How to Migrate From Gmail to Business Email (2026 Guide)

To migrate from Gmail to business email, create mailboxes on your own domain, turn on 2-Step Verification in the Google account and generate an app password, then let your new provider copy the old mail over IMAP. Point your domain's MX record to the new service, tell contacts the new address, and keep Gmail forwarding on for a few months as a safety net.

That is the whole job in one paragraph. The rest of this guide walks through each step, explains the parts that trip people up (labels, app passwords, Google Workspace admin settings), and is honest about what an IMAP-based migration does and does not move.

Why businesses move from Gmail to their own domain

A free @gmail.com address is fine when you are starting out. It stops being fine at about the moment a customer asks "is this really you?" or a new hire needs an address that the company, not the person, controls. The usual reasons to move:

Trust. anna@example.com looks like a business; example.shop.2019@gmail.com looks like anyone. Phishers rely on free addresses precisely because they are free.
Ownership. When someone leaves, the company keeps the mailbox and the address. With personal Gmail accounts, the history walks out of the door.
Deliverability. You can publish SPF, DKIM and DMARC for your own domain, which mailbox providers now expect. Our SPF, DKIM and DMARC explainer covers why that matters.
Admin control. Password resets, 2FA enforcement, shared mailboxes and audit logs only make sense when there is an organisation to administer.

If you are still choosing a domain and provider, start with what business email is and come back here when the new mailboxes exist.

Before you start: a short checklist

A Gmail migration fails most often because of something that should have been done first. Tick these off:

Your domain is added and verified at the new provider, with mailboxes created for everyone who is moving. The getting started guide shows how in Zomail.
You know which Google accounts you are moving. Personal Gmail (@gmail.com) and Google Workspace (@example.com hosted by Google) behave slightly differently — see below.
2-Step Verification is on in each Google account. Google only offers app passwords to accounts with 2-Step Verification.
You have checked mailbox sizes. In Gmail, storage is shared with Drive and Photos, so the number shown in Google One is not just mail. Make sure each new mailbox has enough room for the mail you are bringing.
You have lowered the TTL on your current MX record (for example to 300 seconds) a day ahead, if you already receive mail on the domain. This makes the switch take effect faster.

Step 1: Create a Google app password

Google no longer lets third-party apps sign in over IMAP with your normal password. Instead, you create an app password: a 16-character code that works only for mail access and can be revoked at any time.

Sign in to the Google account you are migrating and open Security.
Make sure 2-Step Verification is on.
Open App passwords, give it a name such as "Migration", and create it.
Copy the 16-character code. You will paste it into the importer in the next step.

Google Workspace accounts have one more hurdle: the Workspace administrator must allow IMAP access for users, and the organisation's policy must allow app passwords. If the import is refused with a login error even though the app password is correct, this admin setting is the usual cause.

Step 2: Copy your Gmail mail into the new mailbox

In Zomail there are two ways to run the import, and both copy mail over IMAP in the background:

One person at a time. The user opens Settings → Import mail from another account, chooses Gmail / Google Workspace, enters the old address and the app password, clicks Test connection, reviews the list of folders that will be copied and starts the import. They can close the page; progress continues on the server.
The whole company at once. An admin uploads a CSV in the admin console, one line per mailbox, with the destination Zomail address, gmail as the source, the old address and the app password. Delete the CSV afterwards, since it contains passwords.

A few things worth knowing:

The source is left untouched. Nothing is deleted or changed in Gmail, so you can run the import while people keep working.
It is safe to re-run. Running the import again for the same account copies only what is new, without duplicates. That makes a two-pass migration easy: a big copy a few days early, and a quick top-up right after you switch MX.
Labels become folders. Over IMAP, each Gmail label appears as a folder. A message with three labels can therefore show up in three folders after migration. Look over the folder list the importer shows you before starting.

The migration guide has screenshots and the exact CSV format.

