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Moving to GoogleApps@UIC: Email Transfer Guide

Table of Contents

I want to move email/contacts from my current email account. What are my options?

Can I transfer information from my ACCC/Hotmail/Gmail/Yahoo, etc. account to my gmail.uic.edu account?

Yes. If your other account is an ACCC mailserv account or a student account on icarus, we have a Web tool for you:

See Can I transfer information from my current ACCC email account to my gmail.uic.edu account? for details.

Note that these tools will not transfer your contacts/email addresses/address book; see How do I move my contacts (email address book) into GoogleApps? for instructions.

 

Is your ACCC email account on tigger? You can use the ACCC GoogleApps Email Migration Web tool also, if you use the ACCC's Move to Mailserv tool first, to copy your tigger email to a (new, if necessary) mailserv email account. Then use the GoogleApps Email Mailserv Migration Web tool to move your email from mailserv to GoogleApps@UIC. This sounds a bit roundabout, but it is a lot easier than the alternatives. The Move to Mailserv tool is very fast.

Or, if it's not an ACCC account, you can transfer information from one account to another, you can manually forward individual messages to your gmail.uic.edu account, or you can perform a bulk merge. Or you can move messages within your email program, if you have both accounts open via IMAP in the same email program.

Or you can use Google's Mail Fetcher service, if the traffic is not excessive.

 

Whatever you do, if you want to receive your netid@uic.edu email on GoogleApps@UIC Gmail, you have to change your email routing to point to it.

A necessary part of moving your netid@uic.edu email to your GoogleApps@UIC Gmail is to Change your email routing to GoogleApps@UIC. It is very important to do this if you want to switch your netid@uic.edu email to GoogleApps.

The ACCC's GoogleApps Email Migration Web tool has a link to this page as a last step. See Can I transfer information from my current ACCC email account to my gmail.uic.edu account? for details.

What is the recommended approach for transferring email to my new GoogleApps@UIC account?

If the email in question is on an ACCC account, and if you use IMAP rather than POP with it (you do use IMAP if you read your email with Webmail), then we will transfer the email for you. See Can I transfer information from my current ACCC email account to my gmail.uic.edu account? for more information. If you use POP, this this tool can only transfer what email is currently in your Inbox.

If you want to transfer email from a non-ACCC account, and if you have been using IMAP on your other account, where your email is stored on the server, follow the approach recommended in the How do I transfer mail from my IMAP mailbox? section.

If you are using an email application as Outlook, Outlook Express, Apple Mail, or Thunderbird and you have your GoogleApps@UIC account set up for POP access, follow the approach in the section that is specific to your email application listed below.

And Google has a way to import email from any email application or account, including an ACCC email account, that supports POP access. First you will need to enable POP access on your external account. Then, follow the steps in How do I transfer messages from an ACCC account I've been using POP with or an outside accoung such as Gmail or Yahoo to my new GoogleApps@UIC account? to import messages to your GoogleApps@UIC account:

The amount of time required to migrate your mail will vary depending on the number of messages and personal folders to be copied and the method of mail migration that is chosen.

The process could take over several hours or days to run in some cases.

NOTE: When transferring mail using a email client application such as Outlook or Thunderbird and POP, we suggest that you disable Symantec AntiVirus before beginning the mail transfer. Symantec AV often considers excessive email traffic to be spam and will shut down the process before all of your mail has been transferred. To disable Symantec AV, right-click on the yellow shield icon in the notification area of your task bar at the bottom of the screen and uncheck the Enable Auto-Protect option from the popup window. Don't forget to enable Symantec AV again once the mail transfer process has completed.

How can I tell if I am using POP or IMAP?

If you use WebMail for your main email application, then you use IMAP.

If you are using other email applications such as Outlook, Outlook Express, Apple Mail, or Thunderbird, you can check this setting under account properties. For example, in Outlook, select Tools from the menu, then select Email Accounts. On the Email Accounts screen, select View or change existing email accounts under Email, and then click Next. On the next screen, you will see the POP or IMAP setting for the account under the Type column.

Is there a tool available for transferring messages from my current ACCC email account to my new GoogleApps@UIC account?

Yes, the GoogleApps Email Mailserv Migration Web tool or GoogleApps Icarus Email Migration Web tool.

This Web pages will copy your email -- only your email, not your contacts; see the following section -- from your current ACCC email account to your GoogleApps@UIC account. It is a copy; all your email will also remain on your original email server.

