Can you forward an email in Gmail without opening the email?
Simply put, no…
BUT there are a couple of different workarounds / options depending on why you want to forward that email without opening it to begin with.
If you’re just looking to speed up your use of Gmail and find it annoying that you have to open an email up to forward it, then you’re having the same problem as me.
The best solution to this problem is to turn on keyboards shortcuts in Gmail and then tap the F key as soon as you open an email to be automatically brought to the forward email area.
See Also: Gmail Tutorial for Beginners 2014 [Video]
To turn on keyboard shortcuts for Gmail:
- Click on the gear icon at the top right of your screen while in Gmail.
- Click settings.
- In the “General” tab of your Gmail settings, find the section labeled “Keyboard Shortcuts”.
- Turn keyboard shortcuts on.
- Save settings changes at the bottom of page.
The second reason that you may be looking to forward an email without opening is because you think it may contain a virus and you would like to send it to your IT department for inspection.
First of all, there are very few (if any) viruses than can infect your computer just from opening an email. Generally, viruses infect a computer based on an action the user takes after opening the email.
For example, the user may download an infected image or a .exe file that, when opened, will spread the virus.
That being said, there is a pretty lengthy workaround you can try if you really want to forward that email without opening it.
You can create a Gmail filter for emails from that email address or with the same subject for the future and have those emails automatically forwarded to another address.
To do this, you’ll have to add a forwarding email account to your Gmail account (see video for the details) and won’t be able to automatically forward emails that have already been received. This workaround only works for emails received in the future.
If you’ve come up with some other reasons to forward an email in Gmail without opening it or, even have, have another solution to the problem, please let me know in the comments sections below!
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