Forward client email automatically from Gmail
Add the address, answer Google’s confirmation from inside Stria, then filter so only the mail you choose is sent.
Walkthrough · 4 min read
Gmail will not forward to an address until that address has been confirmed once. That is the only awkward part of this, and it is awkward for a specific reason: Google sends the confirmation to the destination, which is Stria, and Stria cannot answer it for you — it has no mailbox of its own and it never acts as you. What it does instead is show you the message, which is enough. The way through is at step 5.
Do this on a computer. Google documents the forwarding settings for the web interface only, and the mobile apps do not expose them.
- In Gmail, open Settings and then "See all settings". Choose the tab called "Forwarding and POP/IMAP", or just "Forwarding" on some accounts.
- In the Forwarding section, use "Add a forwarding address" and paste the Stria drop address you copied.
- Confirm the address when Gmail asks: Next, then Proceed, then OK.
- Gmail now sends a confirmation message to that address and will forward nothing until it is answered.
- Open Stria, go to the client whose address you used, and look at their email thread. Google’s message is filed there like any other, as plain text. Follow the link in it.
- Back in Gmail, refresh the settings page. Do NOT tick "Forward a copy of incoming mail to" — that switch forwards everything. Leave forwarding off and build a filter instead.
- In the search box at the top, open the search options, and enter the client’s email address or their domain as the sender to match. Google suggests checking the search first, which is worth doing — the messages it returns are the messages the rule will forward.
- Create a filter from that search, choose "Forward it", pick the Stria address, and create the filter.
- Send yourself a test: forward one real client message to the address by hand, and check it lands. Then wait for the next genuine one and confirm the filter caught it too.
Note: Google’s own instructions describe following a LINK in the confirmation message. Some accounts show a box on the forwarding settings page for a confirmation code instead. If the message you receive carries a code rather than a link, that box is where it goes — but use the link if you have one, because that is the route Google documents.
Important: Gmail’s plain forwarding switch and a filter are different things, and the switch is the one to avoid. Turned on, it forwards every new message that is not spam. A filter forwards only what matches it, which is what you want when the destination is a record of one client relationship.
Note: For about a week after you set this up, Gmail shows a banner in your own inbox reminding you that forwarding is on. That is Google being careful rather than something going wrong, and it goes away by itself. If you ever see one you did not set up, treat it as a security matter and change your password.
Note: One forwarding address at a time through the settings route. Filters are not limited the same way — if you want mail from three clients going to three different drop addresses, make three filters. Google’s guidance is one filter per destination address.
Important: On a Google Workspace account this can be switched off above your head. An administrator controls whether people in the organisation may forward their own mail, and when it is off the forwarding option is simply absent from Gmail settings rather than failing with an error. If you cannot find the Forwarding tab at all on a work account, that is the reason, and an administrator can re-enable it.
Copy the address, and read Google’s confirmation — in your Stria workspace.
Check the test message arrived — in your Stria workspace.