How to manually migrate emails from an old website host to a new website host

Here’s a quick tip if you ever find yourself having to move your website hosting. If you host your emails in the same hosting package as your website, it can get tricky. Most website hosts historically have used cPanel, but in recent years some hosting providers developed their own hosting panels because cPanel updated their business license model to a more costly model.

cPanel to cPanel migration from one host to another is simple and often the new website host will assist with a free migration of the website and the mailboxes. But if you’re migrating from a bespoke control panel to cPanel, you may need to follow these steps below to migrate your mailboxes.

How to migrate your emails from one mail server to another mail server using IMAP sync:

Method 1

1. Create the email accounts on the new server
2. Make a note of the server, username and password of both the old mail server and the new mail server
3. Configure the two email accounts (one from the old server and one from the new server) on Outlook using IMAP – not POP3.
4. Drag and drop the folders / emails from the old email account to the new account.
5. After dragging, Outlook will resync and upload the emails on the new server.

Method 2 (Free for mailboxes below 3GB)

1. Create the email accounts on the new server
2. Make a note of the server, username and password of both the old mail server and the new mail server
3. Go to Mailbox Imap Sync Online
4. Fill in the Imap Source Email info and the Imap Destination Email info.
5. Click the green Sync/Resync button.
6. Go to your new mailbox server (Webmail or in Outlook) and check if the emails have migrated successfully.