IMAP to IMAP Email Migration Tool IMAP to IMAP Email Migration Tool

Download IMAP to IMAP Email Migration Tool

IMAP to IMAP Email Migration Tool copies the folders of an old mailbox into a new one and keeps original dates and read status. Runs on your Windows PC.

   
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IMAP to IMAP Email Migration Tool Screenshot.
Changing email provider usually means years of mail stuck on the old server. SoftOrbits IMAP Migration Tool copies that mail into the new mailbox over IMAP. Sign in to the old account on the left, the new one on the right, tick the folders and press Start. Messages go from server to server through your own computer, and no SoftOrbits cloud sits in between.

How to download and use the IMAP to IMAP Email Migration Tool

Connect the old mailbox.

1. Connect the old mailbox

1. Connect the old mailbox

Download the IMAP to IMAP Email Migration Tool and install it on Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit. Type the old address in the From panel. For a hosting or company server pick Other IMAP server and enter host and port. Press Test.

Connect the new mailbox and tick folders.

2. Connect the new mailbox and tick folders

2. Connect the new mailbox and tick folders

Do the same in the To panel. When both sides pass, the folder tree opens: tick what to copy on the left. Choose all messages, the last 12 months or your own date range.

Start, stop, continue.

3. Start, stop, continue

3. Start, stop, continue

Press Start and watch the folders fill. You can stop whenever you need. Next run continues from the same place.

Run it twice, still one copy.

Run it twice, still one copy

Duplicates come up again and again in IMAP migration threads. One wrong re-import, and a mailbox fills up to its quota with copies of the same letters. IMAP to IMAP Email Migration Tool looks up each Message-ID in the destination first and writes its own journal of what went through. In one of our test runs we force-closed it 5 times partway through the copy. The destination ended with the same 2,160 messages the source had.

   
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Your Microsoft password stays on the Microsoft page

Google and Microsoft have both stopped accepting a regular password for IMAP sign-in, and older tools built around that password can no longer connect. With a Microsoft account you enter the password on Microsoft's own page, so the program never sees it. The big consumer services take an app password, which you can delete after the move. Nothing is saved to disk either, and after a restart you enter the passwords again.

   
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Your Microsoft password stays on the Microsoft page.
Try it on your own mailbox before you buy.

Try it on your own mailbox before you buy

Every mail host behaves a bit different. The trial copies the 25 newest messages from every folder in the run, and you watch real dates and real speed on your own account. The rest waits as Awaiting license. Enter a key, run it again, and only the remaining messages come over. On a folder of 60 messages that was 25 first, then 35, total 60 with no repeats.

   
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Provider presets

Type an address and the program picks the preset by its domain. Gmail, Outlook.com, Hotmail, Live, Yahoo, iCloud, me.com and mac.com are recognized, so server name and port fill in by themselves. For anything else there is Other IMAP server, where you set host, port and SSL/TLS, STARTTLS or no encryption.

A test that names the problem

The connection check runs in three stages, from Server responds through Sign-in to Folders. When one fails, you get the reason in simple words. Maybe IMAP is disabled in the mailbox settings, or the server wants an app password. Port and encryption may not match, and most of the time that means 993 needs SSL/TLS and 143 needs STARTTLS.

Folder map before you start

Folders are matched by role. Sent Mail in Gmail goes to Sent Items in Microsoft 365, and Drafts or Archive find their pair the same way. A folder the new side doesn't have gets a will be created badge. Gmail's All Mail, Important and Starred start unticked, because they repeat mail from other labels. Trash and Junk also start unticked; tick them if you want them.

Byte-exact transfer

The IMAP migration tool sends each message as raw bytes and keeps its original received date and flags, so a letter that was read or starred shows up the same way in the new mailbox. The old mailbox is read in peek mode, which means unread mail there stays unread. We checked 20 of 20 samples by SHA-256 on our own server, one of them 13.9 MB, and every hash matched.

Recovers from bad connections

If the link drops, the tool reconnects with up to 5 tries, pausing 2, 5, 10, 20 and 30 seconds. A server that says slow down gets a wait of 30 to 120 seconds, then the same message is sent again and isn't counted as an error. A message bigger than the receiving server accepts is skipped and logged, and the rest continue.

