If you're coming to Fastmail from another email provider (such as Gmail, Outlook, or your Internet service provider), then you'll want to bring your email, calendars, and contacts with you. If you own a domain, you can also bring it with you and keep all of your existing email addresses at that domain.
The following information makes it easy to move all your information into Fastmail once you have chosen a plan.
- Set up your email address and/or domain
- Transfer your mailbox contents
- Transfer your contacts
- Transfer your calendars
- Making the most of Fastmail
- Migration guides for specific email providers
Set up your email address and/or domain
If you don't have your own domain, you'll need to select an email address at one of the Fastmail domains. You can still receive and send mail at your old address through Fastmail, as long as you keep that account open.
If you have your own domain, you can refer to the How do I use a custom domain? section on our Custom domains with Fastmail help page for setup instructions.
Transfer your existing mailbox contents
Depending on your needs, you can transfer your current mailbox into Fastmail using two methods: IMAP or POP. For best results, we recommend using IMAP.
Transferring your mail using IMAP
This is a one-time task that transfers all your mail, and may take some time to complete. Our email import tool works with any IMAP server, and we provide instructions for the most common email providers.
Our importing tool also uses fetch to automatically import any incoming emails from your previous account into your new Fastmail accoun
If you wish to move emails from where they are stored at your previous web-based provider, you will need to transfer your emails via IMAP. IMAP will let you access your mail from any of your devices or from any web browser, and allows you to restore emails from backup.
If you wish to move emails that you have downloaded onto your desktop and access through an email client, you will need to transfer your emails from your desktop client onto Fastmail. Please note that if you download emails from your old provider using POP, it will only download mail from your inbox; it won't download mail that is directed to other folders you have created.
Transferring your mail using POP
If your old mail is not stored on an IMAP server because you have already downloaded it to your desktop using POP, you can leave it where it is, or you can transfer it to Fastmail's IMAP servers for access through the web client.
To transfer mail in your desktop client to Fastmail's servers, log onto Fastmail from your desktop client and drag the folders containing your existing mail into the Fastmail account's folders. Depending on how much mail you have, this can take some time before the mail completes uploading to our servers.
Transfer your contacts
To transfer your contacts, you will first need to export a list of contacts from your previous provider or desktop email client. If you're not sure which file type to choose for your contact list, we recommend using vCard 3.0 (.vcf) files. Otherwise, you can use comma separated values (.csv). Below are instructions for exporting contacts at larger providers/clients:
Once you've exported the contacts, you are ready to import your contacts into Fastmail by following these steps:
- Go to Settings → Migration → Import.
- Click Upload contacts and calendars.
- Drag your file into the Contacts field, or click Select file and choose the
CSV,LDIF, orvCardfile you want to import. Your contacts are now imported!
For more information on importing contacts, please see our Import and export contacts help page.
Transfer your calendars
To import your existing calendar into Fastmail, you will need to first export your calendar events from your old account. Once this is done, you can import the events into your Fastmail calendar.
Import your calendar using our migration tool
The easiest way to import calendars from other services is using our migration tool.
- Go to the Settings → Migration → Import screen.
- In the Import mail, calendars, and contacts section, select your other mail provider. If your mail provider is not listed, you can select the Other (IMAP / CardDAV / CalDAV) option.
- On the next screen, you'll be asked to log in to your external account.
- Select Calendars to import them from your other service.
- Click Do It.
You can continue to use your account as normal while the migration is running.
Manually import your calendar
If you need to import a calendar manually or upload a calendar that is stored on your computer, you can do this instead of using automatic migration.
Import your calendar into Fastmail
- Go to the Settings → Migration → Import screen.
- Click Upload contacts and calendars.
- Under Calendars, click Select file and select your calendar file to upload. Alternatively, you can drag and drop the file directly.
Exporting calendars from other providers
Here are instructions for exporting calendar data from common providers:
If your provider doesn't have an option to export all your data to a file, you may be able to instead synchronize your calendar via CalDAV to Fastmail first, then export the calendar.
Synchronize your calendar to Fastmail via CalDAV
If you already have your external calendars synchronized via CalDAV with Fastmail, this option is for you.
Go to the Settings → Calendars menu. For each calendar you want to migrate, click Export and select Download. (More detailed instructions on exporting your calendars in Fastmail are here).
You will now have a calendar file on your computer in an iCal (.ics) format, ready to be imported to Fastmail.
You will also want to remove the synchronization link to the external calendar. In Settings → Calendars, you can click Remove account, which will remove all calendars syncing on that account, or remove calendars individually by selecting the calendar and then clicking Remove calendar on the next page.
For more information on how to transfer your calendars, please see our calendar migration guide.
Making the most of Fastmail
Here are a few more things to do when migrating to help you get the most out of Fastmail.
Secure your account with two-step verification (2FA)
Keep your account safe from hackers with our two-step verification support.
Set up your mobile devices
Set up your mobile devices to use Fastmail on the go.
The official Fastmail app is the best way to use Fastmail on your iPhone, iPad, or Android device. We also have instructions on setting up popular clients if you wish to access Fastmail on an email client.
You can also use a browser on your mobile device to access our web interface.
Announce new email address
If you have changed your email address, remember to let important contacts know of your new address.
Update old subscriptions
You can save a custom search in Fastmail so you can easily see what mail is still addressed to your old address:
- Copy and paste this into your search bar:
header:"X-delivered to: <old email address>" - Replace
<old email address>with your old email address. - Click the Save button in the sidebar to save this search. This makes it convenient for you to occasionally search for any subscription mail being sent to your old address.
- You'll need to update the email address for your subscriptions, as Fastmail can't change your subscriptions automatically for you.
Migration complete!
You're done! Welcome to email, calendars, and contacts done right.