Import Your Mail
Migrate existing email from Gmail, Microsoft 365, Zoho, or any IMAP provider into Axene Workspace.
Moving to Workspace does not mean leaving your email history behind. The migration tool connects to your old provider over IMAP and copies every folder and message into an Axene mailbox. It is read-only on the source: nothing is deleted or changed at the old provider, and your team can keep using the old inbox until you switch your MX records.
Migrations live in the Admin console, under Migration, and can be started by an organisation owner or admin.
Supported sources
Anything that speaks IMAP works. The tool has presets for the common providers:
| Source | IMAP server | Sign in with |
|---|---|---|
| Gmail / Google Workspace | imap.gmail.com | App password |
| Microsoft 365 | outlook.office365.com | IMAP credentials |
| Zoho Mail | imap.zoho.com | App password |
| Yahoo / AOL | imap.mail.yahoo.com | App password |
| Other IMAP | your provider's host, port 993 | Mailbox credentials |
Gmail, Yahoo, and Zoho no longer accept your normal account password over IMAP; generate an app password in that provider's security settings and use it here.
During onboarding, the provider import options (Zoho, Gmail, Outlook) are shown as coming soon; that step currently only offers a fresh start. The full migration tool described here is available today in the Admin console, so finish onboarding first and then run the import from Admin, Migration.
Running a migration
- Go to Admin, Migration and pick your source provider (this pre-fills the IMAP server and port).
- Choose the destination mailbox in Workspace.
- Enter the source username (usually the full old address) and its password or app password.
- Click Start migration.
Workspace verifies the login against the source server before anything is queued, so a typo in the password fails immediately with a clear error instead of a stuck job.
The copy itself runs in the background on the server. You can close the tab, and large mailboxes can take a while. The Migration page shows each job live: which folder it is working through, how many messages have been copied out of the total, and its status (Queued, Running, Done, Error, or Cancelled). A running job can be cancelled at any time; everything copied so far stays in the destination mailbox.
What carries over
- Every message, in full, with its original date, so your mailbox history reads exactly as it did before.
- Read and starred state and other message flags.
- Your folder structure. Custom folders are recreated under the same names. Provider-specific system folders are mapped to their Workspace equivalents:
| Source folder | Becomes |
|---|---|
| Sent, Sent Items, [Gmail]/Sent Mail | Sent |
| Drafts, [Gmail]/Drafts | Drafts |
| Trash, Deleted Items, [Gmail]/Trash | Trash |
| Junk, Junk Email, [Gmail]/Spam | Spam |
| [Gmail]/All Mail, Important, Starred | Skipped (they duplicate messages that already live in other folders) |
What does not carry over
- Contacts and calendars - IMAP only carries mail.
- Filters, signatures, and other settings - recreate these in Workspace (filters take a few minutes to set up).
- Mail that arrives at the old provider after the copy ran.
Run one migration per source mailbox. Re-running the same source copies its messages again, which leaves you with duplicates in the destination.
Credentials and security
The source password is encrypted at rest while the job is queued and running, and it is permanently deleted the moment the job finishes, fails, or is cancelled. Workspace never stores your old provider's credentials beyond the life of the migration.
Planning your cut-over
Migration and switching your mail flow are separate steps, which keeps the move zero-downtime:
- Create the destination mailboxes in Workspace.
- Run the migrations while your MX records still point at the old provider. Mail keeps arriving there; nothing is interrupted.
- Verify the copied mail looks complete in Workspace.
- Switch your MX records to Axene. New mail now arrives in Workspace; anything that lands at the old provider during DNS propagation stays readable there.