How to use the Email Migration tool

Email Hosting
Email Hosting – Email Accounts
Migrations and Transfers
Migrations and Transfers – Email Migrations
Austin B.
Published: 14 November 2017Last updated: 21 October 2025
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To migrate your emails and mailboxes to 20i, you can use our in-house Email Migrations tool. This will let you migrate your IMAP, Gmail, and Outlook.com Mailboxes into Stackmail.

Both Gmail and Outlook have recently ended support for basic authentication, so additional steps are required for both of those providers to prepare mailboxes for migration with our Email Migration Tool.  It is recommended to complete the steps in the following articles first, before commencing the steps in this article:

Gmail: Read More

Outlook: Read More (Only personal Outlook.com accounts are supported, for 365/Work accounts, the automatic migration tool cannot be used).

Note: You'll need to have set up the mailboxes within 20i first using the same password as currently used by the mailbox. Here's how to set up a mailbox.

  • Head to My20i > Manage Hosting > Options / Manage > Email Migration
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  • Enter the relevant credentials and then select Sync
    • Hostname - This will be the hostname of the mail server that you are syncing your emails from. If you're not sure what this is then it may be worth asking your previous hosting provider what this is. 
    • Username - This will be the mailbox that you are syncing.
    • Password - This will be the password of the mailbox at your previous host and of the newly created mailbox at 20i. Please note: you'll need to have set up the mailboxes within 20i first using the same password as currently used by the mailbox. 
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Once the sync has completed, your emails will have migrated over to 20i's email hosting.

My email migration has failed, what should I do?

If the sync fails to start, this is likely due to the credentials not being correct. You should confirm that the password you have used is correct and that the hostname is also correct - try logging into the previous host's webmail to confirm the details are correct. 

Can I use the email migration tool more than once for the same mailbox?

Yes, you can use it as many times as you want. You may want to do this if you've recently switched MX records so mail now routes to 20i, to get the latest copy of the mail from the preivous mail server you can simply redo a mailbox migration. This will then only migrate emails that are new, so you won't have any duplicate emails. 

Does the email migration tool move or copy emails across?

The email migration tool copies the emails and folders across to 20i, so no emails are "removed" from your old mailserver/mailboxes. 

Can I only perform one mailbox migration at a time?

Yes, you can only perform one mailbox migration at a time per package.

Where can I find my hostname?

Your previous host will be able to tell you your hostname. It is worth trying mail.yourDomain.com as that is a common hostname that is used. 

Should I keep or change the DNS prior to an email migration?

It is strongly recommended that you change the DNS to 20i after the email migration has completed. This will ensure any future emails will be received to the correct mailbox.