It will copy the mail in all of your folders, including Trash and Spam. It might not copy every email message. The size limit on email messages for ACCC email accounts is 40 MB, where as the limit in Google Apps is only 25 MB. Any message that you might have that is larger than 25 MB (including its attachments) will not be transferred.

The ACCC email migration tool will move the email that you have left your email on an ACCC email server. If you are using POP and have downloaded all your email to your personal computer, then you will have to use a different method. In this case, if your email program is Outlook, Outlook Express, or Thunderbird, you can to download the Google Email Uploader for a more convenient message and contact migration.

How do I transfer my email and contacts to GoogleApps@UIC from my other account(s)?

How do I move my contacts (email address book) into GoogleApps?

Regardless of where your email is -- ACCC, Gmail, Yahoo, whatever -- the easiest way to import contacts into Gmail is to export your contacts from your old email client into a comma delimited file, and then import the contents of the comma delimited file into GoogleApps@UIC.

Do you use Webmail? Then use the ACCC's Address Book Tool to create the comma delimited file.

Do you use another email client? Google has some instructions, or check your email client's help.

And Google has instructions on how to import the comma delimited contact file after you create it.

How can I move my ACCC email to GoogleApps@UIC?

To copy existing email mailboxes, if your ACCC email account is a mailserv account or a student account on icarus, we have a Web tool for you:

These tools will transfer the email to your GoogleApps@UIC account from all of your mailboxes on the ACCC's mailserv, including Trash and Spam.

Is your ACCC email account on tigger? Use the ACCC's Move to Mailserv tool first, to copy your tigger email to a (new, if necessary) mailserv email account. Then follow the instructions in this section to move your email from mailserv to GoogleApps@UIC. This sounds a bit roundabout, but it is a lot easier than the alternatives. The Move to Mailserv tool is very fast.

Note that the largest email message size for ACCC email accounts is 40 MB, but the maximum for Google Apps is only 25 MB. If you have any email messages on your account that are 25 MB or larger on your mailserv or icarus account, they will not be moved to GoogleApps@UIC.

  1. Got to the GoogleApps Email Mailserv Migration Web tool or GoogleApps Icarus Email Migration Web tool page.
  2. Log in with your UIC netid and ACCC Common password. This will allow you to transfer your email from your ACCC email account to your Google Apps at UIC account.
  3. A window will open describing the process. There is a button at the bottom reading: Yes, please copy my email from Mailserv to Google Apps or Yes, please copy my email from Icarus to Google Apps, depending. Click this button to start the process.
  4. You will receive a window saying your migration is in the queue. "Migration for netid abyron1 is waiting in the queue." This has to be done one person at a time, so there might be a delay.

    Click the Cancel Migration if you want to cancel the transfer of your email to your GoogleApps@UIC account.
  5. This window is also an update window; if you leave it open it will refresh itself so you can follow the process. Or click the Refresh button. (Note that Ada has no email; my account, which has a lot of email, took 10 hours.)

    Click the Cancel Migration if you want to cancel the transfer of your email to your GoogleApps@UIC account.
  6. When it is finished, you will receive an email message with a summary. If you still have the migration tool open, refreshing the window will give you the summary there, also. Or go back to the page, even if you've closed it in the meantime.


  7. There is a lot of information on the final summary page:
    • At the top, there is a summary of how many messages were copied over to your GoogleApps account, and how long it took.
    • Next, a list of messages that weren't transferred. This tool is very particular about the format of the headers on the messages that it copies; it will likely reject a few. The Web page will list the essential header information about the messages that didn't transfer.
      • If you need to have these message in your GoogleApps account -- Ada probably won't want any of hers -- you can log into Webmail or use whatever email program you normally use and forward each message to your GoogleApps@UIC account. That will work. (If you haven't changed your email routing to GoogleApps@UIC yet, use your netid@gmail.uic.edu as the email address that you forward the messages to.)
  8. Click on the link that says: Change my email routing to GoogleApps@UIC. (Note that the link on the Web page goes straight to the tool; this link goes to information about what this means.) It is very important to do this if you want to switch your netid@uic.edu email to GoogleApps.
  9. And finally, there is a link to the GoogleApps@UIC start page.

How do I transfer messages from an non-ACCC account such as Gmail or Yahoo to my new GoogleApps@UIC account?

NOTE: If the account you want to transfer email from is an ACCC account (using mail.uic.edu, on mailserv, icarus, or tigger, the ACCC will do it for you and it will be much easier.

You can import messages from any account that supports POP access. Note that this will only transfer email from the Inbox of your other account. If you have other mailboxes to transfer, see How do I transfer mail from an IMAP mailbox on my other account?

