uMail

Help / Email

Bring your old email to uMail

Move your mail from Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook.com or another mailbox. Sign in once, or upload a file.

You can keep your old mail when you switch to uMail. There are two ways. You can sign in to your old mailbox, or you can upload a file that you exported from it. Both are in Settings, under Import mail. Your old mailbox stays as it is.

Way 1: Sign in to your old mailbox

This is the easy way. You sign in once and uMail copies your mail. You do not need to download anything.

  1. Open Settings and go to Import mail. Choose Sign in to your old mailbox.
  2. Type your old email address and your password. For Gmail, use an app password (see below).
  3. Check the Server box. uMail fills it in for Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook.com, Hotmail, Live and iCloud. For other mailboxes it guesses imap and your domain. If your provider uses another name, type it. Under More settings you can change the port. Use 993 unless your provider says otherwise.
  4. Choose Sign in and choose folders. uMail shows each folder with the number of emails in it.
  5. Untick any folder you do not want, then choose Start import.
  6. A row shows the progress. You can leave the page while it runs. When the row says Done, choose Open the Imported folder.

Gmail: make an app password

Gmail does not let other apps use your normal password. Turn on 2-Step Verification in your Google account, then make an app password and paste it into uMail instead of your normal password. Google explains the steps at support.google.com/accounts/answer/185833. Yahoo and iCloud work the same way. Outlook.com may also need an app password if you use two step sign in.

What happens to your mail

  • Your Inbox goes to your uMail Inbox. A Sent folder goes to Sent. Every other folder goes into a folder with the same name inside a new folder called Imported with the day, for example Imported 19 Oct.
  • Spam, Trash and Drafts are left out. For Gmail, All Mail, Important and Starred are also left out, because they only show mail again that is in your other folders.
  • Every email keeps its original date. Mail you already read stays read, and unread mail stays unread. Starred mail stays starred.
  • Emails you already have in uMail are skipped. It is safe to run the import again. Only new emails are added.
  • One import can bring up to 50,000 emails. If you have more, choose some folders now and the rest later.

Your password is safe

  • uMail uses your password only for this one import. It keeps it in memory while the import runs and never saves it. When the import ends, it is gone.
  • The connection is always encrypted, and uMail checks that the server is the real one.
  • uMail only reads from your old mailbox. It never deletes or changes anything there, and it never sends mail.

Way 2: Upload a file

Use this if you cannot sign in, for example when your old provider does not allow it. First export your old mail to a file.

  • Gmail: go to Google Takeout (takeout.google.com). Choose Deselect all, then tick only Mail. Create the export and download it. You get an .mbox file, often inside a .zip you can import as it is.
  • Outlook on the web: it cannot export mail. Use desktop Outlook or Thunderbird instead.
  • Outlook on your computer: open a folder and drag emails to a folder on your computer. Each email becomes an .eml file. Put the files in a .zip if you have many.
  • Thunderbird: add the ImportExportTools NG add-on. Right-click a folder and choose Export folder as mbox. Do this for each folder you want.
  • Apple Mail: right-click a mailbox and choose Export Mailbox. You get a folder with an .mbox file inside.
  1. Open Settings and go to Import mail. Choose Upload a file.
  2. Drop your files in the box, or choose Choose files. You can pick .mbox, .eml and .zip files, up to 2 GB each.
  3. Wait while the file uploads. A row appears for each file with a progress bar and how many emails are imported.
  4. When the row says Done, choose Open the Imported folder to see your mail.

With a file, most mail goes into one new folder named Imported with the day. From Gmail, mail with the Sent label goes to your Sent folder, and Spam and Trash are left out. Imported mail is marked as read, except Gmail mail that was unread.

You can leave the page while an import runs. It keeps going. Come back to Settings, Import mail, to see how far it is. You can run up to two file imports at the same time, and one sign in import. Choose Cancel to stop one. Mail that is already imported stays.

If something goes wrong

  • We could not sign in: check the email and the password. For Gmail, use an app password, not your normal password. After 5 wrong tries in an hour, uMail asks you to wait an hour.
  • We could not reach this server: check the server name and the port. Your provider's help page lists the IMAP server name. Some providers make you turn on IMAP in the mail settings first.
  • Your mailbox is full: the import stops and tells you how many emails it imported. Free up space or ask your administrator for more storage, then import again.
  • The connection stopped: start the import again. Mail already imported is skipped, so nothing is doubled.
  • This does not look like an mbox file: choose a file that ends in .mbox. Do not rename other files.
  • The upload stopped: check your connection and choose the file again. A very large file can take a while to upload, so keep the page open until it has finished uploading.
  • A few emails could not be imported: the row shows how many. The rest is still imported.

uMail does not send or reply to any imported mail. Importing only copies it into your mailbox.