Moving your mail
Bring mailboxes over from another provider without losing a message.
Hosting mail here means two things move: new mail (the MX records decide where it goes) and old mail (which has to be copied). Sendfeather looks up your domain's MX records, tells you who handles your mail today, and imports the history from the old provider over IMAP — no exports, no downloads.
- 1
Verify the domain
Add the domain under Domains and publish its records. Mailboxes can only be created on a domain you have proven you own.
- 2
Create the mailboxes
In the Mailboxes section, create each address you want to keep — hello@, accounts@, and so on. Each one gets a password, shown once.
- 3
Import the old mail
Start an import per mailbox: pick the mailbox, enter the IMAP server of the old provider plus an app password, and Sendfeather copies every folder, message and read flag in the background. Your old provider keeps working the whole time.
- 4
Switch the MX record
Once the import shows Done, point your domain's MX record at mail.sendfeather.com and remove the old provider's MX records. New mail starts arriving here.
- 5
Sync once more, then cancel
Run the import again right after the switch to pull anything that arrived in between — the import only adds, never deletes. Keep the old provider for a few days as a safety net, then cancel it.
App passwords
The importer signs in to your old provider as you. Most providers refuse your normal password for this — they issue a separate app password instead, which you can revoke afterwards.
| Provider | Where to get an app password |
|---|---|
| Yandex 360 | Yandex ID → Security → App passwords → Mail |
| Google Workspace | Needs 2-step verification on: myaccount.google.com → Security → App passwords |
| Zoho Mail | Zoho account → Security → App passwords |
| Fastmail | Settings → Privacy & Security → App passwords |
| iCloud Mail | appleid.apple.com → Sign-in & Security → App-specific passwords |
| Microsoft 365 | Microsoft no longer accepts passwords for IMAP — ask us and we will run the import with OAuth |
| Proton Mail, Tuta | No public IMAP — these need a manual transfer; ask us |
| Everyone else | Any IMAP server works: the hostname, the full address as username, and the password or app password |
The import only reads from your old provider — nothing is ever deleted there. The app password is encrypted in our database, used only for the import, and you can revoke it at the old provider when you are done.
Switching MX
Your domain's MX record decides where new mail goes. Replace the old provider's MX records with a single one: mail.sendfeather.com (priority 10). Mail already delivered to the old provider stays readable there — the final sync pulls it over. Sending from your domain keeps using the DKIM and DMARC records you already published.