Help I Have Two (or more) Accounts

I don't know about you, but I signed up for two Google accounts and then I used both of them at different times. It is confusing and I wanted to consolidate them into one account. I was able to do it, but it was a little complicated. In this post I will list the steps to use to consolidating Google Accounts.

1. Find out what is on the different accounts. 

• In the top corner when you are logged in you will see your information. 
• Click on the picture or your email address on the far right and choose MY ACCOUNT.

2.  A webpage opens up with all sorts of ways that you can work with your account. Choose Delete My Accounts or Services.

3. After you click again on Delete my Account this will give you a list of what is on your account. You will have to spend some time looking and thinking about what is on your different accounts, what you want to save, what you want to move to the combined account and what doesn't matter. It is a little scary to click on Delete My Account for the second time, but it really just gives you information. You are not deleteing your account yet. 



4. Once you have decided which account to keep and which to delete you will have to deal with all of the content that is in the account that you are going to delete. Some of the information will transfer to your other account, but some of it will have to be downloaded to your computer and then uploaded to the other account.

Google is clear about the fact that the data in your account belongs to you and you have the right to download that data. Here are some examples of ways I could deal with the data from my account. 

• Blogger - I would need to download my blog and then recreate it with the address I want to use and upload it again.
• Drive - I would share all of the documents and folders in my Drive account with the email address of the other account. Then when they are deleted in one place I will have them in the other.
• Gmail - I would probably download my mail and have an archive on my computer rather than uploading it again to my other address. I could forward any mail that I want to be sure is in my other account.
• Photos - I would need to download my photos from this account and add them to the other account.
• YouTube - I would need to download any videos and upload them to my other account.
• Calendar - Most likely I would just let this be deleted because I would be using the calendar on the other account. I suppose any appointments I need to show on my current calendar could just be added.
• Chrome Sync - I wouldn't worry about this because it is just my bookmarks.
• Contacts - I would need to export my contacts from one account and then import them into my other account.

There are a few other services that Google owns, so you will have to take each one individually and decide what you want to do with it. 

After looking at all of that you may think that it is not worth all of the work to combine the accounts. You can just leave them both up there and use only one of them from now on in order to make it less confusing. One will have current info and the other will be an archive. 

If you decide to do the transfer there are two choices once you have emptied out one of the accounts. You can DEACTIVATE or DELETE the account. When you delete an account you can NEVER use that username again. It is gone. When you deactivate the account the account and the information that is left in it is kept in an archive and if you ever want to use that account again you can activate it. 

If you are wanting to do this, but need a little comfort and a little walking through call (512)560-2609 or email me (helpimnotageek@gmail.com). I can connect with your computer. It does not matter where you are I can help you out :-)

Organizing your email, so that it is not overwhelming

First I want to give you a very short idea of where your email goes and where it comes from because I think that will make things clearer.  Feel free to skip this if it is just confusing.

When you send email it goes to a server somewhere (remember the cloud?) and that sever sends it on to the person you sent mail to and then when your friend opens email it downloads onto their computer. When you get email it is the opposite. When you turn on your email program the email is downloaded into your computer from your server.  It is probably much more complicated than that, but I am simplifying.

That is only true if you are using an email program that resides on your computer like Mail (Mac), Entourage, Outlook or something like that. If you are using Gmail the message just goes to whatever server Google has designated for your mail and you have to get online, log in and then you can see what is there. This is also called Webmail and almost every company you might use for your Internet offers some sort of Webmail program.

DEALING WITH YOUR INBOX

Imagine that you get 50 messages a day. They all come into your inbox. If you do not look at your inbox for a few days it can be overwhelming. There are several things that you can do to make things more workable.

1. FOLDERS Every email program gives you the option of putting things in folders. You can create folders for the things that you often get email for and then when you look at your mail sort it right away. You can easily tell what is important and what can wait. I created a folder called "LOOK HERE" to remind me of things that I need to go back to. You can also create folders that nest inside other folders. I could have one called Family and then create a subfolder for each member of my family.

2.  AUTO send files to folders. Mail programs have ways for you to set up "rules" that designate where email should go when it comes into your inbox. You will not see these messages in your inbox at all. They go straight to the folder you set up with a rule. My main problem with this method is that I tend NOT to look at the folders and so I never read anything with a rule.

3. SCHEDULE If you can look at your mail each morning and each evening it is possible to keep your inbox from filling up. Each time you do email deal with EACH message somehow. Some you will just file into a folder. Some you will put in a folder to look at later and others you will be able to answer.

4. SORT THEN DELETE The final solution that I have had to use now and then is to first look at anything that seems like it might be important and then delete everything else and tell myself that if people really want to communicate with me they will write again. I also remind myself that it was not so long ago when I did not have email at all. I will not die if I miss what those messages had to say.

I would love to hear from anyone who has suggestions on how to organize email or any corrections to what I have said above. What do you do? Have you ever deleted everything and what happened?

Also, I have had to be pretty general in the explanation above since I do not know EVERY mail program on EVERY computer. If you would like help specific to you (or know someone else who does) feel free to call me (512)560-2609 or email janicef@jfriesen.net. If I see the word geek in the message I will be sure not to delete it. ;-)