Gmail stops fetching e-mail from your business address in January 2027

What Google is changing

Two features are going. One is called “Check mail from other accounts”, where Gmail on the web fetches e-mail from another account at regular intervals (this uses a method called POP). The other is called Gmailify, which gave another account Gmail’s spam filter and sorting.

According to Google, the feature takes no new users after the first quarter of 2026. Those already using it can carry on until January 2027. E-mail that has already been fetched stays in Gmail. What you lose is new e-mail.

Who is affected

The typical setup is a sole trader or a small business with its domain and e-mail at a Norwegian web host, and a free Gmail account that fetches the e-mail in and is used for everything. It has been a practical solution for years. That is exactly why many people no longer remember it is there, and notice nothing until customers stop getting replies.

You can check it yourself in two minutes. Open Gmail on a computer, go to settings and the “Accounts and Import” tab. If an account is listed under “Check mail from other accounts”, you are affected. If you use a work account in Google Workspace, whoever manages it can move the e-mail into Workspace instead.

What still works

Google says you can still read and send e-mail from the other account in the Gmail app on Android, iPhone and iPad. The app connects directly to the business account instead of fetching the e-mail over to Gmail. You can also bring in old e-mail and contacts once in Gmail on the web, but then new e-mail does not follow.

If you send as post@yourcompany.no from Gmail, that is a separate setting. Test it on its own once you have tidied up. Google has also closed sign-in with just a password when other programs need to get into a Gmail account, so where that is needed, the account must have sign-in with a code on your phone and its own app password.

Three solutions, and what they mean in practice

Forwarding from your web host: you ask the web host to forward all e-mail for post@yourcompany.no to your Gmail address. It is set up in minutes in the control panel, and Google recommends it itself. The downside is that forwarded e-mail ends up in the spam folder more often, because it now seems to come from the web host’s server and not from the original sender. Check the spam folder regularly for the first few weeks.

The business account directly in the Gmail app: you add post@yourcompany.no as its own account in the Gmail app on your phone. Then you read it directly, with no fetching. It works on the phone, but not in Gmail on the web. It suits you if you mostly read e-mail on your mobile.

Your own business mailbox: you move post@yourcompany.no to Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace and get a proper business mailbox with a spam filter, calendar and app. Then you no longer need fetching or forwarding at all. It means the settings for your domain have to be set up again. We do that as part of e-mail and Microsoft 365.

What to do now, before January 2027

It takes a quarter of an hour to find out whether you are affected, and a little longer to choose a solution. Do it at a calm time, not in the week new e-mails stop arriving.

What we have seen, and the order we check things in

When we go through the e-mail at small businesses, we often find a business address on the website that nobody reads directly. It only lives because something fetches or forwards it somewhere else. We have seen the address on an old website not be the inbox the owner actually read, with the contact form sending there. Setups like that break silently when one link in the chain disappears.

So our order is: first, which addresses are shown to the outside world, on the website, the Google profile, invoices and in the contact form. Then where e-mail to each of them ends up today, and who reads it. Finally, which of the three solutions fits. Then we send a real test message from another account and check it arrives where the owner reads. You can see where e-mail for your domain is delivered, and whether the domain is set up correctly, in the e-mail check.

Time, scope and when to get help

Forwarding is set up in minutes. Moving the business address to a business mailbox takes longer, because the settings for the domain have to change and old e-mail may need copying over. The scope depends on how many addresses you have, how much old e-mail should come along, and whether you have the login where the domain is managed.

Forwarding or the Gmail app you can manage yourself. Get help if you want a proper business mailbox, if several addresses depend on each other, or if your website’s form also sends through the web host. We do that as part of e-mail and Microsoft 365, with a written proposal with scope and price before anything starts. If messages from your website’s form are not arriving, see website e-mails not arriving.