Move your mail here

You can copy everything from an old mailbox at another provider into a mailbox here: your mail, your folders, which messages are read or flagged, and their original dates. We sign in to the old mailbox with an app password, read it, and copy what we find. Nothing at the old provider is changed, moved or deleted.

Contacts move separately, as a file: see Import contacts.

Before you startCopy Anchor Link

• An app password at the old provider. Most providers don't let other apps sign in with your usual password. Make an app password there just for the import. The guide for your provider shows how.
• Room in the mailbox here. The mail needs to fit in the mailbox's storage (see Storage used). If it doesn't, the import waits and tells you.
• Your console password. Starting an import asks for it if you haven't confirmed it's you in the last 5 minutes.

Start an importCopy Anchor Link

1. In the console, open Import mail (under Mail in the left navigation), then choose New import.
2. Under Import into, pick the mailbox here that the mail should go into.
3. Under Provider, pick your old provider. For one that isn't listed, choose Other IMAP server and type its IMAP server and Port (see Import from any IMAP server).
4. Type the User name for the old mailbox (usually its full email address) and the App password you made there.
5. Check the options (below), then choose Start import.

The import runs on our servers: you can close the page, sign out or turn off your computer. When it finishes, we email you a summary with how much was copied into each folder and how long it took.

OptionsCopy Anchor Link

• Leave out Junk and Deleted items (on to start with). Turn it off to copy those too. Copied Junk arrives as an ordinary folder named Imported Junk, kept apart from your Junk folder here.
• Put the old folders under Imported. Your own folders go into one folder called Imported, so they don't mix with folders you already have. Inbox, Sent and Drafts still go to their usual places.
• Keep copying new mail until I stop it. After the first copy, new mail at the old provider keeps being copied here every 30 minutes, for up to 14 days. Use it while you switch over: see Switch a domain without losing mail.

Guides for each providerCopy Anchor Link

• Gmail
• Yahoo Mail
• iCloud Mail
• AOL Mail
• Any other IMAP server
• Many mailboxes at once (admins)
• Switch a domain without losing mail
• Contacts

What's copiedCopy Anchor Link

• Folders, with their folders inside folders. The old Inbox, Sent, Drafts and Archive go into the matching folders here; every other folder keeps its name.
• An "All mail" folder, on providers that have one, is copied last, into Archive, and only the messages that weren't already copied from another folder. So nothing arrives twice.
• Read, flagged and replied-to marks, and labels (keywords) that mail apps set.
• The original dates, so your mail sorts the way it did before.

What isn't copiedCopy Anchor Link

• Messages over 50 MB. They stay at the old provider, and the import counts them as Too large.
• Messages that were deleted at the old provider but not yet removed for good.
• Folders like "Starred" or "Important" that only show mail kept in other folders.
• The old provider's spam-filter training. Your spam filter here learns from what you do here.
• Contacts and calendars. Contacts import as a file: see Import contacts.

Mail that's already in the mailbox here isn't copied twice. That makes it safe to run an import again, and safe to forward mail from the old account while you switch.

Follow an importCopy Anchor Link

The Import mail page lists every import with its status and progress. Open one to see more:

• Status: Waiting to start, Checking the old mailbox, Copying, Paused, Needs you (with the reason), Copying new mail (when it keeps copying new mail), Finished, Finished early (it stopped before copying everything; the page says why), Cancelled or Ended (something went wrong; the page says what).
• Counts: Copied, Already there (skipped), Too large and Not accepted (messages the mail server here refused, for example because they were damaged).
• Folders: the folders it found, and how many messages each one holds. While it runs, only the folder names are shown.
• Buttons: Pause and Resume, Stop syncing (when it keeps copying new mail), and Cancel import, which stops it at once. Mail that's already copied stays.

Up to 2 imports run at the same time in one account. Start more and they wait their turn. Each mailbox has one import at a time.

When it says "Needs you"Copy Anchor Link

An import that can't carry on waits for you, and the page says why and what to do. Fix it, then choose Resume. If the old provider refused the app password, you can type a new one when you resume.

• The mailbox is full. Raise this mailbox's storage, or leave out some folders, then resume. Resuming anyway copies what fits.
• The old provider refused the sign-in. Make a new app password at the old provider and resume with it. We don't retry by ourselves, so the old account isn't locked.
• We couldn't reach the old server. Check the host name and port. If the old provider was slowing the copy down, resume later.
• The old server's certificate didn't check out. Its certificate isn't valid for that host name. Check the host name, or ask the old provider for the right one.
• The old server didn't offer an encrypted connection. We only connect with TLS. Use port 993, or ask the old provider to turn on STARTTLS for port 143.
• The import's own sign-in to your mailbox stopped working. Resume it: we make a new one.
• This mailbox can't take mail right now. It's suspended, being deleted or waiting for its first password change. Resume once it's active again.

Your privacyCopy Anchor Link

• The old mailbox is only read. We never delete, move or mark anything there, and messages you hadn't read stay unread.
• The app password is kept encrypted while the import runs, and deleted as soon as it ends: when it finishes, or you cancel it. Nobody can see it after you type it, our staff included.
• We keep counts and folder names only while the import runs. Once it's done we keep the counts, never the folder names, subjects or anything else about your mail.
• Imports don't send mail and don't count toward your sending limits.
• An imported message keeps the sender checks the old provider made. We didn't check it ourselves when it arrived, so the webmail says so in its details ("Imported; not checked by AnhourMail"), and a safe sender's images don't load in it by themselves.

Who can importCopy Anchor Link

• Everyone but Auditors can import into the mailboxes that are theirs.
• Owners and User Administrators can also import into other people's mailboxes and shared mailboxes. Only an Owner can import into an Owner's or administrator's mailbox. When an admin starts an import into your mailbox, we email you, and you can see it and stop it on your own Import mail page.
• Admins can start imports for many mailboxes at once from a CSV file: see Import many mailboxes.

Providers we can't import from yetCopy Anchor Link

Some providers only let other apps in through their own sign-in page, not with an app password. That's the case for business mailboxes at some of the largest providers, where password sign-in for mail apps is turned off. We can't import from those mailboxes yet. If your provider offers app passwords, or lets you turn on IMAP with a password, you can import now.