Importing Your Mail to Purelymail

If you are moving from another provider, getting your old messages into Purelymail is a vital part of your setup. We recommend migrating your data before you change your MX records to ensure a seamless transition and verify everything is in place. Checkout our full Migration Guide: Moving Your Custom Domain & Users to Purelymail.

Method 1: The Mail Porting Tool (Automated)

The Mail Porting Tool is the most convenient way to transfer mail. It runs in the background on our servers, so you can start a job, close your browser, and let it work. You can find this tool in the Purelymail Account Admin portal.

• Autodetect: For major providers like Gmail or Outlook, the tool can often find the correct IMAP server settings automatically.

• App Passwords: If your old provider uses Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), you must use an App Password. This fulfills the compatibility gap for tools that cannot handle MFA prompts.

• Duplicates: The tool automatically attempts to prevent duplicate messages by checking Message-ID and Received headers. However, we cannot 100% guarantee that duplicates won't occur if these headers are missing from the source mail, if overlapping headers exist, or if multiple jobs are run. Deduplication is best effort.

Method 2: Manual Sync via Thunderbird

Using a local desktop client like Mozilla Thunderbird is excellent if you want full control or visual confirmation of every folder being moved.

1. Add Both Accounts: Connect your old email account and your new Purelymail account (imap.purelymail.com) to Thunderbird via IMAP.

2. Drag and Drop: Select the emails or folders from your old account and drag them into the folders of your Purelymail account.

3. Wait for Completion: Monitor the sync status bar at the bottom of the window. Once the progress bar finishes, your mail has been successfully uploaded to our servers.

Method 3: Third-Party IMAP Tools (Advanced)

Because Purelymail follows the IMAP standard, you aren't limited to our internal tools. You can use any third-party migration service or software that supports IMAP-to-IMAP synchronization.

• imapsync: This is a powerful, command-line tool often favored by advanced users or those migrating massive mailboxes (hundreds of thousands of messages). It is highly resilient and handles interruptions well.

• Cloud Migration Services: Services like BitTitan or Movelee can also be used by pointing the destination server to imap.purelymail.com.

Important Considerations

Bandwidth and Rate Limits

Every import process, whether using our tool or a local client, consumes your account’s available bandwidth.

• Spread it Out: If you are importing multiple large mailboxes, we strongly recommend spreading them out over several days. Running several massive imports simultaneously can cause you to exceed your bandwidth rate limit. This can be increased for Advanced plan customers.

• Throttling: When limits are reached, you may experience "throttling," which slows down the transfer. This can also cause your mail client (like Thunderbird) or the webmail interface to feel sluggish or time out while it tries to sync. If this happens, simply pause your import and allow some time for the limit to reset.

The "Gmail Label" Gotcha

If you are migrating from Gmail or Google Workspace, remember that they use Labels rather than folders. On a standard IMAP system like Purelymail, these labels appear as separate folders.

• If an email has three labels (e.g., "Inbox," "Work," and "Important"), it may be imported three times—once into each folder.

• To minimize this, consider cleaning up labels in Gmail before you start, or avoid importing the "All Mail" folder, which contains a duplicate of every message in the account.

Fees for Advanced Plans

If you are on an Advanced Billing Plan, the cost of using the Mail Porting Tool is broken down as follows:

• Data Transfer is Free for Imports: You are not charged for the volume of data ($0.18 per GiB) when moving mail into Purelymail. We only apply data fees if you use the tool to export mail out to another provider.

• Port Tool Running Time: There is a small fee of $0.02 per hour while the tool is actively processing your migration. This covers the server resources used to perform the background sync.