When you move your website and email to a new server, your old emails will not be available unless you migrate them manually. This knowledgebase article gives you advice on transferring email from one server to another, using matching IMAP email accounts in your local email client. Using IMAP avoids any formatting and permissions errors that may result from moving the raw files.
TECHNICIAL REQUIREMENTS
- Both of your servers must support the IMAP email protocol. All our hosting packages can connect using IMAP.
- The password for the email account you are trying to migrate.
- An IMAP-capable email client. Most email clients like Windows Mail, Outlook, Apple Mail, and Thunderbird support IMAP mail accounts.
INSTRUCTIONS
- Create the same email account on your new server that you had on your old server. Use the same spelling and capitalization.
- Give the new email account the same password that you used on your old server. You can change the password after the migration process is done, if you need to.
- In your local email client, create two new email accounts.With both accounts online, open up the inbox for the account that connects to your old server. Drag and drop messages from this inbox to the inbox on your new server.With both accounts online, open up the inbox for the account that connects to your old server. Drag and drop messages from this inbox to the inbox on your new server.
- These will both be for the same email address.
- They will both use the same password.
- They must both be configured to connect using IMAP.
- The incoming server (or IMAP server) will be different for each account. You should use the IP address or shared server name for your new server, and your existing shared server domain or IP address for your old server, rather than your domain name, whenever possible. This will avoid any possible DNS conflicts.
- With both accounts online, open up the inbox for the account that connects to your old server. Drag and drop messages from this inbox to the inbox on your new server.
- That's it! If you have a lot of emails, give the accounts a few minutes to finish syncing up. Once they're done, your old emails will be in your mailbox on the new server.
