1. Fastmail
  2. Setup
  3. Account setup basics

Import your mail

Fastmail can import your email from any other provider that supports IMAP, MBOX, or EML files.

Email import tool

To import your mail from a provider that supports IMAP:

  1. Open the Settings → Migration → Import screen.
  2. Go to the Import mail, calendars, and contacts section and select your other mail provider. If the mail provider is not listed, click Other (IMAP / CardDAV / CalDAV).
  3. Enter the email address and password for your other account.
  4. On the next screen, choose the options that suit you. Paid users have the option to choose the folders to which the emails are imported. You can also set up fetching and sending from your other account on this screen so you can continue to receive new mail from your other account, and send from your other address. For more information on fetch, please see our help page Using other email addresses.
  5. Click Do it.

Imports can take a long time, especially if you have a lot of email. It's not uncommon for imports to take up to 24 hours. You can check the status of your import at any time by going to the Settings → Migration → Import screen.

Once your mail has finished importing, we'll email you with a summary of what happened. Please be patient and do not try importing from the same account again whilst the first one is still running, otherwise you'll get 2 copies of every message in your account. You can continue to use your account as normal while your email is being imported.

Sometimes, there's an issue and your mail can't be successfully imported. In this case, you'll receive an email letting you know why. The most common reasons for this are:

  • Buggy IMAP servers – we've seen IMAP servers that just "crash" and close the connection when trying to retrieve some emails. When this happens, it's best to run the migration tool again.
  • Hidden rate limits – many services have limits that they do not publish. Normally this will just slow down the import so it takes longer to complete, but sometimes the remote server will kill the connection entirely, and the import will fail. If this happens you can try importing one folder at a time, and waiting some time between each one to allow any hidden limit to reset.

Another common issue you might see is "Invalid login credentials." Often, this means that you need to enable IMAP access on your email account. You may also need to create an app-specific password for Fastmail on your other account. The steps for this vary, so you may need to contact your email provider for step-by-step instructions.

If you need to import mail from another provider not listed, you'll need to get their IMAP server information from them directly.

Cancel import

In the Settings → Migration → Import screen, you can cancel an import by clicking on the red Stop button on the right-hand side of your screen. You'll then see a dialog box asking you to confirm the import cancellation.

Import report

Once an import has been completed, you can view the details of the migration by clicking on the View report link. This report will show:

  • The number of folders found
  • The names of each folder
  • The number of messages copied over from each folder.

Import MBOX files

If you are migrating from a provider that does not support IMAP access, such as Protonmail or HEY, you can use the import tool to import MBOX files. We support .mboxo and .mboxrd files (.mboxrd preferred). We do not currently support .mboxcl or .mboxcl2 files.

You can import MBOX files by following these steps:

  1. Log in to your Fastmail account.
  2. Open the Settings → Migration → Import screen.
  3. Click Proton and Hey, MBOX files.
  4. Click Upload files and select the MBOX files you wish to import. From here, you'll see the names and sizes of the MBOX files that will be imported. On the right side, there is a drop down menu titled Destination where you can select a destination folder for the emails to be imported into. (The destination is set to the Inbox by default.)
  5. Click Start import.

You will need to keep the browser tab open while the import is in progress. If you have to stop the import, you can resume it at a later time by reimporting the same MBOX file. Messages that have already been successfully imported will not be imported again, so you do not have to worry about duplicates.

Import EML files

We support drag-and-drop importing for individual EML files. Please note that this method can be used to import smaller batches of EML files, but cannot be used for migrating large amounts of mail.

You can import EML files into Fastmail by following these steps:

  1. Log in to the Fastmail web interface and open your Inbox. (If you wish to import the EML files into a folder other than the Inbox, you can open that folder instead.)
  2. Drag and drop the emails from the local folders into your message list. 

If you have your Fastmail account set up in a mail client, you can import them manually by dragging and dropping the emails from the local folders into your Fastmail folders within the mail client.

Gmail server details

If you're migrating from Gmail, the easiest and most secure way to do this is to click on the Gmail / Google Workspace icon and sign in with OAuth.

If you prefer to migrate using IMAP manually, here are the server details you need:

IMAP server imap.gmail.com
Username Your Gmail email address, including the domain
Password Your Gmail password.
If you have 2FA enabled for Gmail, you will need to set up an app password: don't use your login password. (How to create a Gmail app password)
Use SSL Yes
Remote server prefix (leave blank)

 

If Google blocks the import

Even with a correct username and password, Google will sometimes block us from connecting to your Gmail account, since we're not using the same network that you normally log in from.

If you enter your correct login details but the import fails, check the Forwarding and POP/IMAP settings of the Gmail account. Make sure that you have enabled IMAP access, and that the folder size limit is set to Do not limit the number of messages in an IMAP folder (default).

Yahoo server details

If you're migrating from Yahoo, the easiest way to do this is to click on the Yahoo Mail icon in Settings → Migration → Import and sign in directly.

If you prefer to migrate your emails manually with IMAP, here are the server details you need:

IMAP server imap.mail.yahoo.com
Username Your Yahoo email address, including the domain
Password Your Yahoo password
Use SSL Yes
Remote server prefix (leave blank)

Outlook.com server details

If you're migrating from Outlook.com, the easiest way to do this is to click on the Outlook.com / Office 365 icon in Settings → Migration → Import and sign in directly.

If you prefer to migrate your emails manually with IMAP, here are the server details you need:

IMAP server imap-mail.outlook.com
Username Your Outlook.com email address, including the domain
Password Your Outlook.com password
Use SSL Yes
Remote server prefix (leave blank)

iCloud server details

If you're migrating from iCloud, the easiest way to do this is to click on the iCloud icon in Settings → Migration → Import and sign in directly.

If you prefer to migrate your emails manually with IMAP, here are the server details you need:

IMAP server imap.mail.me.com
Username Your iCloud email address, without the domain part (for example, emilyparker, not emilyparker@icloud.com)
Password Your iCloud app password
Use SSL Yes
Remote server prefix (leave blank)

 

Was this article helpful?
55 out of 84 found this helpful