Combine or consolidate accounts

smhardesty · 13 Dec 2016, 03:08 AM

I couldn't find any threads that seemed to address my question. I'm also not sure the title of this thread is very accurate. I'll try to explain what I want to know.

I have a paid account and also still have a free account that grandfathered in from way back. I don't use the free account a lot, but still have a few contacts that send to me there. What I'd like to do is somehow get the free account combined with, or consolidated with, my paid account. Is there any way for the paid account to 'absorb' the free one? Or am I going to be better off just deleting the free account and then creating an alias using the old account name?

Any thoughts on this will be greatly appreciated. If I haven't made myself clear, please feel free t ask questions. Thanks.

UPDATE: This situation has been resolved by FM

BritTim · 13 Dec 2016, 04:21 AM

If it was me, I would just set up forwarding from the free account to your main account, and create an Identity in your main account that allows you to use the free account email address on selected outgoing emails from the main account. You can automatically bcc the outgoing emails to the free account should you so desire.

janusz · 13 Dec 2016, 07:32 PM

Another point to consider: if you do not log in to your free vintage account for something like 90 days, you'll lose it forever.

jhollington · 13 Dec 2016, 10:09 PM

If you truly wanted to consolidate the accounts, you could also try using the Migrate IMAP Mailbox tool found under Settings, Import & Export — click the link that says "Import mail from another service..."

If you then provide the necessary information, that should allow your primary account to basically log into your secondary account via IMAP and suck all of the messages, folders, and everything else in from there, so that all of the data would be consolidated.

The only catch is that I'm not entirely sure that FastMail will allow you to do this against its own server, but unless they're specifically blocking or throttling it, I don't see any other reason it shouldn't work — IMAP is IMAP at the end of the day, and I've used this utility numerous times over the years to bring messages into FastMail accounts (and similar tools to suck messages OUT of FastMail accounts).

Once you've done that, you could in theory delete the old free account and then setup an alias to it in your paid account. I say "in theory" however because I'm not entirely certain how quickly account names can be recycled into aliases... The name of your free account might remain reserved for some period of time even after you delete the account, preventing you from setting it up as an alias. I'd recommend contacting support directly to get an answer to that question, as you might find yourself stuck if you delete the free account and then can't get that address back as an alias afterward.

smhardesty · 14 Dec 2016, 02:03 AM

Good ideas there, guys. Certainly food for thought. I'll take a closer look now and see what I come up with. I've made sure to login to the free account at least every week so I wouldn't lose it. It's not so much the "account" I'm worried about losing. It's the address. I've had that address for many years and I'm positive there are probably contacts out there that never changed my address when I sent messages to everyone in an attempt to migrate them to one of my other accounts.

Many thanks for the ideas.

Terry · 14 Dec 2016, 10:20 AM

You can rename your account once for free so perhaps rename it to the free account name, but you would need f/m assistance to do this.

placebo · 14 Dec 2016, 12:05 PM

I did something like this years ago. I contacted FM support to find out how quickly I could grab an address once I deleted the account, and they went ahead and took care of removing the old account and adding the alias to my other account.

If it's still the same as it was in the past, you can't immediately delete an account. You have to mark your account for deletion, and then it actually happens 7 days later. If it still works this way, your best bet is to contact FM support and have them take care of it for you so you don't risk losing the address.

smhardesty · 14 Dec 2016, 02:40 PM

That would sure work the best, if they'll still do it. I'll make contact and see where it leads me.

Thanks!

Terry · 14 Dec 2016, 04:59 PM

They still do it.....

smhardesty · 15 Dec 2016, 03:49 AM

I just now created a ticket asking to have the old account deleted and then set up as an alias in my paid account.

Terry · 15 Dec 2016, 03:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by smhardesty

I just now created a ticket asking to have the old account deleted and then set up as an alias in my paid account.

You can go to your account section and rename (once) but you will require fm to help with the change in name as its already in another account.

Most people do not realise the feature is there.

smhardesty · 15 Dec 2016, 03:28 PM

All done! I did what placebo and Terry talked about. Created a support ticket and after just a couple messages back and forth FM handled it for me. Still have the old address and now the convenience of only having one account to deal with. I now have two aliases in addition to the main account address. Fantastic!

Terry · 15 Dec 2016, 04:35 PM

Glad you got it all sorted out so quickly....

