Migrate emails from Network Solutions Webmail to G Suite

G Suite provides very powerful email MX records hosting. It integrates with Google Drive, Calendar, Documents, and much more. We are happy we could use G Suite to host our emails.

In the following I’ll use info@beamphysics.com as an example to show you how to migrate your old emails to the new G Suite environment. Step by step.

First of all, do all of the following when you think you are getting the least amount of emails to avoid possible interruptions.

1. your administrator will set up an account for you on Google

The admin will create an account “info@beamphysics.com” on G Suite. Notice companies like Euclid Techlabs requires this account to be identical to your old email address, but you may request for aliases; in other cases you may request an account from the admin.

An email will be sent to you after account creation. Use the information to log in your new G Suite account. (Notice that this temporary password is only apparent to you, but not to the administrator).

Use this to log in. After log in you may go to Gmail and start using other Google services.

2. Preparations for migrating your old emails

Now you have two accounts with the same email info@beamphysics.com. When you log in on Google from the above link sent by Google, you see something like this:

Your emails are still being sent to and stored by Network Solutions. It is the administrator’s responsibility to ask Network Solutions to switch the MX records hosting to G Suite. You are responsible to only migrate your emails (if you chose to do it by yourself).

OK, here is the hard part. We are using the IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) to migrate emails. You can think of it as to “authorize Network Solutions to release your emails to another party”.

So, you should have your Network Solutions Webmail password ready.

You also need a service account credential file, in JSON format (****.json), sent by the administrator. Notice: this file contains the company’s G Suite administration information and you should only use it but not read, edit, or distribute it. After the email migration you need to delete this file completely (not by dragging it into trash can, DO empty your trash can).

3. download the Gsuitemigration tool

Download GSuiteMigration.msi from

https://tools.google.com/dlpage/exchangemigration

If your computer warns you that “This file might damage your computer” and balabala, ignore it. Don’t ignore warnings for other MSI files from the Internet though…

Run the tool as the computer’s administrator.

4. create an excel table with your information

User accounts: Create a list of the user accounts that you are migrating. The list should be a CSV file in the following format:

user1#user1password, google_apps_user1
user2#user2password, google_apps_user2

The second column “google_apps_user1” can be left blank if the desired email is the same as the Network Solutions email. In our case they are both info@beamphysics.com, so the Excel to be used looks like this:

Where the censored black doodle is the password for info@beamphysics.com on Network Solutions Webmail. Replace that with your password.

5. Start the Gsuitemigration tool

Start the GSuiteMigration program, make it look like this (You need to replace beamphysics.com to whichever domain you are migrating from):

Notice that the dropdown list is blocked by the text box. Please select “Other IMAP Server” from the dropdown list.

Click on “Next”, now you are on Step 2 of 3.

In the first text box, enter your G Suite domain name. Usually it’s your company’s main website. Notice in many cases, a company can own many websites, such as that Euclid Techlabs owns euclidtechlabs.com and beamphysics.com. So in this case, even you are migrating emails on beamphysics.com, the G Suite domain name is still the main website: euclidtechlabs.com.

Next, select the JSON file the administrator sent you. This has been mentioned before. If you don’t have it, contact the administrator. 

Then, enter the administrator’s email address. This is provided by the administrator. Your G Suite could have multiple admins but this must match the creator of the JSON file. 

See below for a screenshot.

When you are done with Step 2, click on Next. Now you are at Step 3 of 3.

First select Email messages, and All.

For the “File of accounts to migrate”, select the CSV file you created from the above instructions.

Choose “Migrate deleted emails” in “Advanced Options” if you want.

Click Next. Now you are at the summary page, double-check all the settings and now you are ready to start.

Click Next. You will then start. First it will run some diagnostics. Then you can click start to migrate.

If you encounter any problems at this stage, contact the admin.

6. Log in your G Suite account again and see the emails migrated.

In your Google account, you may see the emails have been migrated.

Notice: all your emails in the Inbox will be automatically added to Inbox, however, emails in the folders will be found in _INBOX/Folder/SubFolder/SubsubFolder/… etc. See below. If you want to move them out to the upper level, click on the triangle to the right of the folder name and select “Edit”. 

 

You are done here. Thanks for reading! If you want to also migrate your contacts, please refer to the following tutorial:http://www.frankliuao.com/blogs/how-to-migrate-contacts-from-network-solutions-webmail-to-gmail/