The move
Change provider, lose not a single message
Years of quotes, contracts and client exchanges sit in the old mailbox. kMail copies them into the new one, folder by folder, with the original dates: meanwhile you keep working.
“That 2021 email was on the old account”
Ferrari Design had put off changing provider for two years: nobody wanted to lose the history, or spend a weekend exporting and re-importing archives. With kMail everyone connects their old mailbox, picks the folders and lets the copy run on its own, while the new mailbox is already in use.
How it works
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Connect the old server
In Settings › Migration enter the old mailbox’s address and password: for Gmail, Aruba, Yahoo and the most common providers the server fills itself in. “Test connection” tells you straight away if everything is fine.
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Choose what to bring
You load the folders, each with its message count, and tick the ones you need. Then choose the period: all mail, the last year or the last two, three or five.
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Start it and keep working
Press “Start migration” and feel free to close the page: the copy carries on in the background. When you come back, you find the progress as a percentage and the log folder by folder.
Your history comes with you.
What you can do
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Your folders stay yours
Each folder you choose arrives in the new mailbox with the same name: “Clients 2023” stays “Clients 2023”, with nothing to rearrange by hand.
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Original dates and read status
Every message is copied whole, attachments included, with the date it originally arrived and its status: read, unread and flagged stay that way.
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Only the period you need
No need to drag twenty years of newsletters along: choose whether to copy everything or only the last year, the last two, three or five.
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Progress always visible
A bar shows how many emails have been copied out of the total, along with those skipped and those with errors. The log tells you what happened in each folder.
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One hiccup doesn’t stop everything
If a folder causes trouble, the migration notes it in the log and moves on to the next. If you change your mind, cancel whenever you like: what’s already copied stays in the new mailbox.
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Everyone their own, if you like
Migration is a privilege you assign to user types: you can let each colleague bring over their own mail, or keep it for whoever manages the switch. The old server’s password is stored encrypted.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use the new mailbox while the migration is running?
Yes. The new mailbox works straight away: you receive and send as normal, and messages from the old provider appear in their folders as they are copied.
Is the old mailbox emptied?
No: kMail copies, it doesn’t move. Everything stays as it was on the old server until you decide to close it.
How do I move the whole domain over?
First add and verify the domain in kMail and create the mailboxes, then update the DNS records: from that moment new mail arrives in kMail. Finally everyone migrates their history from the old mailbox, including messages that arrived there while the records were changing.
What happens if I run the same migration twice?
While a migration is running you can’t start another one. Once it’s finished, running it again on the same folders would copy them again: to pick up only recent mail, choose the shortest period.
The other kMail features
Move your company email to kMail
Request a demo: we’ll show you how kMail manages business mailboxes on your own domain.
Alex