Migration from Gmail: A Horror Show?

WheelDeal · 13 Mar 2017, 06:01 AM

Hello -

I'm considering switching from Gmail to FastMail, a process that involves over nine years of e-mail, three accounts, and my custom domain. I was reading the blog of a user who attempted a similar migration, with unfortunate results:

http://blog.gingerlime.com/2016/why-...sing-fastmail/

The user tries to be fair in his assessment; nevertheless, he's understandably frustrated. He ends his review by saying,

Quote:

I really enjoyed the Fastmail interface, and was happy to pay for the service that gives ample storage. I truly want to support services that compete with Gmail’s dominance. . . . I have a lot of respect for FastMail’s developers and they’re doing lots of things well. It just didn’t feel as refined or as solid as I was expecting it, and their support did not give me much confidence at all.

. . .

I still somehow feel more safe with Google than switching to FastMail.

What would you all say? I'd be especially interested in a response from FastMail; how would they account for this person's experiences?

Thanks,
Brian

Terry · 13 Mar 2017, 06:23 AM

Fastmail don't participate much on the forum these days.

Why not set up an account then you can judge for yourself, if you like it then go about moving all your mail.

sflorack · 13 Mar 2017, 06:55 AM

The statement "and their product is not clear enough to work without support" leads me to believe that the author is not terribly competent when it comes to email. While I'm certainly no ace, I haven't had the need in 10+ years to contact support. EMD has been more than sufficient to address my issues; although I can appreciate that some users may feel uneasy about relying on a user-participation solution.

I've never used the email migration system, but if I had to change providers, I would prefer the good-ole IMAP drag and drop method using a third party program (i.e. Postbox or Mailbird). I've copied thousands of emails that way without a problem.

So bottom line, I wouldn't let one users past experiences deter you from giving FM a try. There are probably many people who've migrated over without issues.

BritTim · 13 Mar 2017, 07:32 AM

I have used the IMAP migration tool to transfer people from Gmail in the past. There are some complications that revolve around the fact that messages often have multiple labels (including AllMail) and a generally weird IMAP architecture. Also, Google throttles big mail transfers, so the migration takes time with periods where things may seem to be stuck (Google not FastMail is responsible.) However, it is doable. I would not let the migration issues dissuade you if that is your only concern. Just recognize that it will take a some time.

RLBrooks · 20 Mar 2017, 10:12 AM

I don't know what problems you might encounter moving from Gmail to Fastmail, the only thing that you might encounter is Gmail allows assigning multiple Labels to an email while in Fastmail you don't have labels and can only put the email into a single Folder.

I use both Gmail and Fastmail and suggest you try to use both. They are both excellent services. If you keep Gmail make sure you take advantage of all their account recovery measures as you don't have any Google support that you can call on like Fastmail offers.

Cheers... Russ

jhollington · 20 Mar 2017, 10:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RLBrooks

I don't know what problems you might encounter moving from Gmail to Fastmail, the only thing that you might encounter is Gmail allows assigning multiple Labels to an email while in Fastmail you don't have labels and can only put the email into a single Folder.

If I remember correctly, FastMail's migration tool handles this by placing copies of the e-mail in each folder that corresponds to a label, so you'll end up with duplicate e-mail messages (taking up additional space), but you won't actually lose your label organization.

The same logic also applies in FastMail if you really need a message "labelled" in more than one category — you can just copy it to additional folders. Of course, that's not as slick as Gmail's way of using labels — since it's a copy of the original message, you won't see a single message with multiple labels, but rather multiple individual messages stacked up onto each other.

TenFour · 21 Mar 2017, 05:29 AM

I just migrated 10 years of Gmail on Sunday. The trick is to choose wisely which labels you wish to migrate. I chose to only migrate Inbox and Sent emails, and FM (I am actually with POBox, but same thing I believe) nicely deduped my messages. You may see some odd count differences between Gmail and what ends up in FM, but I see that with any email migration. For example, I know that my Gmail account had duplicates of many messages due to combining accounts at various times. Also, in Gmail lets say you had a label for incoming email from accounts 1, 2, and 3, well POBox would normally add one email each to a folder for 1, 2, and 3, which is why you need to choose labels wisely. POBox nicely deduped them for me. One of the smoothest and fastest email migrations I have ever done, and I've done a fair number over the years.

thisisnotgood · 23 Mar 2017, 12:38 PM

I find Gmail one of the most reliable. It's also very compatible with Android, as that is their system.

