We have a client who has several email addresses, domains and websites with godaddy, over the past year we have been slowly moving everything over. The emails are setup using Godaddy’s Workspace email system. Transferring over large amounts of emails can be tricky but following the proper steps can make it painless.
Workspace Godaddy Quick Guide
- Take a list of each email account and how they are used. You will need to setup each device & computer with new email account information (Mail servers, usernames, etc) after the transfer is complete.
- Using Outlook (desktop client) or thunderbird, take each old email account and make sure its setup. Give it some time to sync all the emails to your computer. I prefer making sure these email accounts are syncing to the computer using POP (What is POP or IMAP?), that way a local copy is stored on the computer & the server has a backup.
(POP SHOULD ONLY BE USED IF THE EXISTING EMAIL DOES NOT HAVE IMAP FOLDERS, ONLY IMAP WILL TRANSFER IMAP FOLDERS) - On your new hosting, create the new email accounts using the same email address. You can use the same password or a new password.
- Change the domain DNS records (nameserver or MX records) to point away from Godaddy and to your new hosting. It’s important to make everything is switched over. Changing the DNS or nameservers can break your website, emails and a slew of other things if you are not careful.
- Once the DNS & Nameservers update (may take up to 24 hours), setup Outlook or Thunderbird to add the new recently created accounts using IMAP (What is POP or IMAP?).
- Once ready, move the emails from the old email inbox, to the new email inbox. IMAP will upload these files to the new server. This may take some time depending on how many emails you have.
