How to move your existing email to Maxinodes

Applies to: All plans. Moving your mail into the mailboxes included with your hosting is free on every plan, and we do it for you. Moving it into Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace (Professional Email) is free and guided when the seats are ordered through us.

Every hosting plan includes mailboxes on your own domain, and the mail you already have can come with you: your messages and folders, under the same addresses. This article covers the three routes, the order of the switch, the nameserver trap to know about, and the limits that apply once your mail is here.

The short version: tell us where your mail is now before you switch nameservers or cancel your old hosting. We create the mailboxes, copy your mail, switch it over with you and copy once more at the end. Keep the old mailboxes for a week after that.

Three routes, depending on where your mail is now

From another host that uses cPanel

This is the easiest case. The cPanel account transfer that moves your site brings the mail with it: mailboxes, their passwords, forwarders and filters arrive in one pass, so everyone keeps their address and their password. All we need is a full cPanel backup from your old host, the same one we use for the site; it includes the mail. See cPanel-to-cPanel transfers explained.

From any other provider

From anywhere else (a host with another control panel, a webmail service, an old office server) we create the mailboxes here with the same addresses and copy your mail and folders across over IMAP, the standard protocol mail apps use. To do that we sign in to each old mailbox, so we need its current password, or a temporary password you set at the old provider just for the move. Some providers, Microsoft 365 and Gmail among them, handle sign-in differently; we tell you what the copy needs from them.

Never paste a password into a support request, chat or email. Our Help Center, chat and support inboxes run on a third-party helpdesk, so anything typed there is stored on someone else's systems. List the addresses in your request, and we agree a secure one-off way for you to hand the passwords over. When the move is signed off, change those passwords or close the old mailboxes.

IMAP carries mail and folders only. Contacts, calendars and inbox rules don't travel with it. Export your contacts and calendars from the old provider before that account closes, and import them into your mail app or phone. Note down your rules, too, so you can set them up again after the move.

Into Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace

If you need shared calendars, Teams, shared drives or compliance features, or would rather your mail didn't share a server with your website, choose Professional Email and move your mail into it instead:

Seats ordered through us include free, guided migration, whatever your hosting plan: we create the account and the mailboxes, copy your mail with the provider's own IMAP migration tool, set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC, and coordinate the switch with you. If your seats came from somewhere else, the move is self-serve, and we can advise in chat.
The provider's IMAP migration copies mail and folders only. We don't move contacts or calendars, so export them from the old provider yourself before that account closes.
The DNS values (MX, SPF, DKIM) are specific to your tenant and always come from the Microsoft 365 admin centre or the Google Workspace setup wizard.

Step by step: How to migrate your email to Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace. To order seats: How to add Professional Email to your hosting. You can also start on the included mailboxes and move to Professional Email later: the route is the same, with our server as the old provider.

The switch, in five steps

Whichever route you take, the order is the same:

The mailboxes exist here and work. Every address you use has a mailbox here. A cPanel transfer creates them; otherwise we create them, or you do, on the service page in the client area under Email Accounts (see How to create a mailbox). You can set or change each mailbox's password there at any time. A new mailbox starts at 1 GB, so raise each one above the size of the mail it is about to receive. Sign in to one with webmail and send a test message.
First copy. We copy your existing mail across while new mail still arrives in the old mailboxes. Senders notice nothing.
Switch the mail over. Point the domain's MX record at mx.maxinodes.com, or switch the nameservers (read the next section first). On our nameservers, the mail records are changed in the client area DNS manager, and we do it with you; if your DNS stays elsewhere, the records to add there are in The DNS records your email needs. DNS changes take minutes to a few hours, occasionally up to 24–48 hours, and while they spread, a message can land in either the old or the new mailbox.
Final copy. Once the change has spread, we copy again, which catches anything that landed in the old mailboxes during the switch. Then set up each mail app and phone with the new settings: Mail app settings for your mailbox (IMAP, POP3, SMTP).
Keep the old mailboxes for a week. Don't cancel the old hosting or mail service yet: a late message or a forgotten folder can still be rescued from there.

