Migrate your email to KapsuleHost (self-serve wizard)

What this wizard does

The email migration wizard at kpanel.kapsulehost.com/migrate/new?kind=email copies every message, folder, flag and date from your current mailbox into a new KapsuleHost mailbox. You watch progress per mailbox in a live monitor, and flip your MX records when you're ready.

Source can be anything that speaks IMAP:

• Google Workspace / Gmail (with an app password)
• Microsoft 365 / Outlook (with an app password + IMAP enabled on your tenant)
• Apple iCloud (with an app-specific password)
• Yahoo, Zoho, FastMail, cPanel, anything else with standard IMAP

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Before you start

1. Add the destination domain to KapsuleHost under Domains (if not already)
2. Check your plan's mailbox cap — the wizard shows "X / Y mailboxes used on Pro" in the rail. If you need more, upgrade in Billing.
3. Generate an app password on the source provider — the wizard walks you through each provider step-by-step.

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Step-by-step

1. Pick what you're moving

Visit kpanel.kapsulehost.com/migrate/new and click Email & mailboxes.

2. Enter your domain

Paste the domain whose email you want to move (e.g. acme.com). We auto-detect your current provider from your MX records and pre-select the right provider chip on the next step.

3. Connect your source

Pick your provider. The wizard shows the exact steps to generate an app password on that provider, with a link to the right settings page. For Google Workspace:

1. Sign in to your Google Account at myaccount.google.com.
2. Open Security → 2-Step Verification (you must have it on).
3. Scroll to App passwords, generate one called "KapsuleHost Migration".
4. Paste the 16-character password into the wizard.

For other providers, instructions appear inline.

4. Add your mailboxes

One row per mailbox you want to move:

• Source address — the address at the old host
• Destination on KapsuleHost: usually the same address, but you can rename
• Source password / app password — the password you just generated

Click Test connection on each row. The wizard verifies the credentials and shows how many folders + messages will be migrated. Green checkmark = ready.

Add more rows via Add another mailbox for multi-mailbox migrations.

5. Choose cutover style

Two options:

• I'll flip MX myself (default) — the monitor surfaces the MX record to add, you flip it whenever ready, then click "I've flipped MX" and we run a final delta sync.
• You flip it for me — only available if your domain uses Kapsule DNS. Available in a future release.

6. Launch

The wizard creates your destination mailboxes on Kapsule Mail, encrypts your source passwords with AES-256, marks the run RUNNING, and redirects you to the live monitor.

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The live monitor

The monitor at /migration/email/[runId] shows:

• Per-mailbox progress bar — folders done, messages copied, bytes transferred
• Status chip — Connecting → Discovering folders → Syncing → Done
• Run banner that adapts: Copying messages → Awaiting MX cutover → Cutting over → Completed

You can leave the page and come back any time. The cron tick runs every minute, draining 4 mailboxes in parallel until everything is done.

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Flipping MX

When the bulk sync finishes, the monitor banner switches to Initial sync complete — ready for MX cutover and shows the MX record to add:

yourdomain.com.     3600   IN   MX   10   mail.kapsulehost.com.

There's a copy button. Add this record at your DNS host, remove every other MX record for the domain, then click I've flipped MX — finish migration.

We immediately run a final delta sync to catch anything that arrived between bulk-sync and your cutover, then mark the migration Completed.

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What if a mailbox fails?

Mid-run failures are resumable: every folder syncs with a UID checkpoint, so a network blip or worker restart picks up exactly where it left off. No re-fetching.

If a single mailbox hard-fails (bad credentials, IMAP blocked on the source tenant, plan over quota), it shows as Failed in the monitor with a friendly error message. The other mailboxes in the run continue. You can fix the source-side issue (e.g. regenerate an app password) and re-run that one mailbox without restarting the whole migration.

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Security and credentials

• Source passwords are encrypted at rest with AES-256-CBC using a key derived from the KPanel session secret.
• Passwords are wiped automatically the moment a mailbox finishes syncing.
• We never log message contents.
• We never write to the source mailbox — the migration is strictly a one-way copy.

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Common questions

Will my old mailbox stop working? No. Your old mailbox stays live until you flip MX. Mail keeps arriving there during the bulk-copy phase. Nothing bounces and nothing is lost when you flip: for a short window after the flip, a few messages still land in the old mailbox and stay there, so leave it open for a day and collect them.

How long does it take? Bulk copy speed depends on mailbox size; we run multiple mailboxes in parallel, ~10 GB per hour per mailbox typically. A 25-user team finishes in 6 to 12 hours.

Can I migrate calendar + contacts? Email-only in v1. Calendar + contacts via CalDAV / CardDAV are coming when there's customer demand.

What about Gmail's "All Mail" folder? We skip it — it's a virtual duplicate of every other folder. You get the same messages via Inbox, Sent, custom labels, etc.

Can I run this from the marketing site without signing up first? Yes. Visit kapsulehost.com/email/migration, enter your domain, click Request migration; the marketing form routes you through signup and drops you straight into the wizard with your domain pre-filled.