First you will need to enable POP access on your external account. Then, follow the steps below to import messages to your GoogleApps@UIC account:

Unless you tell it not to, mail messages will be deleted from your other account's inbox and moved to your gmail.uic.edu inbox during this operation. Check the View History status message under Settings/Accounts to determine when the mail download is fully completed. Do not access your other account with any mail client until you are able to verify that all of your inbox mail messages were successfully moved to your gmail.uic.edu inbox.

  1. In Gmail GoogleApps@UIC, click Settings in the upper-right-hand corner of the mail page, then click Forwarding and POP/IMAP.
  2. In the POP Download section, click Enable POP for all mail (even mail that's already been downloaded).
  3. In the When messages are accessed with POP option, select keep gmail.uic.edu Mail's copy in the Inbox.
  4. Click the Save Changes button.
  5. Under Settings, click Accounts.
  6. In the Get mail from other accounts section, click Add a mail account you own.
  7. Enter the full email address of the external account to get mail from, then click Next Step.
  8. Supply the mail settings for the external account including the username and password that you use to log in and Input the username of your account for Username, your password for Password, the name of your account's POP Server, and 995 or 110 for Port (depending on whether your server uses SSL or not) .
  9. You will be asked whether you want to add this account to the Send mail as: options for GoogleApps@UIC account. Select Yes or No and click Next Step or Finish.
  10. The process of fetching your messages can take several hours. Move any messages stored in personal folders to your Inbox after all messages in your Inbox have been transferred.
  11. You can disable the POP settings in both accounts after your messages have been successfully migrated.

How do I export Addressbook contacts from WebMail to GoogleApps@UIC?

Gmail can import contacts that have been exported as Comma Delimited Files. See How do I move my contacts (email address book) into GoogleApps?.

How do I transfer mail from an IMAP mailbox on my other account?

NOTE: If the account you want to transfer email from is an ACCC account (using mail.uic.edu, on mailserv, icarus, or tigger), the ACCC will do it for you and it will be much easier.

ALSO NOTE: This is a multi-phase process. You must first transfer mail from your IMAP inbox to your gmail.uic.edu account using POP. Step two is to transfer messages in IMAP folders to gmail.uic.edu while applying labels, again using POP. Step two will need to be repeated for every IMAP folder you wish to transfer.

Inbox to inbox phase Download all messages from your UIC account Inbox to the Inbox on your gmail.uic.edu account.

  1. In Gmail in GoogleApps@UIC, click Settings in the upper-right-hand corner of the gmail.uic.edu page, then click Accounts.
  2. In the Get mail from other accounts: section, click Add a mail account you own
  3. Enter the complete email address of your IMAP account for Email address:, then click Next Step.
  4. Input the username of your account for Username, your password for Password, the name of your account's POP Server, and 995 or 110 for Port (depending on whether your server uses SSL or not).
  5. Check the box next to Always use a secure connection (SSL) when retrieving mail
  6. Leave all other boxes blank and press Add Account
  7. You will see a confirmation screen with the message Your mail account has been added. You will be asked whether you want to add this account to the Send mail as: options for GoogleApps@UIC account. Select Yes or No and click Next Step or Finish.

NOTE: Wait until all of the messages that were in your inbox in your other account have been moved to your inbox in gmail.uic.edu before attempting the next step.

Unless you tell it not to, mail messages will be deleted from your other account's inbox and moved to your gmail.uic.edu inbox during this operation. Check the View History status message under Settings/Accounts to determine when the mail download is fully completed. Do not access your other account with any email client as Outlook or Thunderbird until you are able to verify that all of your inbox mail messages were successfully moved to your gmail.uic.edu inbox.

IMAP folders to gmail.uic.edu labels phase : What you are going to do is download all messages in one of your IMAP folders to your gmail.uic.edu account.

  1. Open your old account in a mail client such as Outlook, or Thunderbird.
  2. If you didn't remove the messages from the Inbox when you transferred the messages from your Inbox, you should first move them all to a different folder on your old account now and delete them from your Inbox. It is important that the Inbox be empty before you go on to the next step.
  3. Move all mail messages from the folder you wish to transfer to Gmail to your old Inbox in the mail client application.
  4. Close the mail client application.
  5. In GoogleApps@UIC, click Settings in the upper-right-hand corner of the mail page, then click Accounts.
  6. Under Get mail from other accounts: click edit info next to your other account's email address.
  7. Check the box next to Label incoming messages:
  8. Choose New Label... from the drop down menu
  9. Type the label name that you want to use in your gmail.uic.edu account for the contents of this IMAP folder, then click OK
  10. Select Save Changes.
  11. Select the No button on the Edit mail account screen, then click Finish.

