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Guide

Moving your business email, without missing a message.

If your email came bundled with an old website plan, it can switch off when you cancel that plan. Here is how to move it to a provider you control, in an order that keeps mail flowing the whole time.

The short version

  • Pick a new email provider and sign up in your own name. Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 are the common choices.
  • Create the same addresses there, and copy your old mail across before you change anything.
  • Switch the MX records last, then copy once more to catch stragglers.
  • Cancel the old plan only after two quiet weeks.

Graft Labs does not host email. I can check your records and walk you through each step, but the mailboxes are yours, with a provider you pay directly.

Before you start

  • Your DNS login. You need to change records on your domain. See getting your domain if you are not sure where it is.
  • Each old mailbox’s login, or the old provider’s admin login. The migration tools sign in to the old mailbox to copy it.
  • The old provider’s IMAP server name (often something like imap.provider.com). It is in their help pages or your mail app settings.
  • A list of every address, including shared ones like info@ and aliases or forwards.
  • A copy of your current DNS records. Take a screenshot or export of the full list.

Step by step

  1. Sign up for the new provider with your domain. Choose Google Workspace or Microsoft 365. Use your own name and a card you control.
  2. Verify the domain. The provider gives you a TXT record to add. It does not affect your current email. How-to: Google, Microsoft.
  3. Create the mailboxes with the same addresses as before, plus any aliases and groups (info@, office@).
  4. Lower the TTL on your MX records to 300 seconds (5 minutes), at least a day ahead (what TTL means). This makes the switch quick, and quick to undo.
  5. Copy the old mail. In Google Workspace, use the data import tool in the Admin console (Data, then Data import & export). In Microsoft 365, use an IMAP migration in the Exchange admin center. Both copy mail over IMAP from the old mailbox. Large mailboxes can take a day.
  6. Switch the MX records at a quiet time. Delete the old MX records and add the new provider’s exact values (Google MX values; Microsoft shows yours during domain setup).
  7. Update SPF. Keep exactly one TXT record starting with v=spf1. Swap the old provider’s include for the new one. Keep includes for anything else that sends as you, such as your website’s contact form or an invoicing tool. How-to: Google SPF, Microsoft SPF.
  8. Turn on DKIM in the new provider’s admin and add the record it gives you. Add a DMARC record if you don’t have one (start with v=DMARC1; p=none). How-to: Google DKIM, Google DMARC, Microsoft DKIM, Microsoft DMARC.
  9. Reconnect phones and computers. Remove the old account from your mail apps and add the new one.
  10. Copy again. Run the migration once more a day or two later, to pick up messages that reached the old mailbox during the switch.
  11. Test both ways. Send from a personal address to each business address, and reply.
  12. Download a backup of the old mailbox, if the old provider offers one, then cancel the old email plan after two weeks without new mail arriving there.

Things that are easy to miss

  • Contacts and calendars may not move with the mail. Export them from the old account and import them into the new one (for Google: import contacts).
  • Forwards and auto-replies set up at the old provider stop working. Recreate them.
  • Logins that use your email. Password resets for your bank, suppliers and apps go to these addresses. Make sure they arrive after the switch.
  • Website contact forms that send to your address keep working, but check one after the switch.
  • Undo plan. If mail stops arriving, put the old MX records back from your copy. With the low TTL, that takes effect in minutes.

Questions people ask

Do you host email?

No. Graft Labs builds and hosts websites only. Your mailboxes live with an email provider you choose and pay directly, such as Google Workspace or Microsoft 365. I can walk you through the move and check your DNS records, but the mailboxes are yours.

Will I lose old emails?

Not if you copy them before cancelling the old plan. Both Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 have built-in tools that copy mail from your old mailbox over IMAP. Run the copy before you switch, then once more after, to pick up anything that arrived in between.

Will people’s emails to me bounce during the switch?

They shouldn’t. Mail keeps going to the old mailbox until the MX records change, and after that to the new one. Lowering the TTL a day ahead makes the change take effect in minutes. For a short while some messages can still land in the old mailbox, which is why you keep it open for two weeks and run the copy again.

What does it cost?

On October 29, 2026, Google listed Business Starter at $7 per user a month on a yearly plan, or $8.40 a month on the flexible plan. Microsoft lists Business Basic at a similar price per user a month, paid yearly. Check the provider’s pricing page for the current figure.

Related guides

Moving your website as well? Read switching website providers without losing your email. Do the email move first, or at least before you cancel the old website plan.

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