Move Office 365 Emails to cPanel

What does migrating mean?

Migrating means moving. Here you copy your old emails from Office 365 (a Microsoft mail service) to a mailbox in cPanel. cPanel is the control panel of your hosting. The easiest way is IMAP. IMAP is a way to read mail that stays on a server, so a program can copy it from one server to another.

Before you start

• Create the new mailbox in cPanel first. Open Email Accounts and click Create.
• Have the Office 365 email and password ready.
• Keep your MX records pointing to Office 365 until the copy is done. MX records tell the internet where to deliver your mail.

Steps using Outlook or Thunderbird

1. Install a mail program such as Thunderbird. It is free.
2. Add your Office 365 account and let it load all folders.
3. Add your new cPanel account as a second account using IMAP. Your welcome email lists the server names. Ask Hostvento support if you cannot find them.
4. Open the Office 365 account and select a folder, such as Inbox.
5. Press Ctrl+A to select all messages.
6. Drag the messages to the same folder in the new account. Or right-click and choose Copy to.
7. Wait until the copy ends. Large boxes take time.
8. Repeat for Sent and other folders.

Switch the mail flow

1. Log in to your client area.
2. Open the DNS settings of your domain. DNS is the internet phone book for your domain.
3. Change the MX records to the ones for your hosting. Ask support for the right values.
4. Wait a few hours. New mail will land in cPanel.

Quick recap

• Make the cPanel mailbox first.
• Copy folders from old to new using IMAP.
• Check everything, then change the MX records.
• Keep the old account for a while as a backup.