NOTE: Wait until all of the messages that were in your inbox on the UIC server have been moved into old inbox in gmail.uic.edu before attempting the next step.

Unless you told it not to, and at this point there isn't any reason to, the mail messages will be deleted from your old account's Inbox and moved to your gmail.uic.edu inbox during this operation. Check the View History status message under Settings/Accounts to determine when the mail download is fully completed.

Do not access WebMail or any mail client such as Outlook or Thunderbird until you are able to verify that all of the mail messages that were in your Inbox are successfully moved to your gmail.uic.edu inbox.

Repeat Phase

  • Repeat the instructions in section 2 to download mail for each of your remaining IMAP folders. Create a new label each time you download the messages in one of your IMAP folders. Make sure that all of the mail from one folder has been completely downloaded before you change the label and retrieve messages for the next folder.

How do I transfer mail from Outlook?

You can use this for any type of mailbox, including a local mailbox on your personal computer. But you are forwarding each email message to GoogleApps, so it will take time and resources.

  1. Highlight an individual folder to be migrated under All Mail Folders; do not highlight the Personal Folders level
  2. Choose Rules and Alerts... under Tools.
  3. On the Email Rules tab, click New Rule.
  4. Choose the Start from a blank rule radio button.
  5. Choose to check messages when they arrive and press Next.
  6. Press Next again, and press Yes when it warns you that the rule will apply to all messages that you receive.
  7. Check forward it to people or distribution list.
  8. Click people or distribution list under Step 2.
  9. Choose New... under Advanced.
  10. Choose New contact and press OK.
  11. Input your full name and your gmail.uic.edu email address into the appropriate fields.
  12. Press Save and close.
  13. Select the entry that you added from the list of contacts.
  14. Press OK.
  15. Press Next, then press Next again to bypass the exceptions
  16. Check Run this rule now on messages already in [Selected Folder].
  17. Press Finish, then press Apply, then OK.

How do I transfer mail from my Outlook Express mailbox?

You can use this for any type of mailbox, including a local mailbox on your personal computer. But you are forwarding each email message to GoogleApps, so it will take time and resources. Instructions for Outlook Express also apply to Windows Mail.

  1. Choose Mail... from the Message Rules submenu under Tools.
  2. In box 1, Select the Conditions for your rule, check Where the message size is more than size.
  3. In box 2, Select the Actions for your rule, check Forward it to people.
  4. In box 3, Rule Description click size and set the minimum size to 0 KB, then press OK.
  5. In box 3, Rule Description click people and input your new gmail.uic.edu email address, then press OK.
  6. Press OK.
  7. Press the Apply Now... button.
  8. Press Browse... and select Local Folders, then press OK.
  9. Select the new rule you had just created and press Apply Now.

How do I transfer mail from my Thunderbird 2/3 mailbox?

You can use this for any type of mailbox, including a local mailbox on your personal computer. But you are forwarding each email message to GoogleApps, so it will take time and resources. Instructions for Thunderbird are the same for Windows and Mac.

  1. Choose Message Filters... under Tools.
  2. Press New...
  3. Select Match all messages.
  4. Choose Forward Message to from the drop down menu.
  5. Type your new gmail.uic.edu email address in the input field.
  6. Press OK.
  7. Highlight the filter you had just created.
  8. Select your Inbox in the drop down menu.
  9. Press Run Now.
  10. Select your next folder in the drop down menu.
  11. Press Run Now.
  12. Repeat the above steps until you have forwarded all of your mail messages in Thunderbird.

How do I transfer mail from Apple Mail?

You can use this for any type of mailbox, including a local mailbox on your personal computer. But you are forwarding each email message to GoogleApps, so it will take time and resources.

  1. Choose Preferences... under the Mail menu
  2. Click to select the Rules tab
  3. Click Add Rule
  4. Change From in the drop-down menu to Every Message
  5. Change Move Message in the drop-down menu to Forward Message
  6. Input your new gmail.uic.edu email address
  7. Click OK
  8. Click Yes to run the rule on messages in your local folders

Need Additional Help?

Consider our Troubleshooting Guide. If you need additional assistance, please call the Client Services Office at (312) 413-0003. You can file a problem report or email us at consult@uic.edu.

Our sincere thanks go to Northwestern University Information Technology, who generously allowed us to use their list of questions and answers, which we have modified for use at UIC.