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Breitloh

Business email, moved without losing a message

Email tends to end up wherever the website happened to be hosted in 2014. That works until the mailbox is full, the shared inbox is really one person's account, or the person holding the password has left. Moving it is a day of careful work and one evening of cutover.

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Mailboxes copied from an old server to a hosted tenant with the folders and history intact

Where it usually hurts

It lives with the wrong people
Email bundled in with old hosting, or sitting in a former agency's account, means somebody outside your organisation can read, forward, or lose it. That is a data protection problem before it is an inconvenience.
Shared inboxes that are not shared
The accounts address is really Karen's mailbox with a forward on it. When Karen is away, or leaves, the enquiries go with her, and nobody can tell what was answered.
Nobody wants to touch it
Everyone knows the setup is wrong, and everyone knows an email outage is the one thing that stops the whole business, so it stays wrong for years. The fear is reasonable. The way round it is a rehearsal and an evening.

What the job covers

  • A tenant set up properly, with mailboxes, aliases, and genuine shared mailboxes rather than forwards
  • Existing mail, contacts, and calendars migrated with folder structure and dates intact
  • Cutover run outside working hours, with the old mailboxes left in place until the new ones are proven
  • SPF, DKIM, and DMARC published as part of the move, so deliverability improves rather than breaks
  • Every device and phone checked the next morning, because that is where the calls come from

What it has to talk to

Whatever you are moving from
cPanel and webmail, an old Exchange server, Google Workspace to Microsoft 365 or the other way, or a mailbox tangled up with a hosting account. Each has its own quirk in how much history it will hand over.
Phones, laptops, and the printer
The scanner in the corner that emails PDFs is nearly always the last thing anyone remembers, and the first thing that stops working. It goes on the list at the start.
Your domain and DNS
The move is a DNS change with a mailbox migration behind it, so the two are planned together, with the records prepared in advance and the time to live lowered before the evening it happens.

A worked approach, not a client

How I would move email off an old host

  1. 01

    Inventory and rehearse

    Every mailbox, alias, forward, and distribution list written down, then a copy of the mail synced into the new tenant while the old one carries on running. Nothing is switched at this point.

  2. 02

    Cut over in the evening

    DNS moved when nobody is sending, a final sync to catch the afternoon's mail, and the old mailboxes left untouched. If anything is wrong, the way back is one record.

  3. 03

    Sit with it the next morning

    Devices, phones, the scanner, and the shared mailboxes all checked while people arrive, which is when problems actually show up. Then the authentication records are finished off.

Questions I get asked about this

The ones that come up on almost every first call. If yours is not here, ask it and you will get a straight answer.

Will we lose any email during the move?

No, because nothing is deleted and nothing is moved in one direction only. Mail is copied to the new mailboxes while the old ones keep running, then a final sync catches anything that arrived during the evening. The old mailboxes stay available until you are happy.

Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace?

Whichever your organisation already leans towards. If your documents are in Word and Excel and your accountant sends spreadsheets, Microsoft is less friction. If everyone is already in Docs and Sheets, Google is. Both are fine as email, and I would rather match how you work than argue for the one I prefer.

How long will we be without email?

You should not be at all. A cutover is a DNS change, so mail routes to the new mailboxes as records update, and anything sent to the old ones during that window is picked up by the final sync. The nervous hour is the evening it happens, not the working day.

What does it cost to run afterwards?

A licence per mailbox, paid to Microsoft or Google, in your own account. Aliases and shared mailboxes are free on both, which matters, because paying for a full licence for info@ is a common and unnecessary cost. I would rather set it up so you pay for people, not addresses.

Our email is tied to our website hosting. Is that a problem?

It is the usual reason for the move. Bundled email means a hosting decision becomes an email decision, and the two should be independent. Separating them also makes changing hosting later a small job rather than a frightening one.

A former agency controls our domain. Can we still move?

Yes, and you should. Getting the domain into your own account is a job in itself and it comes first, because until it is done somebody else can end your email with one click.

Will moving improve deliverability?

Usually, because the new setup is authenticated properly from the start rather than inheriting years of half configured records. Getting SPF, DKIM, and DMARC right is part of the move, not an extra.

Can you set up a shared mailbox for enquiries?

Yes, and it is the change people notice most. A real shared mailbox means several people see the same enquiries, replies come from the same address, and it is obvious what has been answered. It is also the difference between a person leaving and a mailbox leaving.

Related

Tell me what you have now

Half an hour on a call, and a straight answer about whether this is the right job and whether I am the right person for it.

Book a callhello@breitloh.com