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Switching to Scroogle Mail

Moving email providers feels like moving house: you dread it for months, then it turns out the removal van does most of the work. Our importer is the removal van. Your old address keeps working the whole time, nothing gets thrown away without your say-so, and most people run both mailboxes in parallel for a few weeks before quietly forgetting the old one exists.

All plans Reading time: about 6 minutes Doing time: about 20 minutes, plus a background import
On this page
  1. The one-click importer
  2. Keep the old address alive
  3. The moving checklist
  4. Common questions

The one-click importer

Everything lives under Settings > Import in the Scroogle Mail web app. You have two routes in, and they end up in the same place:

  • Coming from Gmail or Outlook? Click the provider's button and sign in on their official consent screen. You are signing in with Google or Microsoft directly - we never see your old password, and the access you grant is revoked automatically the moment the import finishes. It exists for the import and nothing else.
  • Coming from anywhere else? Export your mail as MBOX or EML files (every serious provider offers this) and upload them on the same page. The importer treats them exactly like a live import.

Either way, the importer copies your messages, your folder structure and your contacts, and it does it in the background. Every message is encrypted on arrival with your keys, just like any other mail that lands in your mailbox - by the time it touches disk in Zurich or Lausanne, we can't read it either.

A typical 10 GB mailbox takes a few hours. You can close the tab, make dinner, go to bed - the import carries on without you, and you'll find a summary message in your inbox when it's done.

The importer copies; it never deletes. Your old mailbox is left exactly as it was, so if anything looks off you can simply run the import again.

Keep the old address alive

The import covers your history. Forwarding covers your future: switch it on at your old provider and anything sent to the old address lands in your Scroogle Mail inbox within seconds. Then just reply from Scroogle Mail - the people who matter will update their address books without ever being asked.

Forwarding from Gmail

  1. Open Gmail and go to Settings > Forwarding and POP/IMAP.
  2. Click Add a forwarding address and enter your new Scroogle Mail address.
  3. Google sends a confirmation code to your new address - click the link in it.
  4. Back in Gmail, select Forward a copy of incoming mail and save.

Forwarding from Outlook

  1. Open Outlook on the web and go to Settings > Mail > Forwarding.
  2. Turn on Enable forwarding and enter your Scroogle Mail address.
  3. Tick Keep a copy of forwarded messages if you want a belt-and-braces backup.
  4. Save. That's it - Microsoft doesn't ask for confirmation.

Updating the logins that matter

You don't need to change every account on day one, and honestly you shouldn't try. Work down the list in order of how much it would hurt: bank and government accounts first, then utilities and anything that can reset a password, then shops, and newsletters last of all. Or skip the newsletter admin entirely: create an alias like newsletters@yourname and resubscribe as you go - when one starts leaking spam, you bin the alias, not your address.

The moving checklist

Print it, screenshot it, or just tick it off in your head. When everything below is done, the move is done.

  • Import finished - and you've spot-checked a few folders, including one old and obscure one, to see that everything came across.
  • Forwarding switched on at the old provider, and a test message sent to the old address has arrived in your new inbox.
  • Bank, government and utility accounts updated to your new address - the ones where a missed email actually costs you something.
  • Two weeks of watching what still lands at the old address. Each forwarded message is a little to-do: update that sender, or alias it.
  • Contacts exported and imported - the importer handles this for Gmail and Outlook; anywhere else, a vCard (.vcf) export does the job.
  • Recovery phrase stored somewhere safe - a password manager, or paper in a drawer. It's the one thing we cannot replace for you.
  • Old mailbox archived or deleted - your call. Some people keep it as a spam bucket for years; some enjoy the delete button. Both are valid.

Common questions

Will my folders and labels survive the move?
Folders come across exactly as they are, nesting and all. Gmail labels are a slightly different animal - Gmail lets one message wear several labels, and folders don't work that way. So each label becomes a folder, and a message with more than one label is filed under its first label. Nothing is lost; a few things may be filed somewhere slightly different from where you'd have put them.
Can I import from Proton, Tuta or Fastmail?
Yes. All three let you export your mail as MBOX or EML files, which our importer accepts happily. Fastmail's is the smoothest of the three: one MBOX from its Settings > Download data page drops straight into the file importer.
What about my calendar?
Export it from your old provider as an ICS file and import it under Settings > Calendar > Import. ICS import is included on every plan, and recurring events come across intact.
Do you import my spam folder?
No. The spam folder stays behind, on principle. You're moving house; you don't take the junk mail off the old doormat with you.
Next steps

Settled in? Two things worth doing next

Bring your own domain

Move you@yourname.co.uk onto Scroogle Mail with guided DNS setup, so your address is yours no matter who hosts it.

Set up a custom domain →

Use your desktop mail app

On Plus and Family plans, Scroogle Bridge gives Thunderbird, Apple Mail and friends full IMAP and SMTP access - decrypted locally, never on our servers.

Set up IMAP and SMTP →

Haven't made the jump yet? Create your Scroogle Mail address - it takes about three minutes, and the 30-day money-back guarantee means the worst case is a refund and a story.