How to Move Your Business Email to a New Provider Without Losing a Single Message

Many businesses stay with an email service they are unhappy with simply because moving feels risky. What if customer emails go missing during the switch? What about ten years of old messages? The good news: with the steps in the right order, you can move without losing anything and without your customers noticing. Here is the plan.

Step 1: Take stock

• List every address that receives mail: personal mailboxes, shared ones like info@ and accounts@, and any aliases or forwarders.
• Note the size of each mailbox so you choose enough storage. Most providers show this in their webmail or control panel.
• Find out where your DNS is managed. That is where you will change the MX records later. Our DNS lookup tool shows your current nameservers and MX records.
• Write down which devices use each mailbox, so you know whose phone and laptop to reconnect.

Step 2: Lower the TTL a day ahead

TTL ("time to live") controls how long other networks remember your DNS records. If your MX records have a TTL of a day, some senders may keep using the old server for a day after you switch. Lower it to 300 seconds (5 minutes) at least 24 hours before the move, so the switch takes effect quickly.

Step 3: Set up the new service first

Order the new email service and create every mailbox, alias and forwarder with the same addresses as before. Do not change the MX records yet: mail keeps arriving at the old provider while you prepare.

Step 4: Copy your old mail across

Copy the existing messages and folders from the old mailboxes into the new ones over IMAP. Hostiko Business Email includes a migration tool for this, and can also fetch mail from your other inboxes. On the Pro plan, our team helps with the migration as a priority. Copy the large mailboxes first, as they take longest.

Step 5: Switch the MX records at a quiet time

Choose an evening or a weekend. Replace the old MX records with the new ones and update SPF and DKIM at the same time. Our guide to email DNS records covers each one. From now on, new mail goes to the new service.

Step 6: Run a final copy

A few messages may reach the old server in the minutes after the switch. Once the change has spread (a few hours with a low TTL), run the copy once more so these last messages come across too.

Step 7: Reconnect phones and computers

Update Outlook and the mail apps on every phone to the new server settings. It is often quicker to remove the old account and add it again. See how to add business email to your phone.

Step 8: Keep the old account for two weeks

Do not cancel the old service on the same day. Keep it for a couple of weeks in case something was missed, then cancel it once you are sure everything is across.

Do not forget these

• Your website's contact form and online shop, if they send mail through the old mail server.
• Scanners and printers that email documents.
• Email signatures and auto-replies, which do not move with the mail.
• Your DMARC record, if you had one, so its reports reach an address that still works.

Frequently asked questions

Will I lose emails during the switch?

Not if you follow the order above. Mail keeps arriving at the old provider until the moment you change the MX records, and the final copy picks up anything that arrives during the change-over.

Do my addresses change?

No. Your addresses belong to your domain, not to the provider. [email protected] stays exactly the same.

Can I move from Gmail or Yahoo to my own domain?

Yes. Copy the old messages into your new mailbox, then tell your contacts your new address. Gmail can also keep forwarding new mail to your new address while people update their contacts.