How to Import Gmail Filters to Forward Email to Another Account

There are plenty of reasons to forward email from one Gmail account to another.

Maybe you want to keep newsletters out of your main inbox. Maybe you still receive important alerts at an older address. Maybe you want a dedicated inbox for job-search activity, receipts, or notifications so your primary account stays cleaner.

That is the general use case.

One very practical version of it is Fitcheck.

If you do not want to connect your primary mailbox, you can forward only your job-alert emails into a separate Gmail account and connect that account to Fitcheck instead. That gives you a cleaner boundary: your main inbox stays separate, while Fitcheck only needs read-only access to the dedicated inbox that receives approved job-alert messages.

This guide walks you through that setup.

What you will download

This post includes a starter Gmail filter file you can import:

• Download the Fitcheck Gmail forwarding filter

The template is based on Fitcheck’s current default onboarding email-source list and is designed to forward supported job-alert emails to another email account.

What this setup is good for

This workflow is useful when you want to:

• separate job alerts from your main inbox
• centralize alerts from multiple job sites into one dedicated mailbox
• keep your primary account private from downstream tools or workflows
• create a clean inbox that only contains approved job-alert sources

For Fitcheck specifically, the idea is simple:

1. Keep receiving job alerts in your normal Gmail account.
2. Forward only those job-alert emails into a second inbox.
3. Connect that second account to Fitcheck.
4. Let Fitcheck review only that inbox and produce its explainable Apply / Review / Skip recommendations.
5. When a role looks promising, run a quick due-diligence pass before you apply.

Before you start

You will need:

• a Gmail account that already receives the job alerts you want to forward
• a second email account or inbox that will receive the forwarded mail
• access to Gmail settings in the sending account
• your forwarding destination already added and verified in Gmail

If you are doing this for Fitcheck, the destination inbox is the one you would connect to Fitcheck.

Step 1: Add and verify the forwarding address in Gmail

In the Gmail account that currently receives your job alerts:

1. Open Settings.
2. Click See all settings.
3. Open Forwarding and POP/IMAP.
4. Click Add a forwarding address.
5. Enter the email address you want to forward to.
6. Complete the verification step Gmail sends to that destination inbox.

If you skip this step, the imported filters may fail because Gmail only allows forwarding to verified addresses.

Step 2: Personalize the XML template

Download the template and open it in any plain-text editor.

• Download the Fitcheck Gmail forwarding filter

Then replace every instance of:

YOUR-FORWARDING-ADDRESS@example.com

with your real verified forwarding destination, for example:

job-alerts-secondary@outlook.com

Save the file when you are done.

If you are using this for Fitcheck, that destination should usually be the dedicated mailbox you plan to connect to Fitcheck.

Step 3: Back up your current setup first

Before importing anything new, save a copy of your current Gmail filter setup.

In the Gmail account that receives the original alerts:

1. Open Settings.
2. Click See all settings.
3. Open Filters and Blocked Addresses.
4. Select your existing filters.
5. Click Export and save the XML file somewhere easy to find.

Gmail does not offer the same kind of clean export for overall forwarding settings, so it is also smart to take a screenshot of your Forwarding and POP/IMAP settings before making changes.

Step 4: Import the filters into Gmail

Back in the Gmail account that receives the original alerts:

1. Open Settings.
2. Click See all settings.
3. Open Filters and Blocked Addresses.
4. Click Import filters.
5. Choose the edited XML file.
6. Review the filters Gmail shows you.
7. Confirm the import.

After import, Gmail should create one forwarding rule per sender pattern included in the template.

Your existing filters should still remain in place. The main thing to watch for is duplication or overlap if you already had similar rules.

If you want a quick take on which job-alert sources are worth prioritizing in the first place, start with Best Job Sites for Software Jobs.

Step 5: Check that the filters look right

After the import, skim the generated filters and make sure they point to the right forwarding address.

You should see rules that forward messages from supported job-alert senders such as LinkedIn, Indeed, ZipRecruiter, Google Jobs, Wellfound, Built In, Lensa, Monster, and Glassdoor.

If something looks off, delete the imported filters, correct the XML file, and import it again.

Step 6: Wait for the next alert and test the flow

The easiest test is to wait for the next real job alert from one of the supported senders.

When it arrives:

1. Confirm it lands in the original Gmail inbox.
2. Confirm it is forwarded to the destination inbox.
3. If you are using Fitcheck, confirm the destination inbox is the one connected to Fitcheck.

If a source does not forward, check the sender address of the actual email and compare it to the template. Job platforms do occasionally change sender addresses.

Current sources included in the starter template

At the time of writing, the download includes filters for the current Fitcheck default onboarding email sources:

That list mirrors Fitcheck’s current default onboarding source template for email-based sources.

The forwarding destination does not have to be Gmail. It could be another Gmail inbox, or a mailbox from Outlook, Hotmail, Yahoo, Fastmail, or another provider, as long as Gmail lets you add and verify it as a forwarding destination.

A note about Glassdoor

Glassdoor is the one source here that deserves a special mention.

Fitcheck’s default source configuration narrows Glassdoor using both the sender address and the sender-name pattern Glassdoor Jobs. The downloadable Gmail template approximates that by matching noreply@glassdoor.com and also looking for the phrase Glassdoor Jobs.

That should reduce noise, but Gmail filters are not always as expressive as an application-specific source-matching system. If Glassdoor ever forwards extra messages you do not want, that is the first rule to tighten or remove.

If you are doing this specifically for Fitcheck

This is the practical setup:

1. Create or choose a dedicated mailbox for Fitcheck.
2. Add that account as a verified forwarding destination in your primary Gmail inbox.
3. Import the template from this post.
4. Let your supported job-alert emails forward into the dedicated account.
5. Connect only that dedicated account to Fitcheck.

That way, Fitcheck is only reading the inbox you intentionally prepared for job alerts rather than your broader personal mailbox.

Fitcheck still works the same way after that:

• it reads approved job-alert emails from supported sources
• it uses read-only mailbox access
• it explains why a role was marked Apply, Review, or Skip
• it never applies on your behalf

If that is the workflow you want, you can learn more here:

• Fitcheck

Troubleshooting

The import worked, but nothing is forwarding

Usually one of these is true:

• the forwarding destination was never verified in Gmail
• the sender address in the real email does not exactly match the filter
• the job site changed the address it sends from

Gmail rejects the import or forwarding action

Make sure you replaced every instance of YOUR-FORWARDING-ADDRESS@example.com in the XML file with a forwarding address that Gmail already knows and has verified.

I am worried about breaking my current setup

Importing the file should add filters rather than replace your current ones, and it should not wipe out your forwarding configuration. The bigger practical risk is ending up with duplicate or overlapping filters, which is why exporting your current filters first is a good precaution.

One source is noisy

Start by checking Glassdoor, then look at the exact sender and subject of the messages that slipped through. You can usually solve this by editing or removing the individual filter for that source.

Final takeaway

Importable Gmail filters are a practical way to move a specific class of emails from one account to another without forwarding everything.

For general email hygiene, that can help you separate workflows.

For Fitcheck, it gives you a clean option when you want the benefits of approved-source job-alert monitoring without connecting your primary inbox directly.