Email migration guidelines
Email Migration (New Hosting Service): A new hosting service is a new web hosting subscription. All new hosting services are provided with a free email migration. If you have signed up for a new hosting subscription and would like to benefit from a free email migration, submit your request to our team.
⚠️ Please note that domain registrations and domain transfers are not classified as new hosting services. For domain names, view the new domain name registration and domain name transfer guides.
Email Migration (Existing Hosting Service): An existing hosting service is one that you have subscribed to in the past and has already benefited from a free email migration. If you require an additional email migration to an existing hosting service, you can use the steps provided in this guide to complete your migration for free or submit a request to our team. Please note that email migration requests for existing hosting services will be carry a service fee starting at $25.
To complete your own email migration to an existing hosting service, use the steps below in sequential order. Please note these steps are applicable to move (1) email mailbox and must be repeated from start to finish for each additional email mailbox that is required to be migrated.
⚠️ IMPORTANT: If you use an external email service on your domain name, the guide below does not apply to you. Rather, you need to implement the DNS settings required by your external email service into your Skystra hosting panel.
If you are using Google Workspace email – Click Here
If you are using Microsoft 365 email – Click Here
For any other email service provider, you will have to reach out to that provider in order to obtain the proper MX records to input for your domain name.
A. Prepare your email credentials at your old provider
1. Get a secure note ready on your computer or password manager and write down three fields on it:
- Host:
- User:
- Password:
2. Locate and find the IMAP hostname at your old provider. Normally, this is available on your customer portal, help documentation or you can reach out to your old provider to ask them for the IMAP hostname. Once you have the IMAP hostname, take note of it on your secure note next to the Host: field.
3. On your secure note, next to the User: field, write down your full email address
4. On your secure note, next to the Password: field, write down your email address password
5. Double check all of the credentials on your note, it’s very important these credentials are correct to make sure your email migration works. Once you’ve verified, move to the next step.
B. Create your email mailbox shell at Skystra
1. Log in to your hosting control panel
2. Click on your domain name next to the Domain: field to select your domain name from the dropdown. If you do not see it listed, click on the Domains button > + Add New and then type in your domain and click the Create button
3. Return to your hosting control panel homepage
4. Click on the Email Accounts button
5. Click on + Create Account
6. On the Create Mail Account page, fill in the fields:
- Username: Type or paste in your full email address (the same as on your secure note)
- Password: Type or paste in your email address password (the same as on your secure note)
Double check the entered credentials. It’s very important the Username and Password match the email address and email password that exist at your old provider for your email migration to work.
7. Once verified, click the Create Account button
8. You’ve now successfully created your email mailbox shell, move to the next section.
C. Migrate your email to Skystra
1. Log in to your hosting control panel
2. Click on the Email Transfers button
3. Click on Import e-mails
4. Pull up your secure note from section A and have it ready
5. On the Start Import Migration page, under the Source section, fill in the Host, User and Password fields by matching them to the credentials on your note. As a reminder:
- Host: This is the IMAP hostname from your old provider
- User: Your full email address
- Password: Your email address password
6. Under Destination, click the ▼ and select your email address prefix
7. For Authentication, keep Internal sign-in selected
Here is an example of what your page will look like once the fields are completed:
8. Double check all of the entered credentials. Once verified, click the Start Migration button
9. The email migration will now run. The duration will vary depending on the size of the email mailbox being migrated.
10. On the IMAPSync Migrations page, you will see your email migration running. The migration will run in the background and notify you via the message center once completed. Keep this page open and monitor it.
11. Once the email migration completes, you will see a 1 inside your message center icon. From your left-menu, click the message center 💬 icon.
12. This will take you to the My Messages page. Once the email migration is completed, you will see a confirmation message in this format: IMAPSync migration [email protected] to [email protected] finished successfully This now indicates your email migration is completed. You can move to the next section.
13. To clear the message, you can check the box next to it, and click the Mark as read button
D. Run a check on your email migration
1. Log in to your hosting control panel
2. Click on Email Accounts
3. Locate your email address and under its Usage column, make sure the number is greater than 0. You’ve now successfully migrated your email mailbox. Move to the next section.
E. Change your domain to Skystra nameservers and wait for the update
1. Log in to the customer portal for your domain name registrar provider
2. At your domain name registrar provider, update your domain name to the Skystra nameservers. If you are pointing your domain name using an external DNS / CDN provider, point your MX record to your hosting account IP address
3. Once you’ve updated to the Skystra nameservers or pointed your MX record to your hosting account’s IP address, you will need to wait for the new settings and SSL certificate to update across the internet on your domain name. Depending on your internet connection, this can take anywhere from a few hours or up to 24h. We recommend waiting a full 24h, and only then moving to the next section after that wait period.
F. Access your email through webmail and connect to any required email apps on devices
At this point, your entire migration is completed and the next step is to access your email address.
1. Open this guide: Log in to email – and use the indicated steps to access your email via webmail.
2. If you’d like to add your email address to an email app on your device, please go to: