# Article Name
3 Ways to Disable Email Auto-Forwarding in Google Workspace

# Article Summary
Discover three ways to disable email auto-forwarding in Google Workspace with clear guidance for your organization today

# Original HTML URL on Toriihq.com
https://www.toriihq.com/articles/how-to-disable-auto-forwarding-from-user-google-workspace

# Details
Auto-forwarding in Gmail seems helpful, but it can expose data, break compliance, and erode audit trails. In Google Workspace, leaving it unchecked invites accidental leaks.

This guide shows three ways to disable or rein in auto-forwarding using the Admin console and Gmail controls, with options that scale across organizational units. You’ll see where each method fits, what it blocks, and how to apply it so your team stays productive and your data stays put.

## Use Google Workspace's UI

Here, you’ll use the Google Admin console to turn off automatic forwarding for a user.

### Go to the Gmail automatic forwarding setting

- Sign in to admin.google.com with an administrator account.
- Go to Apps > Google Workspace > Gmail.
- Open User settings. In some accounts this is labeled End User access.

### Choose who you’re locking down

- On the left, select the organizational unit (OU) that contains the user.
- If you only want to block one user without affecting others:
- Create a child OU for restricted forwarding.
- Move the user into that OU.

### Turn off automatic forwarding

- Find Automatic forwarding.
- Select one of:
- Off. Blocks all automatic forwarding.
- Only to your domain. Allows forwarding to internal addresses only.
- This setting applies to the user’s Gmail Forwarding setting and any filter-based forwarding. Google’s help article on restricting automatic forwarding confirms both are covered.

### (Optional) Allow safe exceptions

- If you chose Off or internal-only but need a few external exceptions, use the Forwarding whitelist:
- Add trusted addresses or domains, one per line.
- Save your changes.

### Save and let changes take effect

- Click Save at the bottom of the page.
- Changes usually apply within minutes, but can take up to an hour.

### Confirm it worked

- Ask the user to refresh Gmail.
- In Gmail, go to Settings > See all settings > Forwarding and POP/IMAP. They should see that forwarding is disabled by the administrator, and any active forwarding will stop.
- If messages still seem to forward:
- Check Gmail > Filters and Blocked Addresses for any old “Forward it to” filters. The admin setting blocks them, but it’s good to remove them.
- In the Admin console, use Reports > Email log search to verify message delivery paths.
- If you created any admin-level routing rules in Gmail settings (Routing or Compliance), review those. Those rules can forward mail regardless of the user setting.

Notes:

- Google’s “Restrict automatic forwarding in Gmail” and “Change Gmail settings for your organization” help articles describe these options in the Admin console UI.
- If needed, you can also limit POP and IMAP under User settings to reduce other ways mail leaves the account.

## Use Torii

Instead of configuring this in Google Workspace directly, you can use Torii [https://www.toriihq.com/], a SaaS Management Platform, to disable auto forwarding from user in Google Workspace. SMPs centralize your SaaS subscriptions and integrations, making it simple to programmatically onboard/offboard users, view subscription and license details, and more.

With Torii, you can automate this task so it runs automatically whenever a defined condition is met-such as a new hire, a departing employee, or a contract renewal-eliminating repetitive manual work and saving time.

To disable auto forwarding from user in Google Workspace directly through Torii, follow these steps:

### 1. Sign up for Torii

Contact Torii [https://www.toriihq.com/] to request your free two-week proof-of-concept.

### 2. Connect your Google Workspace account to Torii

Once your tenant is active, connect Google Workspace to Torii. Here are the instructions for the Google Workspace integration [https://support.toriihq.com/hc/en-us/articles/5165001141019].

### 3. Create a Torii workflow for Google Workspace

In Torii, create an automated workflow to disable auto forwarding from user in Google Workspace. Open the Workflows tab, define the trigger, and add the action that disables auto forwarding for the user in Google Workspace. From then on, whenever the trigger occurs, Google Workspace will be updated automatically.

## Use Google Workspace's API

Here, you’ll use Gmail API endpoints to turn off automatic forwarding for a mailbox, then clean up any forwarding filters and addresses. No UI clicks, just API calls.

### 1) Prepare auth and scopes

You need an OAuth 2.0 access token that can act on the user’s mailbox. Admins typically use a service account with domain-wide delegation and impersonate the user.

- Grant these scopes:
- https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.settings.sharing
- https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.settings.basic

Set a couple variables so the next commands are easier to read.

### 2) Check the user’s current auto-forwarding setting

Gmail API method reference: Users.settings.getAutoForwarding.

Example curl is:

You’ll see something like:

### 3) Disable automatic forwarding

Gmail API method reference: Users.settings.updateAutoForwarding.

Example curl is:

You should get back the updated setting with "enabled": false.

### 4) Remove filters that forward mail (if any)

Filters can forward messages even when account-level auto-forwarding is off. List filters and delete any that include a forwardingAddress.

Gmail API methods: Users.settings.filters.list and Users.settings.filters.delete.

List filters:

Look for filters where the JSON includes "forwardingAddress": "someaddress@example.com". Note each filter’s "id" that forwards. Then delete those filters:

Example curl is:

Repeat for any other forwarding filters.

### 5) Remove forwarding addresses you no longer allow (optional)

If you don’t want the mailbox to have any approved forwarding targets on file, remove them. This also prevents new forwarding filters from using those addresses until re-added and verified.

Gmail API methods: Users.settings.forwardingAddresses.list and Users.settings.forwardingAddresses.delete.

List forwarding addresses:

Delete an address:

### 6) Verify the mailbox can’t auto-forward

- Confirm auto-forwarding is off:

- Confirm there are no forwarding filters:

- If you removed forwarding addresses, confirm the list is empty or as expected: