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Migrating my email from plus-net to gmail or somewhere else?

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Clariman
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Migrating my email from plus-net to gmail or somewhere else?

#420111

Postby Clariman » June 17th, 2021, 10:31 am

I have used plusnet email forever, because it came with my broadband package a thousand years ago and it worked tolerably well. However, I think the time has come to dump it. I access is using IMAP from my mobile, iPad and Windows-10/Outlook. Sometimes accessing my mail times out. The other challenge is the constant struggle to keep 3 mailboxes within a total mailbox size of 1GB.

So how can I seamlessly migrate from plusnet mail box to somewhere else and where should that somewhere else be? I already have a little used gmail address, so I guess it would make sense to consolidate all email on that. Any downsides?

The good news is that I have a domain name and use email forwarding, so clariman@mydomain.com is the email address that I give to people and 123-reg forwards that to clariman@accountname.plus.com. Similarly for Mrs C.

  • If I simply changed the forwarding to clariman@gmail.com is that job done?
  • What will happen to my existing Plusnet mailbox and all the folders I use within it? Will the emails and folders just stay there and I then need to recreate a similar folder structure within Gmail?
  • Is there a way to migrate the emails and folder structures across to Gmail?
  • What happens if I then move ISP and lose my plusnet mailbox - do I lose all the emails in them unless I archive them on my PC first?

Many thanks
C

pje16
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Re: Migrating my email from plus-net to gmail or somewhere else?

#420116

Postby pje16 » June 17th, 2021, 10:49 am

I too have emails hosted by plusnet and I think their on line interface is abysmal
so I have always pulled them into my gmail account (as opposed to forwarding from Plus net)
Can I assume you know about using
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#settings/accounts

I don't get that many so they just come into my normal inbox
and I don't know much about gmail folder strucures as I don't have much need for them

kiloran
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Re: Migrating my email from plus-net to gmail or somewhere else?

#420129

Postby kiloran » June 17th, 2021, 11:22 am

pje16 wrote:and I don't know much about gmail folder strucures as I don't have much need for them

gmail folders are just wonderful and...... they are not folders!!!
They are labels and the advantage is immense. An email system with folders only allows you to put an email in one folder, which can be very inconvenient.
With gmail, you can assign many labels to a single email. Viewing a "folder" simply filters emails by a label. So, for example, if you assign the labels "Finance", "Banks" and "HSBC" to an email, it allows you to see that email in the Finance "folder", the Banks "folder" and the HSBC "folder"

--kiloran
Last edited by kiloran on June 17th, 2021, 11:30 am, edited 1 time in total.

Infrasonic
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Re: Migrating my email from plus-net to gmail or somewhere else?

#420132

Postby Infrasonic » June 17th, 2021, 11:27 am

Just pull the email into Gmail using IMAP (or gmailify as they call it) and it will duplicate the folder structure you already have in PlusNet.
I think the default with Gmail and other accounts is to leave copy on server, check when you set it all up. Untick any delete from server options too and that way the Gmail account is just a mirror of the PlusNet, all deletions and housekeeping will still be done there.
You can setup filters/labels with colour coding so that it's easy to differentiate multiple email addresses in the Gmail inbox.

I've got two Gmail accounts set up as aggregator mirrors, one IMAP and one POP3 - the POP3 inbox is so that I have a full archive copy of my inbox on another ecosystem in case of armageddon (the whole thing getting wiped).

You can back up Gmail for up to 90 days within settings, longer than that you'll have to look at Google Takeout.

https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout
https://support.google.com/accounts/ans ... 02116&rd=1

pje16
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Re: Migrating my email from plus-net to gmail or somewhere else?

#420134

Postby pje16 » June 17th, 2021, 11:33 am

Thanks - I didn't know about Google takeout, but do now :)
and just had an email about my first completed one !

Infrasonic
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Re: Migrating my email from plus-net to gmail or somewhere else?

#420167

Postby Infrasonic » June 17th, 2021, 1:09 pm

To set up domain specific send receive you'll need the SMTP IMAP/POP details for Plusnet servers. (POP won't copy the folder structure- it's an inbox only solution but useful for archiving as per my post above).

Here's an example tutorial for a different host with Gmail, adapt as needed..https://www.hostinger.co.uk/tutorials/e ... own-domain.

I have my domain email set up so that I can send/receive with Gmail and/or my domain email host (Fasthosts).

Just bear in mind if you use domain forwarding to Gmail it uses ARC authentication and may well dump some of your domain mail into the spam folder (unless Plusnet are also using ARC to maintain the forwarding authentication chain...). So wherever possible 'pull' email.

If you have a domain 'catchall' facility see if you can route that to a PlusNet inbox and then IMAP it from Gmail.

