How to Login to Two or More Gmail Accounts using Same Browser

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Recently Google Apps underwent migration or call it upgrade and I was not able to sign in to my personal GMail account and my Google Apps Mail Account account at the same time in the same browser which was working before. Every time I signed into one account, I was being logged out of the already signed account after I clicked on Switch Accounts notice

You are trying to access Gmail with the following Google Account:
[email protected]

However, you are already signed in as: 
[email protected]

You can either cancel this request, or switch to a new Google Account to access Gmail.

Then I realized that Google Apps account now are exactly the same like any other Gmail Account and hence the problem.

Video Demo :

You can see how it works in this video or you can skip to start reading the detailed instructions.

How do you Login to another Gmail account without signing off from first ?

So coming back to the issue, when I looked into Gmail Help, I was able to find a settings which I saw in my account but never realized what it was used for. The option is called as Multiple Sign-in and allows you to access to any number of Gmail accounts.

How to enable Multiple Sign in ?

  • Login to one your gmail account and go to your Account Settings
  • Look for option which says Multiple Signin. This should be Off by default.
  • Click on Edit button and turn it on. Google will give you following details to so you understand whats going on.

Google Accounts Multiple Signin

  • Basic idea is you should be careful which account you are in before you go and change settings for that. Probably that’s the biggest drawback itself. So make sure you dont send emails from one account and expect reply on another account.!!
  • Once you select the checkboxes and save you will see your email account appearing on top right.
  • When you click here you will see a new options which says “Sign in to another Account”

Switch Accounts in Google Accounts

  • When you click on that, you will be taken to another login page in a new tab. Now you will be asked to signing using the second account.
  • Once you complete that, you will see the name of the account on top right in which you just signed in.
  • So now you have two tabs with two different accounts signed in.

Working with Multiple Accounts in Gmail :

Now coming back to topic, when you click on that profile tab ( Top Right ), instead of option “Sign in to another account” you will see option of Switch Account. When you click on that  you will see all the accounts where you have signed in. One with a Green Tick mark is where you are currently signed in.

Switch Option for Multiple Sign in

Now to test it for Gmail. Go to mail.google.com and this will open gmail account for the default one. Next click on top right account menu , select switch account and then select the account of which Gmail you want to open. This will refresh your page and open the desired account.

But How do you open in Different Tab

  • Open Gmail again in second tab.
  • Select to switch tab and then select account.
  • Now you will have two gmail account in two different tabs in the same broswer.

Do you need to have Multiple Signin enabled in all the accounts ?

Actually No. Though I was not able to find an official help from Google but it seems enabling multiple signin into one your accounts is enough.  So what happens is when you singin to another account, it automatically enables multiple signin for that account.

I tried disabling and then switching and it still worked. I can confirm this because when I checked the settings, multiple sign in was enabled.

Now before you go and start using this feature, I will suggest you to read the official help of Google where they have explained some of the limitations of this feature. For example It is supported for following Google Products :

Code, Calendar,  Finance,  Gmail,  Profiles,  Reader,  Sites, Voice,  Docs (Google Apps accounts only) and Web Search

So its is clear if you try this with YouTube, Multiple Sign in will not work.

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