How to move your old messages from another provider

What you'll achieve

• know whether we bring the messages over or you copy them yourself;
• switch providers in the right order, without losing messages;
• copy your old folders to the new mailbox, over IMAP.

Before you start

• Coming from a cPanel account? From the full copy of the account (Full Account Backup), we move the email addresses, with their messages, together with the website. The steps are in Enhance instead of cPanel: where to find everything and Moving a cPanel account with the Enhance importer.
• Coming from another panel (for example Hostinger, DirectAdmin, Plesk) or from a separate email service? We create the addresses again on the new server during the free website migration, and you copy the old messages yourself, with the steps below. That's why you keep the old hosting for a few days after the move.
• You need the passwords for the addresses at your old provider and at NBT Host.
• Check the space: the new mailbox must be at least as large as the old one (“Mailbox size”, see How to create an email account in Enhance).

The steps

1. The right order

1. Create the addresses in Enhance, with the same names as now (see How to create an email account in Enhance).
2. Change the nameservers or the domain's MX to NBT Host (see How to point your domain to NBT Host). From now on, new messages start arriving on the new server. While propagation lasts, some may still reach the old provider.
3. Wait a day or two, with the old mailbox still active.
4. Copy the old messages to the new mailbox (step 2), including the ones that arrived there during propagation.
5. Only then close the email account at your old provider.

2. Copy the messages with Thunderbird

Thunderbird is free and can have both accounts at once. Messages go directly from one server to the other, through your computer.

1. Install Thunderbird and add the new account, at NBT Host, with the settings from Email in Thunderbird, on Windows, Mac and Linux.
2. Also add the old account, again over IMAP (not POP3), with the server given by your old provider. If your domain already points to us, the old server no longer works on mail.domeniul-tau.ro: use the server name given by your old provider (for example imap. followed by their domain, as shown in their email settings).
3. Wait for all the folders of the old account to load. If a folder looks incomplete, right-click it » “Properties” » “Repair Folder”.
4. Open the old account's Inbox, select all messages (Ctrl+A, or Cmd+A on a Mac), right-click » “Copy To” » the new account » Inbox.
5. Repeat for the other folders: Sent, your own folders and, if you want, Archive. If a folder doesn't exist in the new account, create it first by right-clicking the account » “New Folder…”.
6. Wait until the copy finishes: Thunderbird shows the progress in the bottom bar. For large mailboxes, it can take hours.
7. Check in our Webmail (https://mail.nbt-host.com) that the folders have the expected number of messages.

Use “Copy To”, not “Move To”: if something gets interrupted, the messages are still on the old server.

3. Other options

• Your old provider has an IMAP export or migration tool. You can use it, with the new server server.nbt-host.com, port 993, SSL, username = the full address.
• Your messages are only on your computer, in Outlook (a .pst file) or in another program using POP3. Add the new account to the same program, over IMAP, and drag the folders from the old account to the new one.
• Many mailboxes, or very large ones. Write to us before the move: we will tell you the simplest way to bring them over.

If something doesn't work

• The copy stops halfway. Resume it only for the remaining messages: sort by date and copy from the last message that arrived. Also check the new mailbox's space.
• Thunderbird no longer connects to the old account after the DNS change. Use your old provider's server name, not mail.domeniul-tau.ro, which now points to us.
• The copied messages show today's date. Usually it's just the sorting: sort by the message date, not by the date received.
• Some messages are missing after the copy. Your old provider may limit how many messages can be downloaded at once. Repeat the copy in smaller batches, for example by year.