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I'd love to get out of the 10-year GMail account I own. It's so tightly integrated with other services that it feels like it would take a monumental effort to m

I'd love to get out of the 10-year GMail account I own. It's so tightly integrated with other services that it feels like it would take a monumental effort to make happen. Someone send help.

beachy 4y ago
The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now.
- amelius 4y ago
  10 years ago is still better than now.
  - beachy 4y ago
    Yeah, I've always had issues with that saying. Pedantically, any time in the past is better than now. Unless it was a drought at that time I guess.
jagged-chisel 4y ago
I have fastmail pulling email from my gmail inbox. With those emails in the same inbox with email for my new address, I miss nothing. When I’m ready, I’ll set a rule to move incoming gmail into a folder so I can easily see all the senders with my gmail address. That’s when I can work on changing those accounts to use the new address. However … procrastination.
- aliasxneo 4y ago
  This seems like the best path forward. Have you been fairly happy with your migration?
  - enraged_camel 4y ago
    Not OP, but I have the same setup and it has worked flawlessly since I made the switch several years ago.
  - jagged-chisel 4y ago
    Very happy! Fastmail has been very reliable, the web UI is good, and the native app is nice. I do admit that I haven’t had the opportunity to put their spam filters to the test because my email comes primarily through gmail first.
jmcphers 4y ago
Lots of advice for making the transition, here's some more: buy your own domain; don't use one of Fastmail's. That way you can just change the MX records if you ever want to switch away from Fastmail, and you will -- in theory -- never have to change your email address on another service again. I've kept the same email address for ~15 years now on this premise.
coffeefirst 4y ago
I did it. It was a project but it wasn’t that bad. What really helped was: 1. Email forwarding. Set a filter to label anything incoming to the old address. 2. Using a password manager. This winds up bring a map to everything important.
yosito 4y ago
I switched all of my accounts from my 15 year old gmail address to a custom domain over the course of a few months, during which I monitored both inboxes. I used my password manager to keep track of which accounts I had updated. After about three months of updating accounts, I set a permanent autoresponder in Gmail telling people that the inbox is no longer monitored and to please contact me via other means (I don't tell them the other means to avoid spammers getting my new email). Then after another three months, I stopped checking gmail completely. Now, over a year later, I don't check gmail except in rare cases where I come across an account I forgot to update, or am waiting for a specific email that doesn't arrive to my new address. The gmail account still gets about 15-20 messages a week, and they're all basically spam and marketing junk.
troydavis 4y ago
FastMail has solved that for you: https://www.fastmail.help/hc/en-us/articles/360058752414-Migrate-to-Fastmail-from-Gmail https://www.fastmail.help/hc/en-us/articles/360058752414-Mig... (click Import, then Gmail) When I moved many years ago, I migrated well over 50,000 emails with FastMail’s importer. Other than taking a few hours (all async), there’s nothing to it. Enjoy! (I’m unaffiliated, just a paying customer. If you care about customer support, privacy, or entrepreneurship, then FastMail - or another paid service - is a better fit than a free service can ever be)
- SoftTalker 4y ago
  WTF do you need to migrate 50,000 emails for. That's like my grandmother who used to save every letter she ever got. Never actually read them again, but god forbid you suggest throwing them out.
  - AlotOfReading 4y ago
    Maybe you use email very differently? I find myself occasionally needing years-old emails to find info I've long-since forgotten and it's a lot easier to have all of it in one place.
  - int_19h 4y ago
    Thing is, with abundant storage and good search, there's simply no reason to delete anything. Worst case, you'll never look at it again.
    - troydavis 4y ago
      This. There’s zero cost to keeping them - including when migrating hosts! It wasn’t all that intentional, I just didn’t need to delete them. Also, I wrote a lot of those emails (over 25+ years…). Sometimes it’s handy to refer to things I’ve written.
- 2muchcoffeeman 4y ago
  How hard was it to move all your user accounts?

I'd love to get out of the 10-year GMail account I own. It's so tightly integrated with other services that it feels like it would take a monumental effort to make happen. Someone send help.

beachy 4y ago

The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now.

amelius 4y ago
10 years ago is still better than now.
- beachy 4y ago
  Yeah, I've always had issues with that saying. Pedantically, any time in the past is better than now. Unless it was a drought at that time I guess.

jagged-chisel 4y ago

I have fastmail pulling email from my gmail inbox. With those emails in the same inbox with email for my new address, I miss nothing. When I’m ready, I’ll set a rule to move incoming gmail into a folder so I can easily see all the senders with my gmail address. That’s when I can work on changing those accounts to use the new address. However … procrastination.

aliasxneo 4y ago
This seems like the best path forward. Have you been fairly happy with your migration?
- enraged_camel 4y ago
  Not OP, but I have the same setup and it has worked flawlessly since I made the switch several years ago.
- jagged-chisel 4y ago
  Very happy! Fastmail has been very reliable, the web UI is good, and the native app is nice. I do admit that I haven’t had the opportunity to put their spam filters to the test because my email comes primarily through gmail first.

jmcphers 4y ago

Lots of advice for making the transition, here's some more: buy your own domain; don't use one of Fastmail's. That way you can just change the MX records if you ever want to switch away from Fastmail, and you will -- in theory -- never have to change your email address on another service again. I've kept the same email address for ~15 years now on this premise.

coffeefirst 4y ago

I did it. It was a project but it wasn’t that bad. What really helped was: 1. Email forwarding. Set a filter to label anything incoming to the old address. 2. Using a password manager. This winds up bring a map to everything important.

yosito 4y ago

I switched all of my accounts from my 15 year old gmail address to a custom domain over the course of a few months, during which I monitored both inboxes. I used my password manager to keep track of which accounts I had updated. After about three months of updating accounts, I set a permanent autoresponder in Gmail telling people that the inbox is no longer monitored and to please contact me via other means (I don't tell them the other means to avoid spammers getting my new email). Then after another three months, I stopped checking gmail completely. Now, over a year later, I don't check gmail except in rare cases where I come across an account I forgot to update, or am waiting for a specific email that doesn't arrive to my new address. The gmail account still gets about 15-20 messages a week, and they're all basically spam and marketing junk.

troydavis 4y ago

FastMail has solved that for you: https://www.fastmail.help/hc/en-us/articles/360058752414-Migrate-to-Fastmail-from-Gmail https://www.fastmail.help/hc/en-us/articles/360058752414-Mig... (click Import, then Gmail) When I moved many years ago, I migrated well over 50,000 emails with FastMail’s importer. Other than taking a few hours (all async), there’s nothing to it. Enjoy! (I’m unaffiliated, just a paying customer. If you care about customer support, privacy, or entrepreneurship, then FastMail - or another paid service - is a better fit than a free service can ever be)

SoftTalker 4y ago
WTF do you need to migrate 50,000 emails for. That's like my grandmother who used to save every letter she ever got. Never actually read them again, but god forbid you suggest throwing them out.
- AlotOfReading 4y ago
  Maybe you use email very differently? I find myself occasionally needing years-old emails to find info I've long-since forgotten and it's a lot easier to have all of it in one place.
- int_19h 4y ago
  Thing is, with abundant storage and good search, there's simply no reason to delete anything. Worst case, you'll never look at it again.
  - troydavis 4y ago
    This. There’s zero cost to keeping them - including when migrating hosts! It wasn’t all that intentional, I just didn’t need to delete them. Also, I wrote a lot of those emails (over 25+ years…). Sometimes it’s handy to refer to things I’ve written.
2muchcoffeeman 4y ago
How hard was it to move all your user accounts?