Recommended steps for successful migration of existing mailboxes

Recommended steps for successful migration of existing mailboxes

1. Validate your ownership of domain with *DNS TXT* or *HTML file upload* method.

2. Attempt to migrate one or few users to see migration settings are correct.

If you choose .csv import option you can check it's structure in

https://a.inbox.eu/assets/inboxeu_example_import.csv

3. Check import logs in https://a.inbox.eu admin panel if everything looks ok.

4. Login to inbox.eu webmail https://login.inbox.eu with imported user to see

if folders and messages are imported and can be viewed.

5. Run e-mail migration for all users.

6. Re-check again if mailboxes are synced correctly to our mail servers.

You can check message count for each mailbox after login and it's folders in https://mail.inbox.eu/folders

7. Next, point your DNS MX record to **mx.inbox.eu**

so our mail server can start receiving new e-mails for your domain.

8. Migrate custom filters and forwards if necessary for each mailbox.

9. Optionally import contacts in https://contacts.inbox.eu (in vCard format)

if old e-mail provider had such feature

10. After a while run migration of data again (by clicking **Retry all** in **User import** section) or

by re-running the same CSV file again (this can be repeated multiple times).

This needs to be done because it takes some time for DNS to propagate for other mail servers.

 

1. Migration from different providers

1.1. Migration with IMAP protocol

This is the most common way to import e-mails from existing mailboxes.

There are 2 options:

  • Provide IMAP password for each mailboxes user
  • If your old mail server supports admin credentials check

**Use global server credentials** in **Advanced options** and enter global username and password to enable passwordless migration

This way you don't need to know password for each imported mailbox.

We support Dovecot, Cyrus IMAP and many other web servers which provide global access with admin credentials.

Some system use specific (other) password for IMAP connection, e.g. yandex provider (https://yandex.com/support/mail/mail-clients/others.html)

1.2. Migration with POP3 protocol

Legacy POP3 protocol can also be used if you don't have access to IMAP protocol.

One of the downsides is that POP3 protocol does not support folders and all messages will be imported to INBOX folder. Also read status of messages will not be saved.

 

1.3. Migration from Google G Suite or Google Workspace:

You can use google domain admin credentials to migrate mailboxes to inbox.eu

instead of relying of IMAP protocol.

Google custom domain specific settings will be automatically shown when you enter *imap.gmail.com*

as mail server and **origin domain name** as any other than gmail.com.

Alternatively you can just enable legacy IMAP connections from 3rd-party mail clients by enabling "Less secure apps" for each mailbox in

https://www.google.com/settings/security/lesssecureapps

 

1.4. Steps to enable google migration with Admin credentials

  1. Enable GMAIL API:

https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/api/gmail.googleapis.com

  1. Create service account in Credentials section of GMAIL API (unique id will be generated for that account):

https://console.cloud.google.com/iam-admin/serviceaccounts

  1. Create .json key in "Keys" tab:

https://console.cloud.google.com/iam-admin/serviceaccounts/details/{your unique id here}/key

  1. Add global privileges to whole domain:

https://admin.google.com/u/2/ac/owl/domainwidedelegation

* client id is unique id created in step 1

* scope is **https://mail.google.com/**

 

1.5. Migration from gmail.com

There are 2 ways to import your @gmail.com account:

  1. By enabling 3rd-party email clients with "Less secure apps" setting in

https://www.google.com/settings/security/lesssecureapps

  1. By creating empty mailbox in inbox.eu and choosing *Connection other mailboxes* in https://mail.inbox.lv/prefs here you will be able to use OAuth2 flow for migrating gmail.com content.

This way you can avoid enabling "Less secure apps option".

Downside of this option is that you can not use multi-user import and this needs to be done for each user individually.

 


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