After you purchase Alibaba Mail, you can migrate emails from your source email system to Alibaba Mail. An administrator can log on to the Alibaba Mail console to start the mailbox migration and choose a migration plan by following the steps in this document.
1. Before Migration
This document describes only email migration operations. For the complete migration process, please check Email Service Transfer Process.
Before the migration is complete, ensure the following for your source email:
Do not change the logon password.
Keep the IMAP/POP service enabled.
The system is stable and the service is active.
During the migration, do not perform the following actions:
Delete or move emails in the source system.
Rename folders.
After the migration is complete:
Reconfigure third-party email clients.
Unbind the domain name from the original email service to prevent SMTP Authentication conflicts.
2. Notes for the Original Email
To ensure a smooth migration, please configure your original email as described in the following documents.
Special instructions for mainstream email services:
For original Feishu users, please check Important Notes of Email Migration for Feishu Users.
For original Gmail users, please check Important Notes of Email Migration for Gmail Users.
For Office 365 users, please check Important Considerations When Migrating Emails from O365.
For Exchange users, please check Important Considerations When Migrating Emails from Exchange.
3. Migration Procedure
1. Create a migration task
Before you start the migration, confirm that you have created Alibaba Mail accounts. For more information, please check How to Create Employee Accounts? .
If you are migrating from one Alibaba Mail to another, please log on to the target Alibaba Mail instance to start the migration. Do not start the migration from the source Alibaba Mail.
Log on to the Alibaba Mail console by the postmaster account. In the navigation pane on the left, choose Tools > Email Migration and then click Let's move.
Preparations
Before you start the email migration, please complete the following preparations:
On the DEPTs & Users - Employee Accounts page, confirm that you have assigned Alibaba Mail accounts to the users whose email accounts you want to migrate.
Confirm that the original system is running and that the IMAP service is enabled.
Confirm that all members in the original system have removed restrictions on email receiving ranges for IMAP login. For example, change "receive within 30 days" to "receive all". You must also remove IP logon restrictions, two-factor authentication (such as by text message or an authenticator app), and client-specific security passwords.
We recommend that you delete or move data in the original system before the migration. Avoid changing data during the migration.
We recommend that folder names in the original system do not contain special characters, such as +, *, \, or /.
Depending on the features of the original email service, the email administrator can disable these settings in batches or by calling the API.
Configure Original System Parameters
Enter the Task Name, select the original email system, and enter the Source Account, Original System Password, and Original System Server Address. We recommend that you use the default configurations for other settings. Click Next Step after completing the settings.
Migration Settings
Folders To Migrate:
All: You can exclude folders that you do not want to migrate.
Specified: You can specify the folders to migrate.
Mails To Migrate:
All emails
Emails within a specific date range
Target Folders:
Separately (unified storage mode, named by email address)
A dedicated folder is created in the destination account. The naming format is the original email address.
Merge Into System Folders (folder mapping mode)
Automatically map system folders, such as mapping Outbox to Sent Items.
Preserve the custom folder structure.
Migration Time Settings:
Start now: Email data transfer will begin within 2 hours.
Start mailbox migration at the following time: You can set a custom start time.
Click Create Migration Task to finish.
To modify the migration parameters later if need to, choose Migration Config > Edit > Edit Migration Configuration. After you make the changes, click OK.
Add Migration Accounts
You can use one of the following 3 methods to add migration accounts:
Method 1: The administrator uploads account and password information to start the migration directly.
Scenario: Use this method if you know the passwords for all original email accounts to be migrated and want the migration to be transparent to your organization's members.
Method 2: The administrator uploads account information and notifies members to log on with their original account to start the migration.
Scenario: Use this method if you know the original accounts for all users to be migrated. After you configure the migration parameters, users can trigger the migration by logging on to Alibaba Mail webmail with their original email account and password.
Method 3: The administrator selects the scope of users for migration and notifies them to fill in their account and password information.
Scenario: Use this method if you have not collected the original email account and password for users to be migrated. After you configure the migration parameters, you can notify members to enter and verify their account and password information to start the migration.
2. Choose A Migration Plan
Click Add Migration Account.
Choose one of the three plans based on your requirements.
Key Points Overview
Plan Type | Scenarios | Key Points |
Batch Migration (passwords known) | Administrator had employee account and passwords. |
|
Batch migration (passwords unknown) | Administrator only had the email accounts without password |
|
Employee self-service migration | Decentralized migration needs. |
|
Details of the first migration method
1. Download the template file and fill it. All three columns are required:
Alibaba Mail account | Source account | Original System Password |
1234@example00.com | 1234@example01.com | Halo1234 |
Please fill in the corresponding relationship carefully to prevent moving the wrong account. If the original system has a third-party client security password, please fill in the security password in the "Original system email password" column. Up to 10000 pieces of data can be imported at a time.
