Switching email providers without losing anything

Finding a new email provider is easy. Moving can feel like a mountain: thousands of emails, your own folders and lots of accounts tied to the old address. Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) recommends four steps (page in German). We walk through them in order and add what has worked well in many moves.

In short: Set up the new mailbox securely, copy your old emails, update your address everywhere and only close the old mailbox after a few weeks. Don’t delete anything until then.

Step 1: Choose the right provider

Take your time. You don’t switch every year.

Ease of use: Are you comfortable with the provider’s website and app? Many let you try them for free.
Storage: Check how full your old mailbox is. The new one should have plenty more room so you don’t have to clean up again soon.
Privacy and location: Providers with servers in Germany or the EU work under the GDPR. Check whether your emails are scanned for advertising.
Cost: Free mailboxes are usually paid for by ads. Paid ones often cost just a few euros a month and come with more storage and support.
Security: Make sure you can protect your sign-in with a second factor, such as an app or a passkey.

Important for the move: both mailboxes should support IMAP. This is the technology used to copy emails, folders included, from one mailbox to another. Almost every provider does.

Step 2: Set up the new account securely

Choose a strong password that you don’t use anywhere else. A password manager helps you remember it.
Turn on two-factor sign-in or use a passkey. Then a stolen password alone is no longer enough.
Add a phone number or second address in case you ever lock yourself out.
Consider alias addresses, for example one just for online shops. That keeps ads away from your main address.

Step 3: Move your old emails

There are three ways:

By hand: You set up both mailboxes in an email program like Thunderbird and drag the folders across. It takes time and often breaks off with large mailboxes.
With the new provider’s import: Some providers fetch emails from the old mailbox themselves. Often this only works for the inbox, not for Sent and your own folders.
With a moving service: A service like Mailovo copies every folder straight from the old mailbox to the new one, including Sent, Drafts and subfolders. You don’t have to stay at your computer.

For the third way you give the service access to your old mailbox. That is why the BSI advises changing the password of the old mailbox afterwards. Mailovo deletes your login details automatically after the move, but a new password is a good habit anyway.

Tip: If you use Mailovo’s forwarding, change the old password only after it has ended. Otherwise we can no longer fetch new emails.

How exactly Mailovo works, what is stored and what happens if something goes wrong is explained on How we work. To be completely safe, download a backup of your mailbox as a file first.

Step 4: Update your address everywhere

This step takes the longest. Online shops, your bank, insurers, authorities, clubs, newsletters and of course family and friends all have your old address.

Most important first: bank, insurance, health insurance, tax office, employer, phone and internet contract. That is where bills and deadlines arrive.
Then every account you sign in to with the address: for example Amazon, PayPal, your Apple ID and social networks. That address is how you reset your password in an emergency.
Finally your contacts: a short email to everyone in your address book is enough.

After the move, Mailovo gives you an address checklist: we look at who has emailed you in recent months and list those senders for you to tick off. For a general list, see New email address: where to change it.

Don’t close the old mailbox yet

Keep the old mailbox for a few more weeks so you don’t miss emails from senders you forgot about.

Forwarding: Many mailboxes can automatically forward new emails to your new address.
Auto-reply: An out-of-office message in the old mailbox (“My new address is …”) tells every sender.
Mailovo forwarding: After the move we fetch new emails from the old mailbox for 30 days and put them into the new one.

During this time, check now and then who still writes to the old address and update it there. Only close the old mailbox once nothing important arrives any more. How to do that safely is explained in Closing your old mailbox.