In this article, you will learn:
- Under what conditions you can perform automatic email migration
- How to perform automatic email migration
- Common problems
- Frequently asked questions
Conditions for automatic email migration
To ensure a smooth automatic email migration, make sure that you meet these conditions:
- You know the working address of the IMAP server of the current mailhosting. If you enter the address in the form imap.domain.tld, where domain.tld is the name of your domain, make sure that this address points to the correct server and has not been overwritten, for example, by a change of DNS servers or DNS records.
- You know all login credentials for the migrated mailboxes.
- The service from which you are migrating emails allows access for third-party IMAP applications. Some such services require additional configuration.
Automatic email migration
If you have the IMAP access details of the original provider ready, open the automatic migration interface in these steps:
- Log in to the customer administration ⧉.
- In the top menu, select Hosting services Webhosting, Mailhosting, or WMS.
- From the list of services, select the service to which you want to migrate the data.
- In the left menu, select Migration from competition – emails.
Open the automatic email migration interface for the service:
In the Source mail server details section, fill in the IMAP server. Then select the migration type (you can enter it separately or combine them):
- Synchronization of already existing mailboxes
- Migration of new mailboxes (not yet existing at VEDOS)
Synchronization of already existing mailboxes
This type of migration downloads emails from the specified IMAP server into mailboxes that already exist on the hosting. New emails are merged with those already in the mailbox.
Using this tool, you can download the contents of any other mailbox available through the given IMAP server into existing mailboxes.
Proceed in these steps:
- In the Synchronization of already existing mailboxes section, check the mailboxes into which you want to migrate.
- Fill in the password (on the VEDOS service) and the corresponding login credentials of the original provider.
Migration of new mailboxes
This type of migration creates new mailboxes with the same name (the text before the @ symbol) and then downloads emails into them. You create mailboxes in bulk by entering values into the field.
In the Migration of new mailboxes (not yet existing at VEDOS) section, enter the logins and passwords of all mailboxes you want to migrate. Follow these rules:
- On each line, enter the login name, a space, and the password for one mailbox.
- Enter the login name as the full email address, i.e. mailbox@domain.tld.
After the migration is completed, you can change passwords or set aliases according to the instructions Emails – Mailbox management.
DNS adjustments
After the migration is completed, check that the domain uses the correct MX records.
If you want to change the IMAP, SMTP, and POP3 addresses to names containing your domain, edit the corresponding CNAME records.
Common problems
Common problems with email migration include:
- Invalid mailbox login credentials
- Non-functional transfer from one VEDOS hosting to another
- Insufficient space on the new hosting
- Repeated automatic migration failure
Invalid login credentials
Problem: The system returns a login credentials error.
Cause: The most common cause of this error is an incorrect IMAP server address, less often entering an incomplete login name (for example, a mailbox name without a domain) or an old password.
Solution: Check that you are logging in to the correct IMAP server, that you are entering valid login credentials for the original mailbox, and that the original system is able to process these login credentials. If you changed DNS records as part of a service change, check that the IMAP server address you enter still points to the original service.
Email migration between VEDOS services
Problem: Email transfer from the old WEDOS mailhosting to the new one does not work.
Cause: If you created a new email service, you probably renamed the old one (removal of the name by customer support is also a form of renaming). The mail server therefore sees the old mailboxes under the new service name.
Solution: Enter the existing name or alias of the original hosting in the address of the migrated mailbox. If the hosting name has been removed, enter its identifier in the customer administration, for example mailbox@w123456.
Insufficient space
Problem: The migration ended with an insufficient space error.
Solution: Increase mailbox capacity according to the instructions Emails – Increasing mailbox space, wait at least 1 hour for the system changes to take effect, and start the migration again. Alternatively, you can delete emails in the original mailboxes.
Migration repeatedly fails
Problem: Everything seems to be set up correctly, but email migration repeatedly fails.
Cause: Some providers (commonly Microsoft, Google, ...) may block migration via the IMAP protocol due to weak access authentication. In such a case, the automatic migration fails even if the login credentials are correct.
Solution: Manually migrate the emails, for example according to this community guide ⧉.
Frequently asked questions
What happens to the emails on the original hosting?
The migration has no effect on the emails on the original mailhosting.
How do I find the IMAP server address of the original mailhosting?
If you have mailboxes at VEDOS, follow the instructions Emails – SMTP, POP3, IMAP. In other cases, find out the address from the current provider, or for example in the settings of your email client, if you use one.
How do I migrate emails from renamed VEDOS hosting?
If you are migrating emails between VEDOS services, for example due to switching between Webhosting and Mailhosting, fill in the IMAP Server of the original service, typically in the format wes1-imap.wedos.net (it may vary slightly, find the exact address in the service detail). As the name of the original mailbox, enter the domain to which you renamed the original service after the @ symbol, or the code of the removed service. For example, if the old hosting was renamed to stary.wds-test.cz, enter the original mailboxes with the address (mailbox-name)@stary.wds-test.cz. If support removed the hosting name, enter the service name in the customer administration, for example (mailbox-name)@w123456.
Can incorrect MX records cause problems with migration?
The migration script downloads emails via the IMAP protocol, just like an email client. MX records should only affect its functionality if it were sending emails to the new mailbox, which it does not. You can therefore safely point them to the new hosting even before starting the migration. However, check that any CNAME record with the imap subdomain points to the original mailhosting.