privymail.eu

Switching

This is how a move to privymail.eu works: what comes with you, what stays with your current provider and what you give up.

Changing provider has three parts: your old mail, your address, and your calendar and contacts. For each part, this page describes how it gets to privymail.eu, what stays with your current provider and what you give up.

Old mail comes with you over IMAP

privymail.eu imports existing mail over IMAP. IMAP is the protocol mail apps use to fetch a mailbox; the import reads your old mailbox the same way. An archive in mbox format can be read in as well.

The IMAP route requires your current provider to allow that access, and the access to be switched on for your account. The comparison shows how differently providers handle this.

Your address only moves if the domain is yours

An address on your current provider's domain stays there. With the switch you get a new address; whether the old provider forwards mail to it depends on that provider's features.

If the domain is yours, you keep your addresses. The move then only changes which servers accept mail for the domain; the MX records in the DNS define that. Custom domains are part of the Pro and Team plans. Your own domain describes the records, the process and the limits.

Three typical mistakes when switching the records, covered in detail under SPF, DKIM and DMARC explained:

  • Two SPF records. A domain may have only one, otherwise SPF is unusable. Change the existing record instead of adding a second.
  • An MTA-STS policy naming the old servers. If your domain publishes MTA-STS, update the policy first, then its id, and only then the MX records.
  • Forgotten senders. If other services send under your domain, for example for newsletters, they need matching SPF or DKIM records too.

Calendar and contacts come with you as files

In all paid plans, privymail.eu synchronises calendars and contacts over CalDAV and CardDAV; Mail apps and open standards describes the protocols. Existing appointments move as an ICS file, address books as a VCF file. Both are open formats.

What you give up

Switching costs something. Exactly what depends on your current provider; these points are best checked beforehand.

  • Your old address, unless it is on your own domain.
  • Services beside the mailbox. privymail.eu is a service for email, calendar and contacts. File storage, office apps, chat and video calls are not part of it.
  • Plenty of storage at no cost. The Free plan includes 1 GB. More storage belongs to the paid plans: 15 GB in the Personal plan, 50 GB in the Pro plan and 50 GB per person in the Team plan.
  • Filter rules in their current form. privymail.eu filters on the server using the Sieve standard. You recreate rules from another service.
  • Resetting by SMS or through support. The way back into your account is secured by recovery codes that you keep yourself. SMS codes are deliberately not offered, and we have no master key.
  • Possibly a mailbox the provider can never read. In the default Compatible mode, mail is stored encrypted on the server, but during delivery and while you are signed in the server processes plain text. Anything the server must never be able to read belongs in Sealed folders. The Security page explains the difference.

The order of a move

With your own domain there are eight steps; without one, steps 3 and 7 do not apply.

  1. Take stock. Addresses, aliases, domains and every service that sends under your domain.
  2. Save your recovery codes. They are created when the account is set up; keep them safe.
  3. Verify the domain. You show that you control the domain. The DNS assistant displays the records needed; you switch the MX records only in step 7.
  4. Import your mail. Over IMAP, while the old mailbox keeps running.
  5. Bring over calendar and contacts. As an ICS and a VCF file.
  6. Connect your mail apps. Each device gets its own app password; your main password is not stored in any mail app.
  7. Lower the TTL, then switch MX. Only then does new mail arrive at privymail.eu.
  8. Close the old account last. First check whether mail still arrives there, and give your contacts the new address if it has changed.

Leaving privymail.eu describes the way in the other direction. Short answers are under Frequently asked questions, the plans under Pricing.