Considering changing providers- email question

928

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Sacramento, Ca.
When I changed to the current provider, without looking ahead, I used their email provider- (-----@ provider.net)
I'm considering a change now as att has gig service for less that I'm paying now

Question- how do I move my emails to the new provider- I'm assuming that once I drop the old one the email address won't work.

Or am I out of luck???

Thanks!!!
 
Just set your old email address to auto-forward to the new address you want. Each provider is a little different, but I'm sure figuring it out is just a google search away.
 
Originally Posted by 928
When I changed to the current provider, without looking ahead, I used their email provider- (-----@ provider.net)
I'm considering a change now as att has gig service for less that I'm paying now

Question- how do I move my emails to the new provider- I'm assuming that once I drop the old one the email address won't work.

Or am I out of luck???

I know of no (practical) way to "move" emails. Almost everyone now uses IMAP email setups, i.e. your emails are "in the cloud". You can probably physically download them to a computer and depending on the number, attachments, etc it may take up minimal disk space or a lot.

Going forward, my strong suggestion is never use your provider's email service. There are countless FREE email services available that don't lock you in or tie you to a service.

Originally Posted by JustN89
Just set your old email address to auto-forward to the new address you want. Each provider is a little different, but I'm sure figuring it out is just a google search away.

That likely won't work because the 'old' provider will shut down the account very quickly.
 
Strongly agree. One of the several advantages of free email in the cloud is that Gmail or outlook or yahoo don't care who gives you your internet connection. You log into your email without ever having to worry about exporting your old emails & contacts.

Recently I took on Outlook.com email account. It is run by a major tech company (Microsoft), so they're not going anywhere anytime soon, and the problem with Gmail was that my droid phone was always confusing my Gmail contacts with my phone contacts, without my ever having changed any phone settings. But to each their own.

Originally Posted by hallstevenson

Going forward, my strong suggestion is never use your provider's email service. There are countless FREE email services available that don't lock you in or tie you to a service.

JustN89 said:
Just set your old email address to auto-forward to the new address you want. Each provider is a little different, but I'm sure figuring it out is just a google search away.
 
If you need to export your contacts & email, that very well might be the case, but nobody can tell you unless you tell us your current ISP. I'd call their tech support and ask if they allow for emails & contacts to be exported, or else, as someone suggested, use google .
 
Notice people with their email tied to their ISP. Never could figure out why anyone would want to do that. Distrust of Google maybe? They still know where you go and everything you do.
 
Originally Posted by 928
Question- how do I move my emails to the new provider- I'm assuming that once I drop the old one the email address won't work.
You will not be "moving" them to the new provider. The best you can do is probably save them locally on your machine so that you can access them later.

It would be helpful to mention who your provider is, since every provider handles this differently. They probably have instructions on their website, too.

One way to do it, if your provider supports POP or IMAP, would be to install something like Mozilla Thunderbird email client on your PC, and configure that particular email account within, then tell Thunderbird to download all your email from that account for offline use.

EDIT: Then again, if you're thinking of moving to something like Gmail, they do offer tools that allow you to import your old emails from some other providers:
https://www.howtogeek.com/436947/how-to-import-an-old-email-account-into-gmail/
 
If your current provider is Verizon, they unloaded their e-mail service onto AOL a few years ago. The addresses still say verizon, but the service is AOL.

I don't know for sure, but have often wondered if those addresses would still work if one got rid of Verizon service.
 
Originally Posted by csandste
Notice people with their email tied to their ISP. Never could figure out why anyone would want to do that. Distrust of Google maybe? They still know where you go and everything you do.

Because gmail used to not be a thing and the ISP provider emails were the only way to get one that didn't have all the goofy Hotmail restrictions it had back in the day.

I used the ISP emails for a long time because the free ones were getting so bad. I had a gmail back from when it was invite only but didn't use it till one ISP discontinued their email server and suggested everyone go to gmail.
 
Last edited:
My hotmail account goes back to a time when the name was limited to 8 letters... google didn't exist,
 
Originally Posted by jhellwig
Originally Posted by csandste
Notice people with their email tied to their ISP. Never could figure out why anyone would want to do that. Distrust of Google maybe? They still know where you go and everything you do.

Because gmail used to not be a thing and the ISP provider emails were the only way to get one that didn't have all the goofy Hotmail restrictions it had back in the day.

I used the ISP emails for a long time because the free ones were getting so bad. I had a gmail back from when it was invite only but didn't use it till one ISP discontinued their email server and suggested everyone go to gmail.

Remember those days well, but it was well over fifteen years ago. Still have a backup yahoo.com account that predates gmail. My original email account was tied to a county wide dial up ISP. Ran a library, so any high speed Internet usage was done at work.
 
I setup an email address long long time ago as [email protected] when MSN had a free 'hotmail' service (MSN is still free today). Still have it today, and it would be good no matter what internet service provider I have.
 
I haven't read the rest of the replies: Forgive me if my advice is redundant.

Get yourself an email client that will download your data locally and then turn off any synchronization for the account once it is rendered inactive. I'd suggest Thunderbird simply because irrespective of the OS or version you're using you can likely install and use it.

I'd use POP3 instead of IMAP to perform this task.
 
Originally Posted by 928
When I changed to the current provider, without looking ahead, I used their email provider- (-----@ provider.net)
I'm considering a change now as att has gig service for less that I'm paying now

Question- how do I move my emails to the new provider- I'm assuming that once I drop the old one the email address won't work.

Or am I out of luck???

Thanks!!!


Go to GMAIL so its independent of your provider. Or if you want more security, PROTONMAIL.COM. I have my regular mail go to GMAIL and anything bank or credit card related go to PROTONMAIL.
 
Originally Posted by hallstevenson
There are countless FREE email services available that don't lock you in or tie you to a service.


With free email you get what you pay for. I've had a premium account with mail.com for years and the $24 a year is cheap to have no annoying ads and phone support.
 
As said, depends on who your provider is.
Comcast will allow you to keep using your ***.comcast.net address so long as you accessed it 90 day prior to disconnecting and use it once every 9 months.

I am sure other large providers have similar policies.

An easy way is to use this thing called google. That is how I found the comcast terms.

https://www.google.com/search?q=comcast+e-mail+if+I+leave+comcast&
 
Originally Posted by atikovi
Originally Posted by hallstevenson
There are countless FREE email services available that don't lock you in or tie you to a service.
With free email you get what you pay for. I've had a premium account with mail.com for years and the $24 a year is cheap to have no annoying ads and phone support.

I have zero issues with Gmail, for example and I've never had to call them for anything either. Ads ? What are those ?
 
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