We're pleased to share that Pobox is merging with Fastmail. All Pobox customers will be migrated to Fastmail.
Fastmail is an email company founded in 1999 and headquartered in Melbourne, Australia. Pobox has been owned and operated by Fastmail since its acquisition from IC Group in 2015. Since this acquisition, Pobox has been able to provide better webmail and customer service, all because of the expertise and staffing available through Fastmail.
Your experience with Fastmail will be brought to you by the same support agents and engineers you’ve enjoyed having on your side for many years, and we hope for many more years to come!
We’ve prioritized ensuring a smooth transition for all Pobox customers. Your mail will continue to be delivered, and your mail client setups do not need to change.
On this page, we will:
- Go over the changes you can expect to see as part of the migration,
- touch on the basics of using Fastmail, and
- point you in the right direction for all of the features and actions you're familiar with in Pobox.
Every Pobox user will receive an email from us at least 30 days before migration takes place. So that we can provide each user with the same high level of support, we’re sending this to a subset of customers each day.
If you have any questions or need assistance, you can contact Fastmail support anytime by sending an email to support@fastmail.com or submitting a ticket through our support form. Our support agents are knowledgeable about both Fastmail and Pobox, and will be happy to help you through this transition.
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Logging in
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Passwords and account security
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Mail
- Calendars, contacts, and notes
- Billing
- Users & aliases
- Personal domains
- Spam
- Filters
- Access to Fastmail features
What’s new for all Pobox customers
Below you’ll find what you can look forward to once your account is migrated to Fastmail.
Logging in
You will need to log in to your account through the Fastmail login screen at app.fastmail.com. You will be able to log in using your Pobox reference address.
If you experience any difficulty logging in, please see the "Unable to log in" section of our Troubleshooting Pobox migration problems help page.
Fastmail offers unique features to help you keep track of when and where you are logged in, such as a login log and remote logout. For more information, see our Logged in sessions help page.
Passwords and account security
Your Settings → Privacy & Security screen is where you'll find everything you need to keep your account secure.
If you need to change your password, you can go to the Settings → Privacy & Security screen, find the Password & Two-step verification section, and click Change password. For more information on changing your password, please see our Passwords help page.
The Settings → Privacy & Security screen is also where you would go to create an app password to set up a third-party email client or app (e.g., Outlook, Apple Mail, Thunderbird). For more information on this, please see the Mail client setup section below.
Account recovery
We strongly recommend having a recovery email address and/or phone number in case you ever forget your password and need to use our account recovery tool. If you already have a recovery phone number in your Pobox account, this will be automatically added as a recovery option in your Fastmail account.
If you'd like to add or change your recovery contact details, you can do so on the Settings → Privacy & Security screen: find the Account recovery section, then click Add recovery options. We recommend taking this step as soon as you are able to access your Fastmail account.
2FA
We also recommend setting up two-step verification (also known as 2FA) to increase the security of your account. For more information on using 2FA, please see our Using two-step verification (2FA) help page.
If you already have 2FA options set up in your Pobox account, these will be migrated to your Fastmail account, so you will be able to continue using them with no additional setup needed.
You can now store mail in your Fastmail mailbox, read your mail on the web via Fastmail's exceptional web interface, and use IMAP to sync mail with the mail client of your choice. Sent messages will be saved in your Sent folder.
Your mailbox storage quota corresponds with your subscription plan. See the Subscriptions for migrated Pobox users help page for details.
Webmail
Fastmail offers an intuitive webmail interface that comes with features to help you stay organized, productive, and secure.
You can choose to organize your mail in folders or switch to labels. You can also color code your folders or labels, and customize your entire user interface by choosing a theme.
Mail is threaded into conversations by default (i.e., replies are grouped with the original message).
For more information on navigating your mailbox, please see our Mail basics help section.
Mail forwarding
Your Pobox forwarding will be migrated to your Fastmail account. Messages sent to your Pobox aliases will continue to be delivered to your forwarding addresses.
If you are being moved from a Pobox Basic or Pobox Plus plan, mail will only be delivered to your forwarding addresses, and will not be delivered to your Fastmail mailbox. If you are being moved from a Pobox Mailstore plan, mail will be delivered to your forwarding addresses and your Fastmail mailbox. (Spam will not be delivered to external forwarding addresses. For more information, please see our Spam section below.)
If you would like to set an alias to automatically forward all mail to an external email address (i.e. an address that is not set up in your Fastmail account), you can do this using the Deliver to another address option. For more information on setting this up, please see the Delivery options section of our How to set up aliases help page.