13 Dec 2016, 03:08 AM	#1
smhardesty Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2013 Posts: 10	Combine or consolidate accounts - RESOLVED I couldn't find any threads that seemed to address my question. I'm also not sure the title of this thread is very accurate. I'll try to explain what I want to know. I have a paid account and also still have a free account that grandfathered in from way back. I don't use the free account a lot, but still have a few contacts that send to me there. What I'd like to do is somehow get the free account combined with, or consolidated with, my paid account. Is there any way for the paid account to 'absorb' the free one? Or am I going to be better off just deleting the free account and then creating an alias using the old account name? Any thoughts on this will be greatly appreciated. If I haven't made myself clear, please feel free t ask questions. Thanks. UPDATE: This situation has been resolved by FM Last edited by smhardesty : 15 Dec 2016 at 03:32 PM. Reason: Situation resolved

15 Dec 2016, 03:28 PM	#12
smhardesty Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2013 Posts: 10	Resolved All done! I did what placebo and Terry talked about. Created a support ticket and after just a couple messages back and forth FM handled it for me. Still have the old address and now the convenience of only having one account to deal with. I now have two aliases in addition to the main account address. Fantastic!

13 Dec 2016, 04:21 AM	#2
BritTim The "e" in e-mail Join Date: May 2003 Location: mostly in Thailand Posts: 3,092	If it was me, I would just set up forwarding from the free account to your main account, and create an Identity in your main account that allows you to use the free account email address on selected outgoing emails from the main account. You can automatically bcc the outgoing emails to the free account should you so desire.

13 Dec 2016, 07:32 PM	#3
janusz The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: EU Posts: 4,944	Another point to consider: if you do not log in to your free vintage account for something like 90 days, you'll lose it forever.

13 Dec 2016, 10:09 PM	#4
jhollington Essential Contributor Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 371	If you truly wanted to consolidate the accounts, you could also try using the Migrate IMAP Mailbox tool found under Settings, Import & Export — click the link that says "Import mail from another service..." If you then provide the necessary information, that should allow your primary account to basically log into your secondary account via IMAP and suck all of the messages, folders, and everything else in from there, so that all of the data would be consolidated. The only catch is that I'm not entirely sure that FastMail will allow you to do this against its own server, but unless they're specifically blocking or throttling it, I don't see any other reason it shouldn't work — IMAP is IMAP at the end of the day, and I've used this utility numerous times over the years to bring messages into FastMail accounts (and similar tools to suck messages OUT of FastMail accounts). Once you've done that, you could in theory delete the old free account and then setup an alias to it in your paid account. I say "in theory" however because I'm not entirely certain how quickly account names can be recycled into aliases... The name of your free account might remain reserved for some period of time even after you delete the account, preventing you from setting it up as an alias. I'd recommend contacting support directly to get an answer to that question, as you might find yourself stuck if you delete the free account and then can't get that address back as an alias afterward.

14 Dec 2016, 02:03 AM	#5
smhardesty Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2013 Posts: 10	Good ideas there, guys. Certainly food for thought. I'll take a closer look now and see what I come up with. I've made sure to login to the free account at least every week so I wouldn't lose it. It's not so much the "account" I'm worried about losing. It's the address. I've had that address for many years and I'm positive there are probably contacts out there that never changed my address when I sent messages to everyone in an attempt to migrate them to one of my other accounts. Many thanks for the ideas.

14 Dec 2016, 10:20 AM	#6
Terry The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: VK4 Posts: 3,020	You can rename your account once for free so perhaps rename it to the free account name, but you would need f/m assistance to do this.

14 Dec 2016, 12:05 PM	#7
placebo Cornerstone of the Community Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 743	I did something like this years ago. I contacted FM support to find out how quickly I could grab an address once I deleted the account, and they went ahead and took care of removing the old account and adding the alias to my other account. If it's still the same as it was in the past, you can't immediately delete an account. You have to mark your account for deletion, and then it actually happens 7 days later. If it still works this way, your best bet is to contact FM support and have them take care of it for you so you don't risk losing the address.

14 Dec 2016, 02:40 PM	#8
smhardesty Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2013 Posts: 10	That would sure work the best, if they'll still do it. I'll make contact and see where it leads me. Thanks!

14 Dec 2016, 04:59 PM	#9
Terry The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: VK4 Posts: 3,020	They still do it.....

15 Dec 2016, 03:49 AM	#10
smhardesty Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2013 Posts: 10	I just now created a ticket asking to have the old account deleted and then set up as an alias in my paid account.

15 Dec 2016, 04:35 PM	#13
Terry The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: VK4 Posts: 3,020	Glad you got it all sorted out so quickly....