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Old 6 Aug 2013, 02:55 PM   #1
RickM464
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Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Boston, MA
Posts: 4
Advice for moving from Earthlink webmail to a new provider

I'd like some advice about possible ways to move my personal email account from earthlink (actually domain name @mindspring.com, which earthlink owns) to another email provider, such as Fastmail. I have several active email addresses at mindspring.com, but I care about only 3 of them. I've been using these email addresses for over 10 years. In the early years, I used Eudora email client on a single PC, using Pop3, to retrieve and send my email. About 6 years ago, as I started to use multiple PCs, I switched to using Earthlink's webmail and stopped using Pop3 protocol. So all of my received and sent email for the past 6+ years resides on Earthlink's servers. I'm a low volume email receiver and sender, so I've kept all the email I've sent, and most of the email I've received at these three addresses.

The number and size of the email at these addresses is:
Addr 1: 1400 msgs inbox, 1100 msg Sent, 132 MB of mail and attachments.
Addr 2: 3600 msgs inbox, 1000 msg Sent, 186 MB of mail and attachments.
Addr 3: 3300 msgs inbox, 80 msg Sent, 68 MB of mail and attachments.

I plan to use IMAP with my future email provider. I plan to pay for an account, and will either set up one account with multiple addresses (aliases if I understand correctly) to replace the 3 current mindspring addresses, or maybe a family-type account with 3 separate email addresses. (I think this depends on whether I want to merge the contents of my 3 email accounts or keep them separate as they are now. Either is likely acceptable to me, just depends, I think, on whether I'd like them separate, but that also means I have to log in 3 times to check all my email, which is what I do now) (one account is more used than others, so I check email on one account more frequently, and the other two less frequently).

I still use Windows PCs, XP and Vista. I also have a Google Nexus 7 tablet. I don't have a smartphone, yet, but will likely buy one in the next year.

I think my current Earthlink service only supports POP3, not IMAP. Earthlink may also support IMAP but this may be only on business email accounts, not personal accounts like mine. After switching, I will keep my @mindspring addresses active for several months or more, and use auto-forwarding to forward email sent to my old mindspring addresses, to my new email addresses.

I think it would be simple to set up a new email account and address and use pop3 to download all my received and saved email from earthlink to my new email provider (I think I could also set an option to keep a copy of all the email on the earthlink server, if I want). My concern is more how to transfer the Sent email so that the headers are correct and the existing saved Sent email is displayed correctly when using my new email provider (either with a client like Thunderbird, or with the vendor's webmail client) And properly transfer all the received attachments.

I would also like to use a domain I own for the new email addresses, so that I control the addresses and can move them in the future to a different email provider if I choose. My domain is hosted with Hover.com. It is not currently used, or hosted. I know I will have to log in to my account and set up the email addresses I want, then edit the records to send/forward email to my new email provider.

I wondered if there was service that would do this kind of transfer for you, for a fee, and found YippieMove, but it supposedly only works if your current provider supports IMAP, and while their website states that their service works with Earthlink, I am guessing that really means with Earthlink business email, not Earthlink personal email.

Also while I could use Gmail, I would prefer to use a paid service like Fastmail. But if for some reason, Gmail has some better transfer tools, or there are some techniques or services for transferring that work better with Gmail, I would be OK with doing a two-step process of transferring email from Earthlink to Gmail, and then Gmail to Fastmail (or other provider, is something else is recommended).

My biggest concern is having this switch go smoothly and easily, with the least chance of something going wrong and losing my email, or having it transferred in a way that makes it much harder to search and find old email messages. A smaller concern is missing or losing emails. My least concern is cost, or how long it takes to make the switch.

Thanks for any advice. Or ask me questions if there is some relevant info I've left out.
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Old 6 Aug 2013, 06:59 PM   #2
janusz
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Various forum members recommended MailStore for moving emails. Do a forum search and see for yourself.
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Old 6 Aug 2013, 09:49 PM   #3
jeffpan
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I was also an earthlink email user years ago, I like their webmail, but the premium mail is about 50 USD per year I thought it's not cheap, so l left them.
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Old 8 Aug 2013, 08:07 AM   #4
RickM464
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Thank you janusz for your reply. When I looked for solutions to my problem, I probably searched for "moving" or "transfer"-ing email. If I understand correctly, the better technique is to archive/backup your existing email with a service like MailStore, and then restore your email from Mailstore to your new email provider. Is this correct?

I looked a bit at Mailstore, and initially it looked like the cost was $190 for a minimum of 5 licenses. Then I found the link for "MailStore Home" which is free for personal use -- and I want to move my personal email. ( http://www.mailstore.com/en/mailstore-home.aspx )

I'll do a test with one less-used Earthlink email address and see if the archive then restore technique does what I want. I'm assuming that it will properly preserve the From: and To: headers for the Sent email, but I'll verify.

Thanks for pointing me toward a possible solution.
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Old 8 Aug 2013, 04:50 PM   #5
janusz
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RickM464 View Post
the better technique is to archive/backup your existing email with a service like MailStore, and then restore your email from Mailstore to your new email provider. Is this correct?
That's my understanding, and some forum members did exactly that.
I used IMAPSIZE in the past, which is still around, though apparently no longer developed.
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Old 24 Aug 2013, 02:29 AM   #6
RickM464
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Following up.
I read some info at Mailstore Home support forums (at GetSatisfaction.com) and found info that, due to limitations of Pop3, mailstore can only archive Inbox email; it cannot do Sent email.
see Q&A from august 2010: https://getsatisfaction.com/email_ar...r_pop3_backups

My existing provider, Earthlink personal email, only provides Pop3 access, not IMAP.

