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 folder and message from your current mailbox into a new KapsuleHost mailbox, keeping each message's read and flagged state and its original date. You watch progress per mailbox in a live monitor, and switch 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 your domain to your KapsuleHost account and verify it. The wizard does not start a migration onto a domain that is not verified.
2. Check your plan's mailbox allowance. The wizard counts the mailboxes you are adding against it and tells you if you are over. If you need more, upgrade your plan.
3. Generate an app password at your current provider. The wizard shows you the steps for each provider.

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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

Enter the domain whose email you want to move (for example acme.com). We look up its MX records to work out your current provider, and pick it for you 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 the bottom and open App passwords, and create 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, though you can change the part before the @
• Source password / app password: the password you just generated

Click Test connection on each row. The wizard signs in to your old host and shows how many folders and messages it found.

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

5. Choose cutover style

Two options:

• I'll flip MX myself when ready (recommended): the monitor shows the MX record to add, you change it whenever you are ready, then click I've flipped MX, finish migration and we catch up on anything that landed at your old host in the meantime.
• You flip it for me: offered when your domain is on your KapsuleHost account and uses Kapsule DNS. The moment the initial copy finishes, we point the MX at KapsuleHost and remove the records pointing at your old provider. Your SPF is added to rather than replaced, your DMARC is left as it is, and your website records are not changed.

6. Launch

The wizard creates your destination mailboxes on KapsuleHost, encrypts your source passwords with AES-256, starts copying in the background, and takes you to the live monitor.

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The live monitor

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

• Per-mailbox progress: folders done, messages copied, data transferred
• Status per mailbox: Queued, Connecting, Discovering, Syncing, Delta, Done, Partial, Failed or Skipped
• Run banner: Copying messages, then Initial sync complete, ready for MX cutover, then Running delta sync, then Migration complete

You can leave the page and come back any time. The copy runs on our side whether the page is open or not.

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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 then catch up on anything that arrived at your old mailbox between the bulk copy and your switch, before we mark the migration complete. If you chose You flip it for me, we make this change ourselves when the copy finishes and you have nothing to click.

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What if a mailbox fails?

Mid-run interruptions are resumable: every folder syncs with a UID checkpoint, so a network blip or worker restart picks up where it left off instead of fetching everything again.

If a single mailbox fails, it shows as Failed in the monitor with the reason, and the other mailboxes carry on copying. When the run ends, Start this migration again brings your domain, source server and mailbox list into a new run: you re-enter each source password, mailboxes that copied in full are left out, and each mailbox picks up where it stopped.

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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 kept only while the migration needs them, and wiped automatically when the migration completes, fails or is cancelled.
• 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 switch MX, and mail keeps arriving there during the bulk copy, so nothing bounces. Some senders keep using your old MX for a while after a change, so keep the old mailbox open for a few days after you switch.

How long does it take? It depends on how much mail there is and how fast your old host answers. The connection test shows how many messages each mailbox holds, which tells you roughly what to expect. Large mailboxes take hours, not minutes.

Can I migrate contacts and calendars? Contacts, yes, where your old host runs a contacts server (CardDAV) that accepts the same mailbox password. Gmail and Microsoft 365 keep contacts behind a Google or Microsoft sign-in, so contacts do not come across from those two yet. Calendars are not moved.

What about Gmail's "All Mail" folder? We skip it: it holds a copy of every message in your other folders, so you get the same mail through Inbox, Sent and your labels.

Do I need an account first? Yes. The wizard runs inside KPanel, so sign up, add your domain, then start the migration.