Even with pulling email in you can still run into legitimate emails getting spam foldered, so you need to check it frequently.

If you get any delivery issues you can test how 'spammy' your sent emails are here...https://www.mail-tester.com/

UncleEbenezer
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Re: Migrating my email from plus-net to gmail or somewhere else?

#420174

Postby UncleEbenezer » June 17th, 2021, 1:27 pm

If your address is a forwarding one then changing where it forwards to should be straightforward. You'll just want to decide how to deal with existing archives, but that's a one-off problem.

Just be aware that your new platform may have its own idiosyncracies (e.g. gmail's imperfect spam filtering leaves a sender no clue about mail being rejected as junk), and test-drive for a while before committing.

UncleEbenezer
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Re: Migrating my email from plus-net to gmail or somewhere else?

#420178

Postby UncleEbenezer » June 17th, 2021, 1:32 pm

Infrasonic wrote:Even with pulling email in you can still run into legitimate emails getting spam foldered, so you need to check it frequently.


Depends how you pull it. I use fetchmail feeding procmail, which bypasses the aggressive spam filter on my most-spammed addresses (widely published since 1997 - before email spam became an issue).

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Re: Migrating my email from plus-net to gmail or somewhere else?

#420187

Postby Infrasonic » June 17th, 2021, 2:00 pm

UncleEbenezer wrote:
Infrasonic wrote:Even with pulling email in you can still run into legitimate emails getting spam foldered, so you need to check it frequently.


Depends how you pull it. I use fetchmail feeding procmail, which bypasses the aggressive spam filter on my most-spammed addresses (widely published since 1997 - before email spam became an issue).


Which leaves you open to spam or worse.

As has been discussed before, Gmail's 'aggressive' filtering is a result of senders not abiding by the authentication chains in place (SPF/DKIM/DMARC/ARC et al) or sending emails in formats that get them downgraded for 'spammyness' (as per my link...https://www.mail-tester.com/ - senders sort their end out and it will get delivered to the inbox.

It may well be arrogant of Google and Microsoft to be so unyielding here, but I'd prefer it if say my bank didn't use a third party bulk emailer at all (with different from addresses each time...) which doesn't remotely comply...

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Re: Migrating my email from plus-net to gmail or somewhere else?

#420402

Postby Clariman » June 18th, 2021, 10:27 am

Thanks for your answers and tangential answers too :D

In summary to migrate from plusnet to Gmail, I just point my personal domain email address at Gmail, so my plusnet email box becomes unused but still 'live'. I can then archive all my old plusnet email history onto my hard drive if I ever move away from plusnet.

Alternatively I can have both email boxes live in Gmail. What I'm not clear about is if I can do a one-off important of my plusnet emails into Gmail?? That would be good.

Infrasonic
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Re: Migrating my email from plus-net to gmail or somewhere else?

#420421

Postby Infrasonic » June 18th, 2021, 11:13 am

Clariman wrote:What I'm not clear about is if I can do a one-off important of my plusnet emails into Gmail?? That would be good.


Put them into an 'important emails' folder in Plusnet and then they will be imported on the first IMAP sync to Gmail.
If you want to keep them entirely separate with a different Plusnet address do that and then IMAP that address into Gmail.

OR put them into the inbox of a unique plusnet address (importantemailinbox@plusnet) and POP3 it into Gmail, either as an inbox copy or straight to archive (select when setting up).

As long as you don't delete anything from the Plusnet end until you are comfortable with Gmail just run it in parallel for a bit - if you mess anything up just wipe the Gmail account(s) folders/contents and sync again. It's dead easy - don't overthink it!.. :D

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Re: Migrating my email from plus-net to gmail or somewhere else?

#420423

Postby UncleEbenezer » June 18th, 2021, 11:17 am

Clariman wrote:Alternatively I can have both email boxes live in Gmail. What I'm not clear about is if I can do a one-off important of my plusnet emails into Gmail?? That would be good.

I should imagine gmail offers you some means to bulk-fetch mail from elsewhere using POP or IMAP. I expect their help pages will tell you. If you're lucky it'll even replicate your existing folders for you all automatically.

Depending on how much you trust Google, you might want to change your plusnet password after such an exercise.

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Re: Migrating my email from plus-net to gmail or somewhere else?

#422386

Postby jaizan » June 25th, 2021, 7:05 pm

I use Thunderbird on My PC with 3 different e-mail accounts.

I use Blue Mail on my phone, which currently accesses the same 3 e-mail accounts, plus one more.

I've used gmail for years, like it a lot & have several addresses.

I just don't give my main e-mail address out to anyone other than close friends or banks/stockbrokers etc.
Registering for sites like this uses a second tier e-mail address. So if there is a leak, they don't leak my main address.


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