How can I log directly into Gmail when I am also signed into Google Apps?

Question

Background:

• I have one Gmail account and two Google Apps e-mail accounts that I use on a regular basis:

  • <[email protected]>

  • <[email protected]>

  • <[email protected]>

• On my personal computer, all three accounts are kept "signed in" concurrently so that I can access any of the three inboxes at any time without having to log in repeatedly.

  • If I browse to https://mail.google.com/a/teaching-job.edu/ or https://mail.teaching-job.edu/, Gmail takes me directly to the inbox for <[email protected]>.

  • If I browse to https://mail.google.com/a/consulting-job.com/ or https://mail.consulting-job.com/, Gmail takes me directly to the inbox for <[email protected]>

  • If I browse to https://mail.google.com/ or https://www.gmail.com/, Gmail does not take me directly to the inbox for <[email protected]>. Instead, it takes me to one of my Google Apps accounts.

  • Browsing to https://mail.google.com/a/gmail.com/ yields an error: "Sorry, you've reached a login page for a domain that isn't using Google Apps."

Question:

• Assuming that I am signed into all three accounts concurrently, is there a URL that will always bring me directly to the inbox for <[email protected]>, even if I have used one of the other accounts more recently?

Answer 1

It turns out that when using multiple sign-in, the first account that one signs into is forevermore the "default account" for that browser session. This applies to all Google Apps features: not just logins to https://mail.google.com/, but also things like OpenID sign-ins.

The solution was simply to sign out, log into the gmail.com account first, and then log into the Google Apps accounts.

Answer 2

Make use of the Account chooser.

Account chooser

UPDATE: I've created a Gmail account besides my Google Apps accounts. Within the e-mail application (or wathever google apps programm) you can switch to other accounts easily, when using the account chooser. This in essence enables you to directly log on to different e-mail accounts.