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Help article

Move your mail in, and take it out.

Import old mail from Gmail, QQ Mail, 163 or any IMAP mailbox with webmail's import, and export your folders as mbox files.

Import from another mailbox

  1. In webmail, open Settings → Apps & sync and find Import and export.
  2. Pick your old provider, or Other (IMAP), and enter the server, port, encryption, username and password of the old mailbox.
  3. Test the sign-in. Webmail signs in to the old mailbox and lists its folders.
  4. Check the folder mapping. Every folder gets a suggested destination: Sent to Sent, Drafts to Drafts, Junk to Junk and so on, and other folders to a folder of the same name. You can change any destination, rename the new folder, or skip a folder.
  5. Optionally set a date range, to import only mail from after or before a date.
  6. Start the import. It runs in the background: you can close the page, and pause, resume or cancel it at any time. You get an email when it ends.

What each provider needs

  • Gmail: an app password from your Google account, which requires Google's 2-Step Verification. Signing in with Google (OAuth) is not supported.
  • QQ Mail: turn on IMAP in QQ Mail's settings and use the authorization code it gives you, not your QQ password.
  • 163 and 126 Mail: turn on IMAP / SMTP in the mailbox settings and use the client authorization code.
  • iCloud Mail: an app-specific password. Yahoo Mail: an app password.
  • Outlook.com and Microsoft 365: Microsoft has turned off password sign-in for IMAP, so the import usually cannot sign in there.
  • Any other IMAP mailbox: its server name and port. The connection must be encrypted (SSL/TLS or STARTTLS); a server without encryption is refused.

When the old provider rejects the sign-in, webmail shows the provider's own message, which often says what kind of password it wants.

Good to know about imports

  • Nothing changes in the old mailbox: the import only reads it, and does not even mark messages as read there.
  • Read, starred and answered marks come along with each message.
  • You can resume a paused import or run the same import again: messages that were already imported are skipped. An import left paused for more than 7 days is ended.
  • Messages over 25 MB are not imported; the report at the end lists what was left out and why.
  • Gmail's All Mail, Starred and Important are not imported as folders, since their messages are in other folders already.
  • The import stops when your new mailbox is full.
  • One import runs at a time per mailbox, with up to 300 folders; you can start 5 imports a day and test a sign-in 10 times an hour.
  • The old mailbox's password is kept encrypted while the import runs and deleted when it finishes, fails or is cancelled.

Export your mail as mbox

The same Import and export card exports your mail: every folder, or the folders you choose. The export runs in the background and you get an email when it is ready.

  • The result is a ZIP file with one mbox file per folder, a format most mail apps and archive tools can read.
  • Download it from webmail's settings while signed in. The file stays available for 7 days after the export finishes.
  • Read and starred marks are not written into the mbox files.
  • You can start 5 exports a day, one at a time.
  • For a single message, Download original in the message view gives you its .eml file.

Any mail app connected over IMAP can also copy your mail to your computer.