Gmail Alias Not Working in Google Workspace- A DIY Reference Guide!

Nowadays Google Workspace is one of the most used cloud-based productivity suites that facilitate collaboration. Users can subscribe to Google Apps on a monthly or yearly basis. This suite also provides a feature known as an email alias. The Gmail email alias not working is a common issue that Google Workspace users face. So, in the following section, we will discuss the problem and how to resolve it. Additionally, we will discuss how you can enable email aliases if you haven’t enabled them.

Table of Content

• What is an Email Alias in Google Workspace?
• Benefits of Gmail Email Alias
• How to Send Emails Using an Email Alias?
• User Query: Gmail Alias Not Working
• Reasons Behind Google Email Alias Not Working
• Resolution to Gmail Alias Not Working
• Another Solution For Google Workspace Email Alias Not Working
• Conclusion

Let’s see a quick in-depth intro to email aliases in Google Workspace and their benefits. which helps to clearly understand the issue and its solution.

What is an Email Alias in Google Workspace?

Alias or aliases is a Latin term that means “Otherwise”. In many dictionaries, it is defined as an assumed identity. However, in Google Workspace email aliases have a similar function according to their meaning. Gmail is the most used email service provider in the world and everyone has an account in Gmail or email address. An email alias is also associated with your primary Gmail account but it is treated as an alternate email address for your primary account. 

Let’s generalize the definition: Think of it as one person having two names one is official and the other one is a nickname. If you call any of the names you are only referring to one person.  Because both names are associated with one person only.

The same goes with email aliases, a primary email address in Gmail can have 30 email aliases. Whenever an Email is sent or received from an alias account the mail is stored and shown in your primary mailbox. 

Note: Mail sent using an email alias would only appear in the inbox if you own the email account linked to the alternate addresses.

The reasons why we need Email Alias:
If [email protected] needs an advertisement address to post to the company website, you can create the alias [email protected]. Emails sent to either address will appear in the same ([email protected]) Gmail inbox.

Let’s see the benefits of email aliases to get a better knowledge of why Gmail alias not working.

Benefits of Gmail Email Alias

Email aliases provide multiple benefits to the primary account holder. Here are some benefits of using email alias:

• Categorize the emails for different work purposes 
• Cost-effective by letting you create an alternate email address without paying any extra charge.
• Management of emails if you know how to use Google filters then you can create a separate folder for every email alias.
• Organized data for every alternate email.
• Trackable email records for received and sent mail from outside the domains.

How to Send Emails Using an Email Alias?

• Sign in to your Google Apps email account.
  
• Click on Setting -> Account.
  
• Go to Send mail and, click Add another email address.
  
• Enter the name & alternate email address in the Email address field.
  
• Click Next Step -> Send Verification. Gmail will send you a verification email to your other email address to confirm that you are the owner of that account.
  
• Click on the link provided in the email from Gmail or you can enter the confirmation code (present in the Accounts section of your Google Apps Email settings).

Read More: How to Save Multiple Gmail Emails as PDF File?

User Query: Gmail Alias Not Working

“While I am sending an email to my email alias, it doesn’t get delivered to my inbox. It seems like my Google Apps email alias is not working.
For Example, My primary email address is [email protected]. My email alias [email protected]. If I include [email protected] as a recipient of an email, the email does not appear in my inbox. However, if I send an email to my main account ([email protected]), then the email appears in my inbox.
How can I troubleshoot the Gmail alias not receiving email? Please help.“

Reasons Behind Google Email Alias Not Working

As far as we understand you are facing two issues. 

• The first one is you are not able to see the emails you have sent from the email alias to your primary email in your inbox.
• The second one is you are not able to receive emails of your email alias in your mailbox.

Here is the reason for your first query: This issue makes the user think that the Gmail alias not working. However, the fact is that Gmail doesn’t route emails when you use your email alias to send mail to your primary address or your inbox. But you can find that sent an email from your alias in “All Mail” or “Sent Mail”.

Reason for the second query: To receive or send emails by using your email alias you need to enable it from the Google admin console. In your case, maybe the alias is not added to your primary email account or an email alias is not created for you.

So, the above reason makes it clear the first query is not an error it is just not possible to see an email sent from the Gmail alias to the primary account in the inbox. Because Google doesn’t route the email from the email alias to the primary address of that user.     

Resolution to Gmail Alias Not Working

To fix the issue of the Gmail alias not receiving email, you should ask your Google administrator to add or create an email alias for your account.

Here are the steps to create a Gmail email alias by following this an admin can create an email alias for the user.

• Login to Google Admin Console.
• Find “Directory” in the left menu and click on it.
• Now click on “Users” and click on the user name for which you want to create an email alias
• Click on “Add Alternative Email” enter the Name of your email alias and select the Domain. Make sure you select the same domain that your account has. Finally, click on “Save”

Note: You should have admin access to Google Workspace for performing the above steps.

By following these steps you have successfully resolved the issues regarding “Gmail alias not working” or “Gmail alias not receiving email”.

Read more: How to Download Gmail Emails to Computer?

Another Solution For Google Workspace Email Alias Not Working

However, a most frequent case associated with the Google alias is that the mailbox storage quota limit is over due to many received emails on the alias email address. Additionally, this can also be a reason for Gmail alias not receiving email. Therefore, sometimes it can cause a view error or a less efficient search to overcome this situation we suggest you back up your data using our G Suite Backup Tool and delete old emails from your mailbox. 

This tool can help you to back up your inbox data into different formats. This extra step can also help you to store your private and confidential emails in your system securely.

Free Download Purchase Now

Conclusion

In the above section, we have discussed the Gmail email alias, the issue of the Gmail alias not working, its possible causes, and the way to resolve it. We can now conclude that to make the emails appear in our inbox that were sent to our email alias. However, you have to add an email alias as an alternate email address for sending emails. Additionally, we have also mentioned another solution to resolve this issue.