Mail client setup (IMAP, SMTP, and POP)
If you are currently using a third-party email client or app (e.g., Outlook, Apple Mail, Thunderbird), it should continue working after the migration has taken place. No changes in server settings will be needed.
If you need to set up a new third-party email client or app, we recommend using Fastmail servers. We offer setup guides that can walk you through setting up your Fastmail account on various popular mail clients and apps.
When setting up a third-party email client or app, please note that all connections over third-party clients or apps need an app password to access your information. If you use your normal password or your Fastmail two step verification password on an external client, syncing won't work and you will see a password error.
We have guides for several different mail clients and apps available in our Setting up mail clients help section.
Calendars, contacts, and notes
We also offer built-in calendars, contacts, and notes, which can be easily synced with your devices.
Fastmail calendars allow you to keep track of upcoming events with ease. You can create events, send and respond to invitations, subscribe to public calendars, create shared calendars with other users in your account, and more.
With Fastmail contacts, you can add detailed entries to your address book, create VIP contacts that let you choose special settings for certain people, create a shared address book with other users in your account, or easily view contact information from your inbox using the sidebar.
Fastmail notes let you write, store, and easily access whatever information you need to stay organized.
Billing
Your Pobox invoice history will not be available in the Fastmail billing interface. You may wish to export or resend your Pobox invoice history in case you need to reference it in the future.
You can pay for your account and manage your subscription plan through the Settings → Billing & Plan screen. From this screen, you will also be able to view your account's billing history and next renewal date.
Please note that billing is only handled by the administrators of your account. If you are not an administrator for your account, you may not see this screen available in your settings. Separate billing contacts cannot be added.
Your subscription renewal date remains the same. When you renew, payments will appear on your credit card or bank statement as "Paddle.net* Fastmail."
For more information on billing, please see our Payments help page.
Users & aliases
User management
Each user has their own login credentials, mailbox, and storage quota.
If you want to add users to your account, you can do so by going to your Settings → Users & Sharing → User management screen.
If you are not an administrator for your account, you may not see this screen available in your settings.
For more information on adding and managing users, please see our Managing users as an admin help page.
Alias management
For most customers, your Pobox aliases will be migrated to your Fastmail account, so you will still be able to use all of your addresses.
There may be some edge cases where we will not be able to migrate a Pobox alias (e.g., the alias uses a custom domain that belongs to a user in a different Fastmail account).
You can create new aliases by going to your Settings → My email addresses screen. For more information on navigating this screen, please see our My email addresses help page.
When setting up a new alias, you'll see that you can set up delivery and compose options. Delivery options control how you receive mail sent to this alias (e.g., automatically moving a message to a certain folder or forwarding it to another email address) and compose options control how you send mail from this alias (e.g., changing the name recipients will see). For more information on configuring aliases, please see our How to set up aliases help page.
We also support plus addressing and subdomain addressing, which allows you to easily use variations of your aliases and automatically file mail into folders. For more information, please see our Plus addressing and subdomain addressing help page.
Delivery groups/forwarding by address
You can set up an alias to deliver mail to the addresses of your choice using the Deliver to another address option. For more information on setting this up, please see the Delivery options section of our How to set up aliases help page.
Personal domains
Personal domains set up in your Pobox account will be migrated to your Fastmail account. Your domains will continue working with no DNS changes or additional setup needed.
If you purchased a domain through Pobox, its registration will automatically move to Fastmail.
You can view domains that have been added to your Fastmail account by going to your Settings → Domains screen. On this screen, you will be able to see whether your domain is active or inactive, and if any DNS changes are needed. (Domains moved from your Pobox account will be shown as active, with no changes needed.) If you are not an administrator for your account, you may not see this screen available in your settings.
You can set up aliases using your custom domains by going to your Settings → My email addresses screen.
You can also set up a catch-all alias at your domain, which allows you to receive mail to any address at the domain, even if it has not been set up as an alias yet. For more information on setting up a catch-all alias, please see our Catch-all/wildcard aliases help page.
If you have AllMail set up for a personal domain in Pobox, a catch-all address will be automatically created in Fastmail. If you set up any AllMail exclusions, these will be migrated over as well.
If you have been moved to a Fastmail Lite or Fastmail Basic plan, please note that you will not be able to add any new custom domains through Fastmail. If you wish to add a new custom domain, you will need to upgrade to a Fastmail Standard or Fastmail Professional plan.