So maybe the reason there is no service or software to transfer or archive existing emails from Earthlink is that the Pop3 protocol does not support such a service. (and maybe Earthlink has not added IMAP either for cost or technical reasons, or for business reasons because it makes it harder for existing customers to leave.
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Old 24 Aug 2013, 03:09 AM   #7
kaptitsky
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With most providers who provide POP3, moving mail to the inbox makes it accessible via POP collection.

This is a messy solution, having to move mail to the inbox in the old mail provider and then move it back to folders on the new provider, but it may let you accomplish what you want, a full backup.

Make sure the target system does have IMAP access, and then you can back up all the folders after the move.
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Old 24 Aug 2013, 03:43 AM   #8
RickM464
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Yes, thank you for reply. I had read that one workaround (likely the only workaround) is to download/archive emails using just the inbox, by doing each folder one at a time, and moving emails in and out of temporary folders, such the Inbox folder is used as the one transferring folder.

There's a short write-up for earthlink and gmail's mailfetcher here:
http://productforums.google.com/foru...il/yRTQgZK-Tw8

and a long detailed explanation of how to back up emails from earthlink webmail, at earthlink email support (from official "EmailGuy") here:
http://mailblog.earthlink.net/webmai...to_my_co_1.php

Since I have 3 email accounts, it will be a bit more manual work for me; but it's a one-time task. Didn't know about these issues when I signed up .. in 1999. :-)

For doing this workaround, are these any pros / cons to installing and using an email client such as Thunderbird, versus using email archive software such as Mailstore Home? -- with the eventual target of uploading email to new account(s) at Fastmail. I'm on Windows XP machine.
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Old 11 Jul 2022, 03:35 PM   #9
charliesmith
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Join Date: Jul 2022
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RickM464 View Post
I'd like some advice about possible ways to move my personal email account from earthlink (actually domain name @mindspring.com, which earthlink owns) to another email provider, such as Fastmail. I have several active email addresses at mindspring.com, but I care about only 3 of them. I've been using these email addresses for over 10 years. In the early years, I used Eudora email client on a single PC, using Pop3, to retrieve and send my email. About 6 years ago, as I started to use multiple PCs, I switched to using Earthlink's webmail and stopped using Pop3 protocol. So all of my received and sent email for the past 6+ years resides on Earthlink's servers. I'm a low volume email receiver and sender, so I've kept all the email I've sent, and most of the email I've received at these three addresses.

The number and size of the email at these addresses is:
Addr 1: 1400 msgs inbox, 1100 msg Sent, 132 MB of mail and attachments.
Addr 2: 3600 msgs inbox, 1000 msg Sent, 186 MB of mail and attachments.
Addr 3: 3300 msgs inbox, 80 msg Sent, 68 MB of mail and attachments.

I plan to use IMAP with my future email provider. I plan to pay for an account, and will either set up one account with multiple addresses (aliases if I understand correctly) to replace the 3 current mindspring addresses, or maybe a family-type account with 3 separate email addresses. (I think this depends on whether I want to merge the contents of my 3 email accounts or keep them separate as they are now. Either is likely acceptable to me, just depends, I think, on whether I'd like them separate, but that also means I have to log in 3 times to check all my email, which is what I do now) (one account is more used than others, so I check email on one account more frequently, and the other two less frequently).

I still use Windows PCs, XP and Vista. I also have a Google Nexus 7 tablet. I don't have a smartphone, yet, but will likely buy one in the next year.

I think my current Earthlink service only supports POP3, not IMAP. Earthlink may also support IMAP but this may be only on business email accounts, not personal accounts like mine. After switching, I will keep my @mindspring addresses active for several months or more, and use auto-forwarding to forward email sent to my old mindspring addresses, to my new email addresses.

I think it would be simple to set up a new email account and address and use pop3 to download all my received and saved email from earthlink to my new email provider (I think I could also set an option to keep a copy of all the email on the earthlink server, if I want). My concern is more how to transfer the Sent email so that the headers are correct and the existing saved Sent email is displayed correctly when using my new email provider (either with a client like Thunderbird, or with the vendor's webmail client) And properly transfer all the received attachments.

I would also like to use a domain I own for the new email addresses, so that I control the addresses and can move them in the future to a different email provider if I choose. My domain is hosted with Hover.com. It is not currently used, or hosted. I know I will have to log in to my account and set up the email addresses I want, then edit the records to send/forward email to my new email provider.

I wondered if there was service that would do this kind of transfer for you, for a fee, and found YippieMove, but it supposedly only works if your current provider supports IMAP, and while their website states that their service works with Earthlink, I am guessing that really means with Earthlink business email, not Earthlink personal email.

Also while I could use Gmail, I would prefer to use a paid service like Fastmail. But if for some reason, Gmail has some better transfer tools, or there are some techniques or services for transferring that work better with Gmail, I would be OK with doing a two-step process of transferring email from Earthlink to Gmail, and then Gmail to Fastmail (or other provider, is something else is recommended).

My biggest concern is having this switch go smoothly and easily, with the least chance of something going wrong and losing my email, or having it transferred in a way that makes it much harder to search and find old email messages. A smaller concern is missing or losing emails. My least concern is cost, or how long it takes to make the switch.

Thanks for any advice. Or ask me questions if there is some relevant info I've left out.
I really don't think so about this. Like I was facing some Earthlink email problems & not able to receive new messages. But when I googled about this problem, I found a blog where they have clearly mentioned that if you're not receiving messages in Earthlink account, then there are high probabilities that this issue will only take place when your Earthlink account space is full. And when I checked! Guess what? It was full & that was the reason I was not able to receive any messages. After clearing some space, I got new messages easily. If you're also facing some kind of problem in your Earthlink account, then this might be a perfect read for you: https://emailspedia.com/earthlink-email-not-working/
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