What is Email Forwarding and How Does it Work

Email forwarding is a simple yet powerful tool that allows you to redirect incoming emails from one email address to another. This means that when an email is sent to the original address, it's automatically forwarded to the new address.

For example, if you have a personal email address that you don't check often, you can forward those emails to your work email address so you don't miss any important messages. This way, you can stay on top of your communications without having to constantly switch between accounts.

Email forwarding can be set up through your email provider, such as Gmail or Outlook, and usually requires just a few clicks or steps.

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Email forwarding can be a convenient way to manage multiple email addresses, but there are different types to consider.

There are two main types of email forwarding: forwarding to a single email address and forwarding to multiple email addresses.

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You can forward emails to a single email address, which is useful if you have a single email address you want to receive all your emails on.

Forwarding to multiple email addresses is useful if you want to share emails with a group of people, such as colleagues or family members.

Email forwarding can be set up to forward all emails, or just emails from specific senders or with specific subject lines.

You can also set up email forwarding to forward emails from a specific folder or label in your email account.

For another approach, see: Single Email Message

Email forwarding is a way to redirect emails from one email address to another. This can be done in two main ways: server-based forwarding and automated client-based forwarding.

Server-based forwarding uses the domain name to define the target server(s) for a class of addresses. This can include backup servers that forward messages without changing any part of their envelopes.

Automated client-based forwarding can take place using a non-interactive client, such as a mail retrieval agent, which keeps the same message-identity.

There are also different types of email forwarding, including automatic email forwarding, which is a feature offered by most mail providers. This allows you to reroute any messages that enter your mailbox to another address you specify.

Automatic email forwarding is a convenient tool that can be set up in just a few steps. For example, Gmail users can follow these steps to set up automatic email forwarding:

Email forwarding has a fascinating history. The first email forwarding mechanism was introduced in RFC 821 by Jonathan B. Postel in 1982, which provided for a forward-path for each recipient.

This forward-path, also known as a source route, was used to indicate that each host had to relay the mail to the next host on the list. The concept at that time envisioned the elements of the forward-path moving to the return-path as a message got relayed from one SMTP server to another.

RFC 821 did not originally allow plain message-forwarding due to the potential for dynamically building the return-path to imply that the "envelope sender" information could not remain in its original form during forwarding.

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Before you start setting up email forwarding, there are a few things to keep in mind. It's essential to allow automatically forwarded messages to be sent to people on the remote domain.

You'll need to check if the remote domain is set up correctly, and if so, see the Manage remote domains article for details.

To set up email forwarding, you'll only be forwarding new emails sent to the from mailbox, not any existing ones.

Keep in mind that email forwarding requires a license for the from account, unless it's a shared mailbox. If you're setting up email forwarding because the user has left your organization, you might want to consider converting their mailbox to a shared mailbox instead.

A shared mailbox can be accessed by several people, but it has a 50 GB size limit.

As an Exchange administrator in Microsoft 365, you'll need to follow these steps to set up email forwarding. If you're not sure what that means, check out the article About admin roles for more information.

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The early days of email forwarding were quite different from what we're used to today. RFC 821, introduced in 1982, provided a forward-path for each recipient, which included an optional list of hosts and a required destination-mailbox.

This forward-path, also known as a source route, indicated that each host had to relay the mail to the next host on the list. This approach was later discouraged.

The introduction of the MX record in 1989 made source-routing unnecessary. In fact, RFC 1123 recommended accepting source-routing only for backward-compatibility.

As a result, plain message forwarding became the recommended action for alias-expansion. This is still mentioned in RFC 5321, which notes that systems may remove the return path and rebuild it as needed.

By 2008, plain message-forwarding had become a convenient option for alias expansion within the same server or a set of coordinated servers.

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Email forwarding with popular services is a breeze. Most email providers offer this feature, and you can set it up in just a few steps.

If you use Gmail, you can automatically forward emails by following these steps: open your Gmail account, click on Settings, and then follow the instructions to add a forwarding address. A verification message will be sent to the address you entered, which you'll need to login to and click on the verification link.

To forward emails from your AOL inbox, log in to your account, click on Settings, and then choose Forwarding. Enter the address you want to automatically forward emails to and click Save Changes. Note that automatic mail forwarding is not currently available to all AOL users.

Outlook makes it easy to set up automatic forwarding. Simply log into your account, click on the Settings icon, and then choose Mail → Forwarding. Check the box labeled Enable Forwarding, enter the email address you want to forward messages to, and choose whether you want Outlook to save its copy of the message or not.

Here's a quick rundown of the steps to set up automatic forwarding with popular services:

Email forwarding can be configured to forward emails from one email address to another, but it's essential to understand the differences between forward and alias. A forward sends emails from one mailbox to any other email address, while an alias allows you to receive emails from one or more alternate email addresses into a single mailbox.

To set up email forwarding, you can use the steps outlined in Example 3 or Example 4, which provide detailed instructions on how to configure email forwarding in various email services.

You can also use filter-based forwarding to forward only specific emails based on certain conditions, such as senders or subjects, as explained in Example 7.

Email forwarding can be enabled for a maximum of 3 destination accounts by an admin, and a maximum of 3 destination accounts can be added by the users themselves, as mentioned in Example 9.

It's also worth noting that email forwarding cannot be enabled for POP accounts, as stated in Example 9.

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To manage email forwarding, you can disable or delete a forwarding address by toggling the switch to OFF or clicking the Delete icon, as explained in Example 6.

Here are some key points to remember when managing email forwarding:

Email forwarding has been around since the early 1980s, when the reference SMTP implementation, sendmail, introduced ~/.forward files that could store target email addresses for given users.

These files can contain shell scripts, which have become a source of many security problems, and were originally only accessible to trusted users who could utilize the command-line switch for setting the envelope sender.

Automated client-based forwarding can take place using a non-interactive client such as a mail retrieval agent, which resembles server forwarding in keeping the same message-identity, but concerns about the envelope-sender still apply.

Here's a comparison of popular email services' automatic forwarding processes:

Some email providers, like AOL, may not offer automatic mail forwarding to all users, so it's essential to check if this feature is available before setting it up.

Automated client-based forwarding is a convenient way to forward emails without having to manually do it every time. This type of forwarding can be done using a non-interactive client such as a mail retrieval agent.

The retrieval agent uses a client protocol, which is similar to server forwarding in that it keeps the same message-identity. Concerns about the envelope-sender still apply.

If you're using a mail retrieval agent, be aware that automated client-based forwarding can be a bit tricky to set up. However, with the right tools and knowledge, you can easily forward emails to any desired address.

Here are the basic steps to follow:

By following these steps, you can easily automate client-based forwarding and save time in the long run.

Forward Files are a type of server-based forwarding that can store target email-addresses for given users.

This kind of forwarding was first introduced in the 1980s by the reference SMTP implementation, sendmail. They allow users to store email addresses in a file called ~/.forward.

Forward files can be configured to automatically perform forwarding or replying actions immediately after receiving an email.

They can also contain shell scripts, which have become a source of many security problems.

Formerly, only trusted users could utilize the command-line switch for setting the envelope sender, -f arg; some systems disabled this feature for security reasons.

The sendmail daemon used to run with root privileges so it could impersonate any user whose mail it had to manage.

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