How do I get my emails back (changed host)?

[klashjelm]

Hi,

I’m using a macbook and Mac mail. I recently moved one of my websites to a new hosting, and when changing the email settings for the related email address, all old emails disappeared. That’s maybe natural, but I wasn’t thinking of backing them up first.

Is there a way to get them back? I do not have a recent backup, but I do still have them all on my iphone, as I haven’t changed the settings there yet.

 

[Fishrrman]

" I do still have them all on my iphone, as I haven’t changed the settings there yet."

DON'T change those settings, at least for the moment.

Would it be possible to "forward" ALL of your old emails to your NEW email account?
I realize this will be a big job.

I'm thinking that if you no longer have an account at your "old host", it might be only a matter of time before emails stored on their server will just... disappear.

Something else:
If you're using IMAP for email (instead of "POP"), seems to me the content of email "stays on the server" when you read it (rather than being transferred to your own Mac).

If you want the actual content of the emails to be transferred, you need to create "local mailboxes" on your Mac, and then copy the emails into them. This copies the content, and not just "the headers".

So... once you get the emails "forwarded", THEN you need to copy them into local folders (Mail calls these folders "on my Mac") to actually have copies of them under your control.

 

[klashjelm]

Thanks for the suggestion, but these are thousands of emails over several years. Even though I don't necessarily need all of them, it's just too much effort going through them all manually on the phone. Surely there must be some sort of other solution, right?

 

[chown33]

Maybe contact the old hosting service and ask to retrieve the old emails.

 

[martint235]

Silly question but can’t you just add your old email address back into Mail or did you terminate the contract?

 

[ivanwi11iams]

Do you still have access to your old host? If so, merely add the email profile to Outlook or some app, and then export them all. Then import them all into your new account...

 

[6916494]

• Setup the old and the new email account in Apple Mail.
• Make sure that for the old email account settings you set "Download Attachments" to "All" in the Mail's preferences.
• Let the Mail application synchronise all emails (in the Mail menu, select "Window", then "Activity" to monitor it). This might takes hours and hours if you have a lot of emails.
• Mark all emails in the inbox of the old email account and drag them into the new email account's inbox.
• Mark all emails in the "Sent" of the old email account and drag them into the new email account's "Sent" folder.
• Wait until the new email account has synchronised with the host, then deactivate the old email account (or remove it).

 

[klashjelm]

Thank you soooo much for the detailed instructions lukas.j! Started syncing now, so let's hope it works!