Progress in numbers

The mailbox migration tool lists each folder in a table with Moved, Already there and Errors counts. Time left is calculated from the last 60 seconds of work, so the estimate corrects itself when things slow down. The migration log, written in plain language, shows per folder what was copied and what was skipped, with the reason.

IMAP to IMAP Email Migration Tool
IMAP to IMAP Email Migration ToolDownload the IMAP to IMAP Email Migration Tool, test both connections and check the folder map before a single message moves.
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Who needs IMAP to IMAP Email Migration Tool

Your provider is closing its email

Internet providers and old hosting plans shut down mailboxes, and ten years of letters sit on a server with an end date. Open the new mailbox first. Then copy the old folders across while the old login still works.

Small office moving to Microsoft 365

The company bought Microsoft 365, but everyone's history is still on the hosting server. Move one person's mailbox at a time, during lunch or after hours. A work tenant can ask for admin consent at first sign-in, and the program shows exactly what to forward to the admin.

One inbox instead of two

The Yahoo or Gmail address you opened in college still receives an odd receipt, while you moved everyday use to a newer account long ago. Pull the old letters into the new mailbox once and stop checking two places.

IMAP to IMAP Email Migration Tool

IMAP to IMAP Email Migration Tool

Languages
File Size

67.7 Mb

Version

3.2

Last updated on

22/06/26

$ 24.99

🖥️ System Requirements

  • Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7 (32/64 bit)
  • Intel i3, AMD Ryzen 5 or above
  • 4 GB of RAM or above
  • NVIDIA® GeForce® series 8 and 8M, Intel® HD Graphics 2000, Quadro FX 4800, Quadro FX 5600, AMD Radeon™ R600, Mobility Radeon™ HD 4330, Mobility FirePro™ series, Radeon™ R5 M230 or higher graphics card with up-to-date drivers
  • 1280 × 768 screen resolution, 32-bit color
  • 1 GB of free hard disk space or above

🙋 Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, but most free options are command-line scripts or admin tools built into a mail service. IMAP to IMAP Email Migration Tool has a free trial you can run on your own mailbox before you decide.

Connect the old server as the source, the new server as the destination, and copy the folders over IMAP. For a hosting or company server you need host name, port and encryption type from the provider. Test with one small folder first, then tick the whole tree.

Mailbox size and the limits of both servers matter more than your internet speed. Gmail caps IMAP traffic too. For Workspace accounts Google publishes the figure, 2,500 MB of downloads per day, with a pause of usually an hour and up to 24 hours after going over. The limit for personal Gmail isn't published. Plan for a mailbox of several gigabytes to take more than one day, and pick Last 12 months first so recent mail is across on day one.

Partly. imapsync is an open-source command-line program, and its source code is free. The ready-to-run build and support are paid, according to the author's site. The program itself has no desktop interface (the author runs a separate web version), so it suits admins who write scripts more than someone moving one personal mailbox.

Yes. Exchange Online, part of Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365), includes IMAP migration for administrators. Per Microsoft Learn, it moves up to 500,000 items from a mailbox and skips any message larger than 35 MB. It needs admin rights and only brings mail into Microsoft 365. For a single mailbox, or when the new home is not Microsoft, a desktop IMAP tool is faster to set up.

You can't convert the account itself, but you can migrate Gmail to Outlook mail by mail. Create the Outlook.com or Microsoft 365 mailbox, connect Gmail as the source with an app password and Microsoft as the destination, then copy. Gmail labels arrive as folders. Contacts and calendars are not part of IMAP, so move them separately with export and import in Google and Outlook.

For many personal accounts it is not your normal password. Gmail and Yahoo need an app password created in the account security settings, and Google shows that option only after 2-Step Verification is on. iCloud Mail asks for two-factor authentication before it gives one. Microsoft accounts sign in without an app password.

First make sure IMAP is enabled in the web settings of the mailbox. Then check that the password is an app password where the provider requires one, and that port matches encryption type. The Test button names this mismatch when it fails. If the error mentions a certificate, copy the host name exactly as your provider writes it.

Not with the current version. Work and school Workspace accounts often can't create app passwords because the admin blocks them, and plain password sign-in for IMAP is turned off there. IMAP to IMAP Email Migration Tool works with personal Gmail accounts. For Workspace mail, talk to your Workspace admin first.

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Author: SoftOrbits (English)
Avg. rating: 4.5 from 825 votes
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Desktop software for Windows