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idiotic email question
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OK, this is embarrassing, I admit it, but I need to know: When changing web hosts and using IMAP email, how do I archive all of my emails on the old host before changing to the new host? I’ve been switching hosts a lot lately, and every time I do, I lose all of my emails in the process! This has got to be the worst newbie question I have ever asked in 20+ years, but there you go.
Thanks!
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mrmwebmax (formerly mrmgraphics)
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Hi I am sharing a post to backup IMap mails.
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Thanks, Tom_Mac. Fortunately, I realized that all of my emails (thousands that were lost) had to still be on the server of my former web host. So I switched my DNS back to those of my former host, had all of my “lost” emails show up in my inbox again, created an “On My Mac” folder, copied them all to it, switched my DNS over (again!) to my new web host, and as of right now all is well!
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mrmwebmax (formerly mrmgraphics)
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David Nelson
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You’ve already answered your question now, but yeah that’s the best thing to do. Drag them over to local folders, and then optionally re-upload them to your new server.
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I’ve also done it where I’ve created two accounts in Mail.app, one for the old, one for the new. Then you can just drag from one to the other and it uploads them straight there. Of course, making a local copy (explicitly, via the method you described) is likely *safer* if, you know, you like that sort of thing.
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-Dave Hamilton / The Mac Observer / Mac Geek Gab / Dave on Twitter
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David, Given the over 10,000 emails on the new local folder, I’ll just keep them local! But I’ll remember that tip for other email accounts with fewer emails.
Dave, yes, I think I’ll stick with “safer,” thank you! My heart dropped when I thought all those emails were lost. My problem, quite frankly, is that I used to use POP email, which doesn’t sync to the cloud. So all of my switching web hosts in the early days (I can’t even remember all of them, but Affinity was my first) were never affected.
Somewhere along the way, after becoming an iPhone user, I realized the benefits of IMAP and switched, so that my iPhone and Mac Mail email apps would be in sync by linking to the cloud. OOPS! Just didn’t think that through enough when making my most recent hosting change.
Honestly, as I change web hosts more often than some people change underwear, this was a valuable lesson learned (albeit an embarrassing one!).
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mrmwebmax (formerly mrmgraphics)
Max out your site! mrmwebmax.com