Step 3: Point your domain to the new provider

If your domain was never used for email (you were on @gmail.com), this step is simply setting up DNS for the first time. If the domain was on Google Workspace, you are switching the MX record from Google's servers to the new ones.

Zomail's DNS page lists every record and checks each one. The core records look like this:

example.com.        MX     10 mx.zomail.io.
example.com.        TXT    "v=spf1 include:_spf.zomail.io ~all"
zm1._domainkey      CNAME  (value shown in your DNS page)
zm2._domainkey      CNAME  (value shown in your DNS page)
_dmarc              TXT    "v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:..."

Remove Google's MX records at the same time; leaving them in place means some mail keeps landing in Gmail. If your SPF record still includes Google and nothing else sends through Google any more, take that include out too. Our articles on MX records and setting up SPF explain the details.

Step 4: Top-up, devices and the people around you

After the MX change has propagated, run the import once more to pick up mail that arrived during the switch. Then:

Reconnect phones and computers. Install the Zomail app, or add the new account to Outlook, Apple Mail or Thunderbird with IMAP and SMTP settings. See connecting email apps.
Forward the old Gmail. In personal Gmail, set up forwarding to the new address so stragglers still reach you. Keep it on for a few months.
Update the places that hold your old address: bank, suppliers, government portals, domain registrar, social media accounts, invoice templates, website contact forms.
Tell your contacts with a short, plain message. Avoid anything that reads like a phishing email ("click here to verify").

What an IMAP migration does not move

This is where honesty saves you surprises. The importer copies email. Other Google data needs its own route:

Data	How it moves
Email and labels	The importer, over IMAP (labels become folders)
Contacts	Export from Google Contacts as vCard, then import into your new address book (for example through a CardDAV app)
Calendar	Export from Google Calendar as an .ics file, then import into the new calendar (for example through a CalDAV app such as Thunderbird or Apple Calendar)
Drive files	Download them and upload to the new Drive; sharing links will be new
Filters	Recreate them as server-side filters in the new webmail
Signatures, templates	Recreate them

Also be aware that the importer needs the Google app password route. There is no "Sign in with Google" (OAuth) import in Zomail today, so accounts where the Workspace admin has blocked app passwords must have that policy relaxed for the migration window.

A realistic timeline

For a small team, a calm Gmail migration usually looks like this:

Day 1: add the domain, create mailboxes, lower MX TTL, create app passwords.
Day 1–2: start the bulk import. Large mailboxes take hours, sometimes longer, because Google limits how fast IMAP clients can download.
Day 3: switch MX, SPF and DKIM. Test sending and receiving with an external address.
Day 3–4: run the top-up import, set up devices, turn on forwarding in old Gmail.
Weeks later: once nothing arrives at the old address, revoke the app passwords and, for Workspace, cancel the subscription.

If you want this done on your own domain with the importer, a guided DNS page and a team that answers in plain language, Zomail is priced per mailbox per month and the current prices are on the pricing page.

FAQ

Can I migrate from Gmail without an app password?

Not with an IMAP-based importer. Google blocks normal-password IMAP sign-in for third-party apps, so you need 2-Step Verification plus an app password. Zomail does not offer an OAuth ("Sign in with Google") import yet.

Will migrating delete anything from my Gmail account?

No. The import only reads from Gmail. Everything stays in the old account until you decide to delete it, which is why you can keep forwarding on and look things up there for a while.

Why do some emails appear twice after migrating from Gmail?

Gmail uses labels, and IMAP shows each label as a folder. A message with several labels appears once in each matching folder. It is the same message, not a duplicate import; re-running the importer does not add copies.

How long does a Gmail migration take?

It depends mainly on mailbox size and Google's download limits. A few gigabytes typically finish within hours; very large mailboxes can take a day or more. Start early and do a top-up after the MX switch.

Do I lose emails sent during the switch?

Not if you do a top-up. Mail that lands in Gmail while DNS propagates is picked up when you run the import again after the MX change, and forwarding catches anything later.