Migrating email contents using IMAP protocol

Email contents from old server cannot be migrated to new server especially if both servers are using different mail platform. For such cases, email migration must be performed manually using IMAP.

IMAP-to-IMAP email migration consists of two components:
A. Setup the email accounts into the email application on your local computer (We recommend Mozilla Thunderbird for this purpose, please refer to https://cms.yeahhost.com.my/index.php/knowledgebase/55/Setup-new-email-account-in-Mozilla-Thunderbird.html for the guideline).
B. Moving the email contents from old server to new server.

Below are the steps to migrate the email contents using IMAP.

1. Create the same email account with the same password on the new server (please ensure spelling and capitalization is the same).
2. In the email application on your local computer, setup two new email accounts. The following settings should be the same for both email accounts.

Email protocol/Account type: IMAP
Email address: [YOUR FULL EMAIL ADDRESS]
Password: [YOUR EMAIL PASSWORD]

3. The incoming mail server (or IMAP server) will be different for each account. The following configuration is required to differentiate both servers and avoid DNS conflicts.

Incoming mail server (new server): Use new server IP address
Incoming mail server (old server): Use your access domain or old server IP address for the incoming mail server

4. Once configuration is completed, open the inbox for the account that connects to your old server. Select a few emails, then drag and drop messages from this inbox to the inbox on your new server.
5. Repeat the process to the remaining emails in the mailbox on the old server. Once they are done, your old emails will be in your mailbox on the new server.

Note: Please give ample time for the accounts to finish syncing up, especially if there are a lot of emails in the mailbox.
You will need to move the messages from each folder (including subfolders, sent items, etc.) in your mailbox in order to completely migrate the email contents to the new server.

  • 1 Users Found This Useful
Was this answer helpful?

Related Articles

Why Mail Sent to Mailing List Members is Rejected

Mailing list is a feature to allow users to forward mails to multiple recipients within the same...

Maximum Email Size Limit

Emails sent out of our mail servers are capped at a certain size.For Windows server, the maximum...

Disable Junk folder in MS Outlook

Some emails will fall in Spam folder due to spam-trigger words detected or some other criteria....

Spam Mails and How to Deal with Them

Spam mails, also known as junk mails, are unsolicited mails sent in bulks. It is a form of...

Email Rejected by DNSBL

DNSBL is a blocking list that keeps a record of specific IP address/network with spamming...