In this article, we’ll go over transferring emails from your old host to InMotion Hosting. If your previous hosting provider uses cPanel, this article will not apply as your emails will be moved over with your full cPanel backup. For more information on performing a website move from a host that also uses cPanel, please see our article How to migrate your website from another host that uses cPanel to InMotion Hosting.
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How to Move Your Emails from One Server to Another
The steps involved will depend on whether you used POP3 or IMAP to check emails at your previous host. If you’re not sure which connection you used, check your email settings in your old email client.
Before starting the transfer process, you will need to set up your email accounts on your new server at InMotion hosting. Please see our creating an email account article to learn how to create email accounts in cPanel.
POP3
If you used a POP3 connection with your previous host, your emails are already downloaded to your local computer and you will not have to follow additional steps to move your emails. However, you will want to review the section below on how not to lose emails when you point your domain to our nameservers.
IMAP
If you used IMAP with your previous host, you need to follow the steps outlined in our using thunderbird to transfer emails between servers article for step-by-step instructions for transferring your emails. As noted in that article, while we use Thunderbird as an example, you can follow the process with other email clients as well.
Of note, there are more steps involved when you use IMAP because emails are stored on the server and aren’t actually downloaded to your local computer. Because of this, the emails need to be moved over from the older server to your new server. If you have mulitple of email addresses, you will need to go through the process for each email account.
How Not to Lose Emails During Propagation Time After a Nameserver Change
When you have completed your website migration, the last step is to update your domain’s Nameservers. After propagation, emails will be routed to the new server, but during the 4-24 hours it can take for DNS propagation to be completed, new emails will be split between your old and new servers. Fortunately, we have two recommendations to keep you from missing emails during that time:
- Before you point your domain to our Nameservers, create a forwarder at your previous host that forwards emails to an email that’s not on the same domain you are moving to InMotion Hosting (e.g. Gmail, Yahoo, or another domain at which you receive emails).
- Check email at your old host using their webmail interface. You will want to make sure you use a temp URL or similar URL that specifies the server name in the URL instead of example.com/webmail or webmail.example.com.
Using Third-Party Email Service – Modify Your MX Records
If you’re using a third-party company for your email and thus will not be pointing to our nameservers for email services, you will want to make sure that your MX records are properly pointed before pointing your domain name to our nameservers. This will ensure that your email services are not disrupted once you’ve pointed your domain to our nameservers.
Congratulations, you’ve successfully transferred emails from your old host to InMotion Hosting. Next, let’s give your website a fresh look! Check out our Web Design Channel for tips and tricks on creating a great website that attracts business.
