Community Knowledge Base

Mailbox Migration

The mailbox migration tool makes switching email providers easy by importing email, contacts, calendars, tasks, and notes to SmarterMail from most third-party mail servers.

To access the mailbox migration tool, click the Settings icon. Then click on Connectivity from the navigation pane. Here you'll see a Mailbox Migration card. Clicking on the Migrate button will open a modal window.

Follow the on-screen instructions to import email and collaboration data from a third-party mail server or mail service to your SmarterMail mailbox. Depending on the mail server or service you are migrating from, you may be asked to provide the mailbox protocol (POP, IMAP), the server address, port, username and password. Note: It may take some time for your mailbox data to import. You can continue using SmarterMail during this time as the migration process happens in the background. Items migrated will appear as they finish migrating. (As opposed to appearing all at once.) In addition, the type of items available for migration are purely dependent upon the server or service you're migrating from. SmarterMail can not migrate any item that is not allowed by the service provider.

A Note for Microsoft 365 Users - Migrating from Microsoft 365 is easy. However, there are a few things that aren't as clear-cut as moving from an Exchange server. Below is a step-by-step for anyone migrating from Microsoft 365 to SmarterMail:

  1. For the type of account you're going to migrate, select "Microsoft Exchange".
  2. For the Server Address, use "mail.office365.com".
  3. The Domain will be whatever domain you have set up within Microsoft 365.
  4. Your Username is typically just the name of the mailbox...without your domain name appended to it. (E.g., jdoe)
  5. the Password is just that: the password you use to log into your Microsoft 365 mailbox.
  6. You will need to check the Requires SSL checkbox.
  7. From there, the rest is easy. Just hit the Start button and your Microsoft 365 information will start importing into SmarterMail.

International Support

SmarterMail mirrors Microsoft Exchange in that it supports translations for default folder names in over 110 different languages. During a migration, SmarterMail has the ability to transition default folders from the source server's language into a corresponding folder within SmarterMail. For example, "Hộp thư đến" is Vietnamese for "Inbox". When migrating from a Vietnamese server, SmarterMail is able to transition items from "Hộp thư đến" and place them in the "Inbox". The same is true for other default folders such as Drafts, Junk E-Mail, Sent Items, etc. Custom folders are migrated and retain their original names in their original language. That said, some languages use the same default folder names as they are in English. For example, both Filipino and Romanian use "Inbox" and "Outbox".

Importing PST Files

Before importing a PST from an international version of Microsoft Outlook, it is essential that the language selection in SmarterMail matches the language of the PST file. If this isn't done, you will have 2 versions of all the folders that are imported: those already in webmail that are in the language set for the user (e.g., Inbox, Sent Items, Deleted Items, default calendars, pre-existing contacts, etc.) PLUS those that are imported from the PST, which could be in a completely different language. You will then have to go through and move items around, delete incorrect folders, fix calendar appointments, etc. This can be a time-consuming process and may even lead to missing messages, missing contacts or incorrect calendar appointments.