It’s both simple and safe to import your domain’s email to Runbox Email Hosting.

This article explains how to set up one or more Runbox accounts, switch your domain to use Runbox, and then import any existing email from the other service.

What you need to do

We often get asked what the best procedure, or sequence of events is, for moving to Runbox from another mail service. There are a few ways in which you can order the steps, but one of the most effective we have found is detailed below.

  1. Create all the required accounts at Runbox. This will make our service ready to receive email as soon as it starts to arrive at our servers.
  2. Change the MX record for your domain to mx.runbox.com so that mail starts to arrive at the new Runbox accounts.
  3. Wait until mail stops arriving at the existing old accounts (it can take up to a day as it takes time for other email providers to stop using the old MX record)
  4. Import Mail from the old accounts (if necessary).

You may need to check the old and new account(s) during the transfer period as some mail might still go to the old account(s) while other email providers start to pick up on the new MX record for your domain and start to deliver mail to Runbox.

If you need any further information about the transfer process please contact us and explain your specific situation.

Setting up a Runbox account

First, create a Runbox account if you haven’t already done so, by going to https://runbox.com/signup:

  1. On the sign up page, select the option to  “Use your own domain“.
  2. Enter the details of the address you want to use on your own domain.
  3. Fill in the remaining sections and click “Set up my Runbox account”

Setting up Sub-Accounts

During the trial period you can’t set up sub-accounts. To set up sub-accounts you will need to pay for your Main account (you still get a free month) and at the same time you can purchase the required number and types of sub-accounts you need (if any).

Once this is done, you can proceed to set up additional accounts for co-workers or others who need separate email addresses on your domain.

You can do this by going to Account > Sub-accounts in the main menu.

Setting up an email client

If you’re using an email client such as Outlook or Thunderbird to read your email, you can set it up according to our IMAP and SMTP instructions. It would be a good idea to leave your old account set up during this transfer period as some mail might still go to the old email accounts while email services pick up on the new MX settings that you will change in the next section.

Changing your DNS settings

Log into your domain’s registrar service and go to the DNS (Domain Name System) management screen. For the domain you set up in Runbox, set the MX (Mail eXchanger) record to mx.runbox.com.

For most people this is the only change that needs to be made. If you need help identifying how to make the change with your domain registrar let us know as we may be familiar with some domain registrar’s interfaces. Alternatively, your domain registrar or their support documentation should be able to help you with this.

Once your DNS changes have propagated throughout the Internet, incoming email for your domain will be delivered to your new Runbox account(s). It can take some time for all email providers to update their records and start sending mail for your domain to Runbox.

Importing your existing email

Once mail has stopped arriving at your old email provider, you can then import mail from that provider using our IMAP Import tool.

To import your email into your new Runbox account, go to Manager > Retrieve and enter the details of your other account in the IMAP Import section. You can find more details on how to do this in Help > IMAP Import.

That’s it! Your domain’s email is now securely hosted with Runbox.