Will I Lose Emails If I Change Web Hosts?

When you change Web hosts, you will lose emails unless you take steps to retain them. You can keep email addresses when you change Web host as long as you transfer your domain name to your new host. Once you are set up with the new host you can create the same addresses you had at the original host. However, retaining an email address does not retain received and sent email messages at that address. You can take steps to retain this data, as well as other email-related data such as the addresses of your contacts. Preserving your email address ensures that people are still able to contact you even after a Web host change.

Email Address

An email address is associated with a domain name. If your domain name is registered through your existing Web host and you want to keep it, you will need to transfer it to your new host. You can then set up the same email address (or addresses if you have more than one) with your new host. When the domain transfers to your new host, the new version of your email address will continue to receive emails as the old one did. This means that you can continue to use the same email address to send mail and that people can continue to contact you on it. If you do not transfer your domain name and set up the email address again with your new host, you will lose that email address.

Export

Although you can transfer your email address to the new host along with your domain name, this does not mean that the mail associated with your email address will also be transferred. If you do not export emails while you still have a functioning account with your existing host, you will lose those mail messages. When exporting mail, you may need to consider how your mail folders are organized and make sure you export from all relevant mail folders, including any you have in your inbox and sent mail. You may also wish to export email addresses for your contacts if you have an address book.

Import

If you choose to set up your existing email address at your new host, when you access your email account it will not display previously sent and received emails at the address. However, depending on the email client you are using, you may be able to import the mail data you exported from the old host. If you had multiple folders in your mail, for example in the inbox, you may need to manually create these again in the new account before you can import data. Depending on the program you are using, you may be able to import sent mail as well as mail in the inbox folders.

Issues

Although it is possible to retain mail data while transferring a domain and email address from one host to another, you may encounter issues during the process. For example, your new host will become responsible for the details of managing your domain, including domain registration. When a domain changes to a new host or server, it can take some time for the domain to function correctly at its new location. This includes email addresses associated with the domain, so there may be a gap between your email continuing on the old hosting account and becoming available on the new one.