Adding Gmail to eM Client Already Being Used for Another Account

1

About a year ago I experienced a disaster with the old Windows Live Mail 11, which was managing my Internet provider’s POP3/SMTP email account on my Windows 10 computer. After doing some research I chose eM Client as a replacement for WLM, and I’ve been very pleased with it. Recently some problems with my provider’s email have appeared, and I’ve used Gmail as a backup to avoid the problems, particularly when sending a message to a group of recipients. Up until now I’ve kept the handling of these two methods completely separate - the provider’s POP3/SMTP email with eM Client and Gmail from its website using the Firefox browser. I also use the Gmail app on my Android devices.

Recently I’ve done a little reading about eM Client and Gmail working together by adding Gmail to eM Client as a new account. Would I gain some advantages by doing this so that eM Client could access both my current provider account and my Gmail account? If I add the Gmail account can I then send and receive Gmail messages using eM Client and continue to send and receive messages from my current provider’s account?

What will happen to my contacts? Currently I have two complete separate sets of contacts that I try manually to keep in sync - one in eM Client and one in Google Contacts used by Gmail. When I add or change a contact in one, I do it in the other also. Would I still need to maintain both sets of contacts?

There are advantages to composing messages in eM Client rather than in Gmail, such as a greater choice of fonts, font sizes and formatting.

If I am managing both of my email accounts from eM Client are there pitfalls that I should be aware of? Looking for advice! This seems to be a pretty big step to take, and I rely on my email working properly.

2

  • "Would I gain some advantages by doing this so that eM Client could access both my current provider account and my Gmail account? "
    Absolutely! You would be managing two email accounts in the same place, so no need to open separate clients/browsers all the time. Saves on time, and gives you a single familiar interface to manage both. You can share resources between the two accounts, like using a single set of contacts, a single spell checker with custom dictionary, the same templates and signatures, and a single set of Rules. And if you use Smart Folders, because all your email comes to one place, you have a combined Unread folder for both accounts. Searches can include both accounts as well.

  • “If I add the Gmail account can I then send and receive Gmail messages using eM Client and continue to send and receive messages from my current provider’s account?”
    Yes, both accounts will send and receive using their respective providers. You will have two sets of folders in the left side-bar; one for Gmail and one for your other provider. When composing a new message, you will be able to choose which account to send it from. Replying to a message will automatically chose the correct address to send from.

  • “What will happen to my contacts? Currently I have two complete separate sets of contacts that I try manually to keep in sync - one in eM Client and one in Google Contacts used by Gmail. When I add or change a contact in one, I do it in the other also. Would I still need to maintain both sets of contacts?”
    This is going to be the best thing about adding the Gmail account to eM Client. Your Gmail contacts will sync with eM Client automatically, so you can simply remove the local folder contacts that you manually sync.  You will have one set of contacts that will sync to Google, and so also to your Android devices. Make a change to a contact on your phone and it will automatically change in eM Client. Those addresses will be available to use with your other provider as well.

  • “If I am managing both of my email accounts from eM Client are there pitfalls that I should be aware of?”
    I honestly don’t think there are any pitfalls to having two email accounts in eM Client. You will have a choice of which to use for new messages, but that is an advantage rather than a pitfall.

3

Gary, thank you for such a comprehensive and helpful reply to my questions! I’m really excited to add Gmail to my eM Client environment! Just a couple of questions before I go ahead with adding the Gmail account:

  1. As I mentioned above, I have a complete set of contacts in eM Client and another complete set in Google Contacts right now. Since I’ve tried to keep them in sync, they are probably 99% the same. The version which I consider the “correct” one in case there are any differences is Google/Gmail. Should I delete all of the contacts currently in eM before adding the Gmail account, such that eM will import contacts from Gmail? If I don’t do that, will I have duplicate contacts after adding the new account? I currently have about 600 contacts in each set.

  2. I have created a number of email address groups which Google calls “labels.” Will those be present in eM Client after the new account is added? I use them often to send messages to groups.

4

  1. Yes, if the contacts currently in eM Client are a duplicate of those in your Gmail account, you can just delete the eM Client ones. Probably better to do it before setting up the Gmail account, then there can be no confusion later as to which to delete. However, if you don’t delete them, they will be in two separate folders anyway(see 1 below).

  2. The Google Contact labels will show as separate folders in the contacts section (see 2 below).

5

Gary, I have run into a problem in my attempt to add my Gmail account to eM Client. I think the best way to describe what I’ve done is for me to add a note to each step in the process that is described on the eM Client website. Here are those steps:

  1. Open the account settings via Menu > Tools > Accounts.

    I did this. Only my existing provider account is listed.

  1. Click the “+” button to open the New Account window. The account wizard window will appear. Now simply enter your Gmail email address and confirm.

    I typed my Gmail address and clicked Start Now.

