Your overflowing Gmail inbox may soon become harder to manage. Google has announced that it will end support for the POP3 protocol later this year, removing a key tool that many users rely on to offload old messages and free up storage. If you have been putting off cleaning up your email, now is the time to act. By transferring your messages to a second account before the change, you can reclaim the full 15GB of free storage that comes with every Gmail account.

Why This Matters

Every Gmail account starts with 15GB of free storage, shared across Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Photos. Over time, attachments, photos, and saved files accumulate quickly. A single video attachment can consume dozens of megabytes, and before long you will see the dreaded "Account storage is full" notification. Once that appears, you can no longer send or receive emails on that account. The most common solutions—deleting old messages or upgrading to a Google One plan—either cost money or require painful manual sorting.

The trick presented here uses Gmail's built-in POP3 import feature to copy all your emails from your primary account into a fresh archive account. After the transfer, you can empty the primary account and enjoy a clean slate with the full 15GB intact. The process is free and relatively straightforward, but it requires following a specific sequence of steps and doing it before Google pulls the plug on POP3.

What Is POP3 and Why Is Google Ending It?

POP3 (Post Office Protocol 3) is an old email retrieval protocol that downloads messages from a server to a client. Unlike IMAP, which syncs messages across devices, POP3 was designed for one-way download. Google is retiring POP3 because it lacks modern security features and has been largely superseded by IMAP and OAuth-based access. New Gmail users lost access to POP3 in early 2026, and existing users will see it disabled later this year. After that, the method described in this article will no longer work.

Step-by-Step: Transfer Your Gmail Messages

Before you begin, back up your emails using Google Takeout. This protects against any accidental data loss. The backup process can take a couple of hours for a large inbox, but it is an essential safety net.

Step 1: Enable POP in Your Original Account

Log into the Gmail account you want to clear. Click the gear icon and select "See all settings." Go to the "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" tab. Under "POP Download," choose "Enable POP for all mail." Then, from the dropdown labeled "When messages are accessed with POP," select "delete Gmail's copy" if you want the messages automatically removed from your primary account after transfer. Click "Save Changes."

Step 2: Create or Prepare the Archive Account

If you don't already have a secondary Gmail account, create one. This will be your archive—where all old emails will live. Log into that account.

Step 3: Set Up POP Import in the Archive Account

In the archive account, click the gear icon and go to "See all settings." Navigate to the "Accounts and Import" tab. Next to "Check mail from other accounts," click "Add a mail account." Enter the email address of your original account and click "Next."

On the next screen, select "Import emails from my other account (POP3)" and click "Next." You will be asked for the password of the original account. Many users find that their regular password does not work for this step; you will likely need to create a Google app password.

Step 4: Create a Google App Password

Visit https://myaccount.google.com/apppasswords (you must have 2-Step Verification enabled). Create a custom name for the password, like "Gmail Transfer," and click "Create." A 16-digit passcode will appear. Write it down because Google shows it only once. Use this app password in the import setup instead of your regular password.

Step 5: Configure Import Options

Back in the import setup, enter the app password. Set the port to 995. Check the boxes for "Always use a secure connection (SSL) when retrieving mail," "Label incoming messages," and "Archive incoming messages (Skip the Inbox)." The latter two options keep your archive account's inbox clean. Click "Add Account." You can also choose to enable sending mail as your original address, but that is optional.

Step 6: Wait for the Transfer to Complete

Once the connection is established, the transfer begins automatically. For an inbox with 75,000 messages, it can take up to two days. You can monitor progress by checking the new account for labels or seeing the storage usage change in your original account. Do not make any changes during the transfer.

What Happens After the Transfer?

When the transfer finishes, your original account will have moved all the messages to the Trash folder, but the Trash is not emptied automatically. You must manually empty the Trash to reclaim the storage. In the test with 75,000 messages, emptying the Trash took about an hour. After that, the original account's storage dropped from 12GB to under 1GB.

Note that Drafts and Spam messages are not transferred via POP3. You must handle drafts manually; spam will be automatically deleted after 30 days. If you want those emails archived, forward them separately before proceeding.

Final Steps: Disconnect the Accounts

Once your primary account is clean, you should disconnect the import to prevent any future automatic transfers. In the archive account, go to Settings > Accounts and Import > Check mail from other accounts, and click "delete" next to the original account. If you created an app password, delete it from the Google App Passwords page by clicking the trash icon.

Your archive account will now hold all your old emails. Be aware that Google deletes accounts inactive for more than two years, so log into your archive account at least once every 24 months to keep it alive.

Alternative Ways to Free Storage

If the POP3 transfer method sounds too complex, you can consider other options. Upgrading to Google One gives you 100GB for $20 per year. Alternatively, you can delete large files directly: use the search operators has:attachment larger:10M to find big emails and remove them manually. For Google Photos, use the storage management tool to compress photos to high quality (free unlimited high-quality storage was discontinued in 2021, but compressing existing photos might reduce their size).

Another approach is to download all attachments to an external hard drive, then delete them from Gmail. That keeps your memories safe while clearing server space.

Whichever method you choose, the key takeaway is that your free 15GB is valuable. With Google's gradual phaseout of older protocols, the window to use POP3 for a bulk transfer is closing. If you have been procrastinating, now is the time to act. A few hours of setup today can save you from storage headaches tomorrow—and keep your inbox lean and manageable.

Source: CNET News