Result: your existing mail is in your new mailboxes, new mail arrives at Maxinodes, and the final copy has picked up whatever arrived during the switch.

Before you switch nameservers: where will your mail go?

Pointing your domain at ns1.maxinodes.com and ns2.maxinodes.com moves your website. Whether it moves your mail as well depends on your domain's current MX record, the address that mail for your domain is delivered to:

Your MX record now	After the nameserver switch	What to do
A name inside your own domain, such as `mail.yourdomain.com` (typical of an old cPanel host)	Incoming mail comes to Maxinodes at once	Create the mailboxes here before you switch. Mail to an address with no mailbox here bounces.
A name of your old host's own, such as `mx1.oldhost.com`	We keep that record, so mail keeps going to the old host until the MX is changed	Move the mail and change the MX before you cancel the old hosting. Once it closes, mail to your domain stops arriving.
Microsoft 365, Google Workspace or another mail service	We keep those records, so your mail stays where it is	Nothing, unless you want to move it.

Tell us before you switch nameservers or cancel your old hosting. We check which case applies to your domain and move your mailboxes and mail with you, free.

What limits apply

Your mail moves into your plan's mailboxes, so your plan's limits apply to it:

Plan	Mailboxes	Maximum size per mailbox
Self-Managed Lite	10	5 GB
Self-Managed Plus	50	10 GB
Self-Managed Pro	Unlimited	10 GB
Managed Starter	25	10 GB
Managed Growth	100	10 GB
Managed Business	Unlimited	25 GB

Mailboxes share your plan's storage with your website, so the mail you bring and your site need to fit in it together. See What's included in your plan.
A mailbox bigger than your plan's maximum doesn't fit as it is. Archive older mail first (for example into a folder on your computer), move to a larger plan, or consider Professional Email.

More detail, including what happens when a mailbox fills up: Mailbox and sending limits.

What we need from you

Your domain and the list of addresses to move, plus any forwarding addresses, so nothing is left behind.
Where your mail is now: the old host or provider and, if you know it, its IMAP server name.
Where your domain's DNS is managed: at the old host, at your registrar or with another DNS provider.
The rough size of each mailbox, so we can check it fits and estimate the copy time.
From a cPanel host, a full cPanel backup. From anywhere else, each mailbox's password or a temporary one, handed over the secure way we agree with you, never in the request.

Moving your site at the same time? See What we need from you to migrate (checklist).

Good to know

You don't have to move your mail. If you'd rather keep it at another provider, keep your MX pointing there. See Using your own email provider (BYO email).
A forwarder is not a mailbox. Email Forwarders on the service page, or forwarding on a domain without hosting, pass mail on to another inbox; they store nothing. See How to forward email (forwarders) and Email forwarding for your domain: where to set it up.

Troubleshooting this task

New mail still arrives in the old mailboxes. The MX change hasn't spread yet, or the old MX record is still in place. Check the MX in the client area DNS manager and wait out the TTL; the final copy picks up whatever lands there meanwhile.
Some messages are missing after the switch. They most likely reached the old mailboxes while the change was spreading. While the old mailboxes are still open, ask us for one more copy.
The copy stopped partway. Usually the mailbox here is full, or the old provider limited the connection. Raise the mailbox's size (up to your plan's maximum), and we run the copy again.
Someone's old mail is missing, and they used POP3. POP3 downloads mail to one computer and often deletes it from the server, so the server has nothing left to copy. Add the new mailbox to that computer's mail app and drag the old folders into it.
A mail app keeps asking for the password after the switch. It is still using old settings or an old saved password, and repeated failed sign-ins lock the mailbox for a few minutes. Update the settings and the password on every device; see My mail app can't connect, or keeps asking for my password.
Mail stopped arriving after the old hosting was cancelled. Your MX still pointed at the old host. Tell us at once so the MX can be pointed at Maxinodes, and ask anyone whose message bounced in the meantime to send it again.