How to Forward Emails Automatically in Gmail, Outlook, and iCloud

Maybe you have two email accounts and want everything to land in one inbox. Maybe you are leaving a job and need your old address to forward to a new one. Maybe you want a specific type of email to go to a colleague automatically. Whatever the reason, email forwarding is one of the most useful features every provider offers — but setting it up is not always obvious.

This guide walks through automatic forwarding on the most popular email platforms, covers the limitations you should know about, and explains when an alias might be a smarter choice.

How to Forward Emails Automatically in Gmail

Forward All Incoming Email

1. Open Gmail and click the gear icon in the top right, then click See all settings.
2. Go to the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab.
3. Click Add a forwarding address.
4. Enter the email address you want to forward to and click Next.
5. Google will send a verification email to that address. Open it and click the confirmation link.
6. Go back to Gmail settings and select Forward a copy of incoming mail to followed by the verified address.
7. Choose what happens to the original email in Gmail:
   • Keep Gmail's copy in the Inbox — the safest option, keeps a copy in both places.
   • Mark Gmail's copy as read — forwards and marks as read so your Gmail inbox stays clean.
   • Archive Gmail's copy — forwards and removes from inbox but keeps it searchable.
   • Delete Gmail's copy — forwards and permanently deletes. Use with caution.
8. Click Save Changes.

Forward Only Specific Emails in Gmail (Using Filters)

If you only want to forward certain emails — say, from a specific sender or with a specific subject line — use a filter:

1. In Gmail, click the search bar and then click Show search options (the small icon at the right of the search bar).
2. Set your criteria (from address, subject, keywords, etc.).
3. Click Create filter.
4. Check Forward it to and select the forwarding address (you must have already verified it in the Forwarding settings).
5. Click Create filter.

Filters let you forward project-specific emails to a team member or send newsletters to a secondary account while keeping your main inbox for personal messages.

How to Forward Emails Automatically in Outlook.com

1. Go to outlook.com and sign in.
2. Click the gear icon in the top right, then click View all Outlook settings.
3. Navigate to Mail → Forwarding.
4. Check Enable forwarding.
5. Enter the email address you want to forward to.
6. Optionally check Keep a copy of forwarded messages (recommended).
7. Click Save.

Forward Specific Emails in Outlook.com (Using Rules)

1. Go to Settings → Mail → Rules.
2. Click Add new rule.
3. Name your rule and set the condition (e.g., "From" contains a specific address).
4. Under actions, select Forward to and enter the destination address.
5. Click Save.

How to Forward Emails Automatically in Apple iCloud Mail

Apple does not have a simple "forward all" toggle like Gmail or Outlook. Instead, you use mail rules:

1. Go to icloud.com and sign in.
2. Open Mail.
3. Click the gear icon and select Rules (or go to Settings → Rules depending on your iCloud version).
4. Click Add a Rule.
5. To forward all email, set the condition to something that matches everything, such as "If a message is addressed to your iCloud address."
6. Set the action to Forward to and enter the destination address.
7. Click Done.

The limitation here is that iCloud rules are fairly basic. You have fewer condition options compared to Gmail or Outlook, and you cannot chain multiple conditions together easily.

How to Forward Emails in Outlook Desktop (Windows)

1. Open Outlook and go to File → Manage Rules & Alerts.
2. Click New Rule.
3. Under "Start from a blank rule," select Apply rule on messages I receive and click Next.
4. Set your conditions (or leave all unchecked to forward everything) and click Next.
5. Select forward it to people or public group.
6. Click the underlined text to specify the forwarding address.
7. Click Finish.

Desktop Outlook rules run locally, meaning they only execute when Outlook is open. If your computer is off, emails will not be forwarded until you open Outlook again. Server-side rules (set up through outlook.com) run regardless.

Limitations of Email Forwarding

Forwarding is convenient, but it has some important drawbacks you should understand.

SPF Authentication Breaks

This is the biggest technical issue with forwarding. When Gmail forwards your email to another provider, the receiving server sees the message coming from Gmail's servers but with the original sender's domain in the From address. The receiving server checks SPF records and finds that Gmail is not authorized to send for that domain. Result: the email fails authentication and may land in spam or be rejected entirely.

Some providers implement SRS (Sender Rewriting Scheme) to work around this, but not all do, and it does not solve every case. For a deeper explanation, see our article on how forwarding breaks SPF and what SRS does about it.

Forwarding Exposes Your Real Address

When you set up forwarding, you are giving another address the ability to receive your mail. But anyone who looks at the email headers can often see the forwarding chain, including your real destination address. This is not private.

Spam Filtering May Not Apply at the Destination

If your forwarding source does a good job filtering spam but your destination does not, you may start seeing more junk. Alternatively, your destination provider may be more aggressive and reject legitimate forwarded emails that fail SPF checks.

No Per-Sender Control

Forwarding is all or nothing (unless you set up filters, which are limited). You cannot easily pause forwarding for a specific sender or temporarily stop mail from one source without turning off forwarding entirely.

Forwarding vs. Email Aliases

Forwarding and aliasing might seem similar — both send email from one address to another — but they work quite differently.

• Forwarding takes mail that arrives at Address A and sends it to Address B. It creates a second delivery hop, which is where SPF breaks. Your real address (B) is often visible in headers. You usually have limited control over what gets forwarded.
• Aliases accept mail at a unique address and deliver it to your real inbox without the forwarding problems. Good alias services handle SPF/DKIM correctly, filter spam before delivery, and let you disable individual aliases without affecting anything else.

If your goal is simply to receive email from an old address at a new one, forwarding works fine for personal use. But if you are using multiple addresses for privacy, sign-ups, or organization, aliases are a better tool for the job.

A Smarter Alternative

Cleanbox aliases give you what forwarding tries to do, but without the headaches. Each alias is a real address that delivers to your inbox with proper authentication (no SPF failures), built-in spam filtering, and per-alias controls. You can pause, disable, or delete any alias instantly. And because each service gets its own alias, you always know where your mail is coming from.

Forwarding is a useful tool for simple setups. But if you need reliability, privacy, and control, aliases are the modern approach.