Select Page

Transfer emails between your domain and Gmail

by | Jul 30, 2015 | Tutorials

Transfer emails between your Domain and Gmail using Thunderbird

There are many ways to migrate your existing emails. A lot of my clients are using domain e-mail (i.e. bob@bobsburgershack.com), but using webmail is not a very reliable solution and many hosting companies are no longer supporting it. More frequently, we are seeing businesses move to gmail solutions, such as gmail for business. If you don’t want to spend the money on gmail for business (or are just a regular guy who likes burgers) and need to get your domain e-mail into a gmail account, I will show you how to move your e-mail from your bobsburgershack.com e-mail account into your new bobsOMGburgers@gmail.com.

Transfer emails between your Domain and Gmail using Thunderbird

Enable IMAP

Both accounts need to have IMAP Access for this to work.
Domain: You will just need to use the port settings for the IMAP server below.
Gmail: Sign into your gmail account, and click in the gear in the top right corner. Select settings, and click Forwarding and POP/IMAP. Select “ENABLE IMAP” and choose Save Changes.

Install Mozilla Thunderbird

The easiest way I’ve found to move all of your e-mail to gmail is to use Mozilla Thunderbird, which is a free e-mail program offered by Mozilla. You’ll need to open your Firefox browser, and install Thunderbird.

Add Both Email Accounts to Mozilla Thunderbird

You’ll need to add both your e-mail accounts to Mozilla Thunderbird to make this work. This would be your bob@bobsburgershack.com, and your new bobsOMGburgers@gmail.com account.

For your domain e-mail: If you are using any hosting provider, they will typically provide the settings for you. If you are using Bluehost you are in luck and you can use the following settings:  username: bob@bobsburgershack.com  |  incoming: box680.bluehost.com  IMAP Port 993  |  outgoing: box680.bluehost.com  SMTP Port 465

For your gmail e-mail: Once you enter your e-mail address and password, Thunderbird is smart enough to detect your gmail settings and do the rest.

Get Messages

Retrieve messages using Thunderbird. This will pull in all of your webmail messages from your domain email at bob@bobsburgershack.com.

Move messages from your domain e-mail to gmail folder

Transfer emails between your Domain and Gmail using Thunderbird
Once all your mail has been received you can literally click and drag the folders from the domain email into gmail.

Log into Gmail

The final test is to log into gmail (without using Thunderbird). You’ll see that all of your domain email is now moved into your gmail nice and neatly stored in the same folders :)

Is this site loading quickly for you?
That's because we're proudly hosted by Siteground!
Web Hosting

For your convenience, this post may contain affiliate links to programs or products I've written about above. There is no cost to you for using these links and they may provide me with a small commission. Please visit my policy page for more information.