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I have a GMail address with my employer, a personal GMail address, and a GMail address for my personal business. My gf also has a GMail address she uses on the same PC. Currently this requires much logging in/out to switch between everything because besided the GMail I use Google Docs, App Engine, and other sites that use the same credentials.

Is there a way to keep all of these accounts open in the same browser at the same time without constantly having to log in/out?

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9 Answers

up vote 15 down vote accepted

I believe you have to use a browser extension for that. (Update: As some people have mentioned, this feature is coming soon.)

Firefox Extensions:

I think MultiFox is exactly what you want and the simplest to use. There's a great tutorial on how to use it too.

Chrome Extensions:

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From the Google Multi-Login page: "Sorry, but it works on all Google Services EXCEPT GMail, Google Reader, and Google Pages!" The developer claims to be fixing it, but there are comments from 3 months ago saying it's not working, so who knows when it will be fixed. Very neat concept, though. – tnorthcutt Jul 13 '10 at 18:18
As mentioned, the Google Multi-login extension doesn't work any more, and nowhere on the Google Mail Checker Plus or Dayhiker extenions does it say anything about being able to use multiple accounts - is there any documentation or explanation of how this feature is accomplished in those two Chrome addons? The Firefox addons you suggested are nice. – tobeannounced Jul 13 '10 at 22:00
@tobeannounced: You're right, I removed them. I misread life hacker's article. – Senseful Jul 14 '10 at 15:41
Just read today this is something Google is working on on their own googlesystem.blogspot.com/2010/07/… – Nick Gotch Jul 14 '10 at 22:23
up vote 3 down vote

My wife come up with a very easy answer..

One of us always uses Firefox for gmail/facebook/etc the other uses IE

(It is a lot quicker the switching logins on windows when we wish to quickly check our email)

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My wife and I do the same thing. Dibs on Chrome! – Doresoom Jul 21 '10 at 15:35
up vote 2 down vote

If you use Google Chrome, it now has support for multiple user profiles. Create a profile for your girlfriend and one for yourself by clicking the wrench icon and choosing Settings.

Now, you can log in to Gmail with your profile. When your girlfriend uses the computer, she can switch to her own profile by pressing Shift-Ctrl-M, and log in to her Gmail account.

See http://9to5google.com/2011/12/13/google-updates-chrome-with-multiple-user-profiles/ for a more thorough explanation.

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up vote 1 down vote

Solution 1. If you use linux, you can start the same browser under multiple usernames, and these can open various gmail accounts simultaneously. I suppose same can be done with Windows too. Use multiple user accounts is one solution.

Solution 2. Use google chrome and open a new incognito window and login in your gf's name. This is an excellent solution; the only side effect is that incognito would not remember your username/password.

Solution 3. Use the gmail multilogin extension for Chrome.

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Regarding solution 2: In addition to Chrome's "Incognito Window", Firefox and Safari have "Private Browsing", Internet Explorer has "InPrivate Browsing", and Opera has "Private Tab". – Rebecca Chernoff Jul 13 '10 at 18:13
Chrome's incognito window only lets you do 1 extra session. If you open a 2nd incognito window, it shares active cookies with the first, so is still logged in to that account. It's a fine solution if you only have 2 total accounts, but for more than that, it won't work. I'm not sure if IE/FF/etc are the same. – Callan Jul 14 '10 at 15:54
up vote 1 down vote

A simple solution would be use Gmail's IMAP services to download the mail to the email client of your choice: Outlook, Apple Mail, Thunderbird.

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The very reason why I like webmail in general and gmail in particular is because it allows me to get rid of the desktop email clients. – Graviton Jul 14 '10 at 9:10
up vote 1 down vote

I forward all my Gmail accounts (work, personal, and a few others) to a single primary Gmail account, that automatically tags incoming forwarded emails with a label defining what they're relating to (eg, did it come through my work Gmail, or my personal one... etc)

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This is what I do also, forwarding + label is really useful – paan Jul 15 '10 at 9:11
up vote 1 down vote

All the other answers are great. I personally use the Google Mail Checker Plus extension for Chrome and it works just fine.

Only for the sake of completion, there is another option (which needs some more tackling): using different browser profiles in different windows.

In Firefox, you can do that by running it appending a -P to a shortcut. You can read more about it in an old LH's post.

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up vote 0 down vote

If you open a new private browsing window from whatever browswer you're in, you can simultaneously be logged in to the same service with different accounts.

To open a new incognito In Chrome: Ctrl + Shift + N
To start Private Browsing from Firefox: Ctrl + Shift + P
To start InPrivate Browsing in IE: Ctrl + Shift + P

I find this method to be most handy when I need to quickly check something from another account. The downside to this approach is that you are forced to use separate windows. And if that's the case, why not just open the service from a different browser? Another downside is that these special private browsing sessions wont track your activity, which may be undesirable.

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Disregard. I only read George's Solution #1 before posting my answer. – Polshgiant Jul 13 '10 at 21:56

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