Moving your emails from your old hosting provider to WebHostBrand is simple if you follow the right steps. Whether you want to do it yourself or need assistance, this guide will help you migrate all your emails safely.
Here are step-by-step instructions on how to move your emails from the previous hosting provider to TrexHost:
Option 1: Use an Email Client (Drag-and-Drop, Works in all cases – does not require assistance from your current/old provider)
Set up an IMAP account for each of your mailboxes using a mail client like Outlook, Thunderbird, or Apple Mail. If you are not sure what server settings to use, contact your old hosting provider and ask for the IMAP server address and port number for your mailboxes.
Note: Detailed instructions on how to set up an IMAP account in various email clients can be found in our email-related knowledge base articles.
Step 1: Set up your old email account as an IMAP account in your email client. This will download all your emails locally—including all folders like Sent, Drafts, Trash, and any custom folders you have created.
Step 2: Update your domain’s nameservers (if you haven’t already) to the ones listed in the My Domains > Hosted Domains section of your TrexHost Hosting Control Panel. (Alternatively, you can update only the MX records to point to TrexHost’s mail servers, which is faster and doesn’t affect your website.)
Step 3: Create all the mailboxes you will be using via the Email > Mailboxes section of your TrexHost Control Panel.
Step 4: In your email client, add your new TrexHost email accounts as IMAP accounts as well. Important: Keep the old IMAP accounts configured—do not delete them yet!
Step 5: With both IMAP accounts (old and new) visible in your email client, simply drag and drop all the messages and folders from the old provider’s IMAP account to the new TrexHost IMAP account. This will upload all your emails from your computer to TrexHost’s mail server.
Step 6 (Optional but Recommended): After the drag-and-drop sync is complete and you’ve verified that all emails appear correctly in your new TrexHost account, you can remove the old email account from your email client.
Option 2: Manual File Transfer (May Require Assistance from Your Current/Old Provider)
Step 1: Check with your old hosting provider if you can access the /mail/ directory. This directory should contain folders for each of your email accounts. Download these folders to your computer.
Note: The folder names typically match your email addresses (e.g., mail@my-best-domain.com).
Step 2: Create all the mailboxes you will be using via the Email > Mailboxes section of your TrexHost Hosting Control Panel.
Step 3: Upload all mailbox folders to your TrexHost hosting account using FTP or File Manager. You can upload them to a temporary location such as the /www/ directory or a folder like /temp-upload/.
Each mailbox folder (e.g., mail@my-best-domain.com) should contain the following subfolders:
- cur – contains currently active emails
- new – contains new/unread emails
- tmp – contains temporary files (optional, usually not needed)
Step 4: Go to the File Manager section of your TrexHost Hosting Control Panel and navigate to the directory where you uploaded the mailbox folders.
Copy the files as follows:
| From | To |
|---|---|
| /www/temp-upload/mail@my-best-domain.com/cur/ | /mail/mail@my-best-domain.com/cur/ |
| /www/temp-upload/mail@my-best-domain.com/new/ | /mail/mail@my-best-domain.com/new/ |
Note: In File Manager, the default view opens in your /www/ directory. Click the Up icon at the top of the file list to go up one level. This will take you to your account’s root directory, where the /mail/ folder is located.
Step 5: After copying the files, verify the folder permissions. The /mail/mail@my-best-domain.com/ directory and its subfolders should have permissions set to 755. If the permissions are incorrect, your email client may not be able to read the messages.
Step 6: Log into the mailbox using your email client or webmail and verify that the messages were copied successfully.
Step 7: Repeat Steps 1–6 for each of your mailboxes.
Step 8 (Cleanup): Once you have verified that all emails have been successfully transferred to your TrexHost account, you can delete the temporary uploaded folders from your hosting account to free up space.
If you need any assistance, feel free to submit a support ticket from Help Center > My Tickets in your TrexHost control panel.
💡 Hosting + Free Email? Yes! TrexHost includes free email accounts with every hosting plan – create professional domain-based emails hassle-free. Plus, you get speed, security, and support you can trust. Visit https://trexhost.com to get started!