For Exchange migration, please use the delegate account method. For more information, please check Set The Delegate Account for Exchange Mailbox. The recommended format for the migration file is as follows:
user2@example.com,superman@example.com/user1,password
Field description:
user2@example.com: The Alibaba Mail account.
superman@example.com/user1: The delegate account.
password: The password.
Details of the second migration method
The administrator starts the migration directly, and then users use their source email passwords to log on and trigger the migration. Migration accounts are imported in batches from a CSV file.
1. Create a csv file using Excel with the following format:
Migration account |
1234@example00.com |
2. Content to import:
Migration account (required): The migration account must already exist in Alibaba Mail, and its email address must be identical to the source account's email address.
3. Procedure:
After a user logs on with their source password (which is the only password they can use), the source system's password becomes the logon password for their Alibaba Mail account. The user can change the password in Webmail after logging on. Changing the password does not affect the migration.
4. Employee account password information:
After an employee logs on, the source system's password becomes the logon password for the Alibaba Mail account. The employee can also change the password in Webmail after logging on. Changing the password does not affect the migration.
During the migration, if a user changes their source system password, the migration will fail. The user must then manually update the source account password in the migration menu. We recommend that users do not change their passwords in the source email system during the migration.
The admin can import up to 1,000 data entries at a time.
Before using this method, please confirm the following:
1. The email address for the original account and the destination account must be the same.
2. After this change, these accounts can only be logged into with the original system password and cannot be logged into with the current account password. Please have your admin notify your employees in advance.
Details of the third migration method
Notify members to start the migration themselves. They will need to enter their source email system account and password.
Users will see a prompt after they log on to Webmail.
User Procedure:
Users log on with the initial password set by the Alibaba Mail administrator. After logging on to Alibaba Mail, a prompt appears indicating that the migration is enabled. Click Set to go to the migration settings.
If you accidentally click Later, you can go to Settings > Email Migration and enter the source mailbox account and password.
4. Progress Monitoring And Management
1. Migration speed: After the user account migration starts:
If the number of emails is less than 3,000, the migration is typically completed within 24 hours.
If the number of emails is between 3,000 and 25,000, the migration is typically completed in 3 to 5 business days.
2. Migration status
"Unstarted": This status applies to accounts for which the "Notify employees to start self-service migration" method is enabled, but the users have not yet configured the migration parameters to trigger the migration.
"In Progress": Emails are being migrated. Incremental synchronization is ongoing.
"Paused": The administrator has paused the migration. The migration progress is stopped.
"Waiting for user logon to start automatically": This status applies to accounts for which the "Batch set up employee migration accounts (without employee passwords)" method is enabled, but the users have not yet used their source mailbox passwords to log on to Alibaba Mail to trigger the migration.
"Migration Not Started": No migration method has been applied to these accounts in the Alibaba Mail console, and the mailbox accounts have not been configured to trigger migration.
"User Notified": Members have been notified to enter their source system information but have not yet completed it.
If the migration status remains "In Progress" after configuration, it is because the source email service is still active, and the migration task has not been paused or stopped. As long as the status is "In Progress", new emails in the source mailbox will continue to be migrated. For this reason, there is no "Completed" status.
Administrator View
You can filter by migration status, search for an account to query its status, or export the migration status of all accounts.
Click View Details for the migration task that you want to query.
Click View Details for the migration account that you want to query.
User View
If the administrator set the migration task to Store separately, the historical emails are stored as shown in the following figure. You can expand the root folder, which is named after the email address, to find the historical emails stored in its subfolders.
5. Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting migration failures:
Try to verify the availability of the source email service using a third-party email client and IMAP login.
Failed: Indicates that the IMAP configuration of the source email service is abnormal.
Solution: 1. Check the IMAP server address and port of the source email and verify that the IMAP receiving scope is set to "All". 2. For more information, please check the notes for the source email mentioned above or contact the original service provider to configure the IMAP service.
6. What to Do Next
We recommend that you switch the DNS records after the migration is complete.
To avoid SMTP Authentication issues, where the new Alibaba Mail account cannot send emails to the old service provider's mailboxes, please replace the domain name or unbind it in the source email system after switching the domain name resolution. We recommend that you contact the original email service provider for the specific procedure.
After switching the domain name resolution:
Unbind the domain name in the source email system. We recommend that you contact the original service provider to confirm the steps.
Try sending and receiving emails using Alibaba Mail.
Email client configuration:
For more information, please check How to Configure Alibaba Mail Accounts on the Third-party Email Client.
Incremental synchronization
By default, the migration service is enabled for 30 days and is then automatically shut down. You can re-enable it after it expires.
It continuously syncs new emails received by the source mailbox during the migration period.