If you have been moved to a Fastmail Standard or Fastmail Professional plan, you can add new custom domains by going to Settings → Domains, clicking Add domain, and following the domain setup wizard. You can purchase a custom domain through a registrar of your choice, or you can register a domain through Fastmail. (At this time, domain registration cannot be transferred from another registrar to Fastmail.)
Spam
Fastmail does not send emailed spam reports or have a "hold"/"release" process for filtering spam.
Messages that we flag as spam will be delivered to the Spam folder in your Fastmail mailbox, and will not be sent to your forwarding addresses.
If a legitimate message is caught in your Spam folder, you can use the Not spam button to mark it as such. This will automatically move the message out of your Spam folder, and your account's personal spam filter will use this message to improve how it filters spam for you in the future.
You can customize your account's spam filtering by going to your Settings → Mail rules → Spam protection screen. From here, you can choose your account's spam protection levels and customize other spam options. For more information, please see our Improving spam protection help page.
If you had your Pobox spam settings set to "Trusted Senders Only," your Fastmail account's spam protection level will be set to Aggressive.
Fastmail does not offer the option to block messages per country, as this is generally not considered effective or necessary with Fastmail's spam protection.
Filters
In the Fastmail interface, filters are known as "mail rules." Rules can be used to automatically perform actions on incoming messages, such as moving certain messages into a folder.
Your Pobox filters will not be automatically migrated to Fastmail as rules. You will need to manually recreate your Pobox filters as rules in the Fastmail interface. You may wish to take note of your current Pobox filter setup if you’d like to replicate this in your Fastmail account.
You can create and manage your rules from your Settings → Mail rules screen. You can also create rules from a specific message or mailbox search.
From this screen, you can also manage your list of blocked senders. Mail sent from blocked senders and domains will be automatically moved to your Trash folder.
For more information on rules, including a list of available conditions and actions, please see our Mail rules help page.
For more advanced users, we also support rule creation using regular expressions and Sieve.
Trusted Senders
Fastmail does not have a Trusted Senders section. Instead, you can whitelist senders by adding them to your contacts.
You can add a sender as a contact by going to your Contacts screen and clicking New contact.
You can also add a contact while viewing a message by clicking Show details, clicking the sender's email address, and selecting Add to contacts from the menu. This can also be done using the People tab of the sidebar.
If you would like to whitelist an entire domain, you can do so by adding the domain to your contacts using a catch-all address, which would look like adding *@domain.com as a contact.
If a legitimate message is caught in your Spam folder, but you do not want to whitelist the sender, use the Not spam button to automatically move the message out of your Spam folder and improve how your account filters spam for you in the future.
Access to Fastmail features
As part of the migration, you will now have access to special Fastmail features designed to help you stay secure and productive. These features are available on all plans unless specified otherwise.
Masked Email
Masked Email is a feature that allows you to randomly generate unique email addresses. Instead of sharing your real email address with a new service or contact, you can use a Masked Email address to keep it private and protect yourself from data breaches and spam.
Fastmail mobile app
We have an official Fastmail mobile app that can be used on iOS 12+ and Android 8+ devices. The Fastmail mobile app allows you to read your email on-the-go without having to use an app password or enter server settings. The app also offers features to enhance your privacy and productivity, such as screen lock and custom swipes.
Restore data
If you accidentally delete an email or draft, our Restore tool gives you 7 days to retrieve it. This tool can also restore contacts, events, and notes, or undo any recent changes to your contacts or events.
Powerful search
We offer a powerful search feature to help you find what you need. Use our advanced search tool to help you search for emails by keyword, sender, folder, and more. If you find yourself frequently searching for the same things, you can also save searches to easily find results with one click.
Productivity features: Snooze, scheduled send, and more
We offer a number of features to help you control exactly when you want to read and send mail.
Snooze lets you take a message out of your Inbox and have it reappear at a date and time of your choosing. If you receive an important email but you don't want to deal with it right now, snooze is a great way to make sure you don't forget about it later. Note: This feature will only be available to customers moving to a Fastmail Standard or Fastmail Professional plan.
Scheduled send lets you choose a date and time for your message to be sent. If you need to send an important email but you want it to be delivered at a time that is helpful to the recipient, scheduled send lets you do this without the risk of forgetting the messages in your Drafts folder. Note: This feature will only be available to customers moving to a Fastmail Standard or Fastmail Professional plan.
Undo send gives you 15 seconds to recall an email after you have sent it. If you see a mistake or accidentally click "Send," you can undo the send and resume writing the email.
Mute conversations lets you mute replies in an email thread. If you're no longer interested in reading new messages in a conversation, muting the message will send further replies straight to your Archive folder, without any notifications.