  1. Enter the name under which the account should be displayed and click Next.

    My first and last names are in the “Your name” field. I left them there. My Gmail address had been placed in the “Account name” field. I changed it to say, “Jim’s Gmail Account”, since that’s the format I used for my existing account. I clicked Next.

  1. Select the services which will be available for this account in eM Client and click Next.

    The services listed are Mail, Chat, Contacts and Calendar. I want only Mail and Contacts to be handled by eM Client, so I deselected Chat and Calendar. Then I clicked Finish.

  1. An OAuth authentication will be displayed in a new internet browser window. Select your Gmail account, enter your password and continue.

    When the “Choose an account” web page appeared, I clicked my Gmail account. However, there was nothing on the page about entering a password.

  1. OAuth security requires you to confirm giving permission to eM Client to synchronize your account, scroll down and click Accept to share data from your account with the application

    A list of several warnings saying what permissions I am granting to eM Client appeared. There was still no provision for entering a password. I clicked the “Allow” button. At that point a web page with the following error message appeared:

====================

The address wasn’t understood

Firefox doesn’t know how to open this address, because one of the following protocols (com.emclient.mailclient) isn’t associated with any program or is not allowed in this context.

    You might need to install other software to open this address.

Try Again.

====================

    After minimizing my browser window I saw a small dialog box containing the following:

====================

Password required for Jim’s Gmail Account.

This operation might take a while to complete. Please be patient.

====================

A small circle in the dialog box is going round and round. The eM Client logo in my task bar has a green color going across it from left to right.

Question: Is any processing going on while this is happening, and will I eventually be asked for a password? Or am I just waiting in vain?

Perhaps I should have left the Gmail address in the “Account name” field back in step 3 rather than changing it?

I never reached step 7 in the process.

  1. You’re all set! Once the OAuth authentication is finished, you can proceed to using eM Client.
6

Quick update. I had to go out for about four hours tonight, and I left the process at the point of “This operation might take a while to complete. Please be patient.” described above. When I returned home it was still waiting, so I don’t think any processing was being done.

7

One more thought. At the same time I was doing all this I was logged into my Gmail account in a Firefox tab. Could a conflict have caused the problem?

8

I had time to try my own suggestions. I logged out of my Gmail account in Firefox before trying to add it to eM Client. Then when I tried to add the account, I was asked for the password during the eM Client procedure. However, as soon as I accepted the permissions that eM required, the same error message appeared. I also tried not changing the account name back in step 3 but leaving it as the Gmail address. That also had no effect. So I still have the same problem.

9

Go to your Windows settings and select another browser as default. Close the settings and then do it again, this time selecting Firefox again. See what happens.

It may be that Firefox has another tab open waiting for you to click OK. In Edge (Chrome version) you get the following tab waiting for your attention:

If you have other tabs open, you may not see it. 

BTW, if you are logged into Google in your browser when you add the Gmail account to eM Client, you will not need to enter the password as you are already logged in.

10

Thanks again, Gary. It worked! I temporarily changed my default browser to Chrome, and that’s what eM Client opened to log me into my Gmail account. The process seemed to go smoothly and quickly. Before adding the Gmail account I had deleted all my local contacts from eM Client, so now I have a Contacts folder under the Gmail account.

A few more questions if you don’t mind. Under my initial account I have folders Inbox, Outbox, Sent, Trash, Drafts, Junk E-mail and Deleted Items. Under the newly added Gmail account I have folders Inbox, Sent, Trash, Drafts, Junk E-mail, All Mail and Important.

I don’t see Outbox or Deleted Items for Gmail. Should they be there?

Messages in All Mail and Important in the new Gmail folder are duplicates of messages in Inbox or Sent. I don’t anticipate using All Mail and Important at this time. Can I delete those folders or should I keep them?

11

The Outbox on the server is not used when connected with an email client, so it is not really necessary to display it. Most IMAP servers will display it, but as far as I know Gmail is optimized not to do that. When you click Send, the message will go to the Local Folders Outbox until it is uploaded to the server, and then it will be moved to the Sent folder.

Deleted should be there, but in eM Client is it called Trash. You can refresh the folders by right-click on the All Mail folder and choosing Properties > Repair. That may display folders that were not previously visible.

Gmail has an unusual folder setup on the server. There are just 3 actual folders; All Mail, Trash, Spam. Every message other than those in the trash or spam folders exist only in the All Mail folder. They are displayed in virtual folders called Inbox, Sent, etc by applying a label to the message. What you see as the Inbox or Sent folder in eM Client are just filtered versions of the All Mail folder. SO yes, there should be a duplicate of all other folders in All Mail.

You can’t delete the All Mail folder, and if you do remove it from eM Client by some means, you will not see ANY messages in any of the other folders. Best option is to right-click on the folders you do’t want to see and choose Hide. This creates a new folder called More, and puts all of those in there. They still function as before, but are just out of sight.

12

Gary, I’m pretty much up and running with Gmail and my other account being managed by eM Client. Many thanks for your assistance in getting me through the roadblocks I encountered along the way. You are an excellent teacher!