email with a special code to confirm this is what you want to do. You need to sign out of your primary acct, and sign-in to your 2nd. acct. Copy and save that email. Click on the link to confirm that you want to send email from your primary acct. with this username.
Ok. Now you have two accts./email addresses set up and can send email for both from your primary acct.
The next thing you want to do is set up your 2nd. acct. so that all your email will be forwarded to your primary email address. Once this is set-up , you will not have to go back and forth between the two email accts. to access or send mail.
You need to sign-out of your primary acct. and sign-into your 2nd. email acct. Go to "Settings".
Click on "Forwarding and POP/IMAP". The first section is "Forwarding" .
Click on "Add a forwarding address"
A little pop-up will appear. FIll-in the email address of your primary email acct. This will forward all the email received in this new acct. to your primary acct. Click on next and follow instructions.
Now, sign-out of your 2nd. email address and sign-in to your primary email acct. You will find an email requesting your okay to receive email forwarded from your 2nd. email address.
Copy and save that email.. Click on the link to confirm your permission.
When you want to send an email, you'll find on the top of the "compose" page, a drop down menu where you can choose which email address you want shown on your outgoing email.
Now... all emails sent to your new email identity/address will automatically be forwarded to your original/primary email address. You will be able to respond to those emails, file them away or do whatever you want within your primary email acct.
For all intent and purpose, as long as you want to keep it this way, you will never have to sign-in to your second email identity/address again.
If, however, you want to only forward some of your emails... well, I think that's when you have to set up a filter (whatever that is), instead of as I've outlined above. You're on your own figuring that one out!
