How To Migrate Emails Server To Server With IMAP
Note: Both server must support IMAP.
You will Need:
The password for the email account you are wanting to migrate.
An IMAP-capable local email client. Most email clients like Thunderbird, Outlook, and Apple Mail, will support IMAP email accounts.
Instructions:
- The same email account needs to be at both locations. So on the new server you need to create the same email address with the same spelling and capitalization.
- The new email address needs to have the same password. (After you are done migrating it is advisable to change your password).
- Now comes the interesting part. Because you will be referencing two servers, you need to create two email accounts in your email client(This is Thunderbird, Outlook, Apple Mail, etc).
- They will use the same email address.
- They will use the same password.
- They will be configured the same(using IMAP)
- The incoming server (IMAP server) is where things will get different. For your older server, put in the IP address for it. For the new server, put in the domain name. (This will help differentiate between the two and avoid confusion).If you are stuck with having the same domain name for both locations, then please use the IP address instead.
- Make certain they both connect. Then you can drag and drop messages between the accounts. Please give it time to move them over. If you have thousands of emails and/or large files or attachments, it will take some time.
