How Does Email Migration Work?

Switching to a new email platform? Learn how email migration works behind the scenes, the common challenges, and the safest way to move years of email data.

By Layla DarziPublished about a month ago • 4 min read

At some point, every organization or individual must have faced this same question: “How does email migration work?” or “How do you move years of crucial data from one platform to another without losing anything?” Whether you are switching your domain, moving to another system, or going under merger/acquisition, the process behind this is known as “Email Migration”.

At first, it seems like moving data from A to B, but in reality, it’s a lot more than that. Let’s move forward and see how you can migrate your emails, from planning before migrating to how data gets transferred to different platforms.

Why Businesses and Individuals Migrate Email Data?

Businesses and individuals migrate their emails to upgrade their technology, improve security, and for many other reasons. This helps to improve workflow, better collaboration, and better data management.

Take a look below to know why businesses need to migrate email data:

Cloud upgrades: Move from standard physical, on-site servers to cloud based platforms.
Merger & Acquisition: When firms look to unify different email platforms into a single platform.
Better tools: Switching to a new platform brings better integration of tools for efficient work.
Security & rules: Some platforms provide the best security that meets the strict compliance policies.
Cost cutting: Many platforms require high maintenance, which every organization can’t afford.

Here is why individuals need to migrate email data:

Email provider switch: Leave old email provider for faster services and clean interface.
Better privacy: Switch to a service with strong privacy and spam blocking.
Storage limits: Migrate your full mailbox to a platform that offers free or low cost storage space.
Personal branding: Move old mailbox data to a personalized domain when you start a new business.

Pre-Migration Plan & Assessment

If there is no proper planning & prior assessment, then you can get into major problems during migration. Read below to know what pre-migration plan and assessment involves:

Environment discovery and audit
List all user mailboxes, shared mailboxes, distribution lists, active/inactive users and duplicate accounts. Also, look to measure the total size of emails, contacts, calendars, and attachments.
Define the migration scope
Before you begin the migration, it is vital to keep in check what data needs to be migrated from the old platform and what you want to leave behind.
Choose a migration type
Based on the organization's size, you must look to choose between cutover migration, staged migration, or a hybrid approach for your final migration.
Check compatibility and license requirements
Make sure your destination platform supports the data types and formats being migrated. Moreover, do check that appropriate licenses are in place for every user before migration.
Communicate and train your users
All users should know in advance what is going to happen and how they are going to use the new platform for efficient working.
Backup everything and run test migration
Make sure you create a secure backup first to prevent data loss. After that run a test migration and see everything is in place.

How is Data Transferred Between Email Platforms?

Emails are transferred between platforms via server-to-server protocols or manual export/import methods. Some common email migration methods are:

IMAP migration
It connects old and new email servers directly and even keeps the folder structure intact.
File export and import
Downloads mailbox data into a local file format and uploads it into the destination platform.
Automated web importers
Built-in tools (like import tools in Gmail settings) use secure authorization tokens (OAuth) to fetch data from an old provider automatically.
Desktop app drag and drop
Adds both accounts to an email application using IMAP protocol, allowing users to manually move between folders across accounts.