Why switch to a small company that charges monthly (and can raise the price to whatever they want) and may not even be around in 10 years.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it....

Terry · 23 Mar 2017, 01:35 PM

They don't have sieve script and they scan your mail...

enough said.

jhollington · 23 Mar 2017, 09:18 PM

Even those points aside, after years of using both services at different times (I still have a paid G Suite account, but I use FastMail for my e-mail), it also comes down to how you prefer to access your e-mail.

The way I see it, Gmail is great if you're primarily going to access your mail through a web browser on the desktop and via Google's own native iOS and Android apps (Gmail or Inbox), but it starts to fall down if you want to use a traditional IMAP client, because Gmail's way of doing things isn't really fully up to the IMAP specs.

As somebody who uses iOS and macOS devices primarily, my client of choice is Apple Mail on all of those platforms. FastMail works great with that — even to the point of supporting push notifications in a way that's even superior to how iCloud does it. While Gmail can be made to work, and many people are doing it, it's kludgy at best, and Apple itself has had to build workarounds in more recent macOS and iOS versions to specifically support things that Gmail does without messing things up too badly on the client side.

20 Mar 2017, 10:12 AM	#5
RLBrooks Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Walla Walla, WA USA Posts: 28	Suggestion, use both I don't know what problems you might encounter moving from Gmail to Fastmail, the only thing that you might encounter is Gmail allows assigning multiple Labels to an email while in Fastmail you don't have labels and can only put the email into a single Folder. I use both Gmail and Fastmail and suggest you try to use both. They are both excellent services. If you keep Gmail make sure you take advantage of all their account recovery measures as you don't have any Google support that you can call on like Fastmail offers. Cheers... Russ

23 Mar 2017, 12:38 PM	#8
thisisnotgood Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 53	Just don't switch.. I find Gmail one of the most reliable. It's also very compatible with Android, as that is their system. Why switch to a small company that charges monthly (and can raise the price to whatever they want) and may not even be around in 10 years. If it ain't broke, don't fix it....

13 Mar 2017, 06:23 AM	#2
Terry The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: VK4 Posts: 3,013	Fastmail don't participate much on the forum these days. Why not set up an account then you can judge for yourself, if you like it then go about moving all your mail.

13 Mar 2017, 06:55 AM	#3
sflorack The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 2,937	The statement "and their product is not clear enough to work without support" leads me to believe that the author is not terribly competent when it comes to email. While I'm certainly no ace, I haven't had the need in 10+ years to contact support. EMD has been more than sufficient to address my issues; although I can appreciate that some users may feel uneasy about relying on a user-participation solution. I've never used the email migration system, but if I had to change providers, I would prefer the good-ole IMAP drag and drop method using a third party program (i.e. Postbox or Mailbird). I've copied thousands of emails that way without a problem. So bottom line, I wouldn't let one users past experiences deter you from giving FM a try. There are probably many people who've migrated over without issues.

13 Mar 2017, 07:32 AM	#4
BritTim The "e" in e-mail Join Date: May 2003 Location: mostly in Thailand Posts: 3,090	I have used the IMAP migration tool to transfer people from Gmail in the past. There are some complications that revolve around the fact that messages often have multiple labels (including AllMail) and a generally weird IMAP architecture. Also, Google throttles big mail transfers, so the migration takes time with periods where things may seem to be stuck (Google not FastMail is responsible.) However, it is doable. I would not let the migration issues dissuade you if that is your only concern. Just recognize that it will take a some time.

21 Mar 2017, 05:29 AM	#7
TenFour Master of the @ Join Date: Feb 2017 Location: USA Posts: 1,723	I just migrated 10 years of Gmail on Sunday. The trick is to choose wisely which labels you wish to migrate. I chose to only migrate Inbox and Sent emails, and FM (I am actually with POBox, but same thing I believe) nicely deduped my messages. You may see some odd count differences between Gmail and what ends up in FM, but I see that with any email migration. For example, I know that my Gmail account had duplicates of many messages due to combining accounts at various times. Also, in Gmail lets say you had a label for incoming email from accounts 1, 2, and 3, well POBox would normally add one email each to a folder for 1, 2, and 3, which is why you need to choose labels wisely. POBox nicely deduped them for me. One of the smoothest and fastest email migrations I have ever done, and I've done a fair number over the years.

23 Mar 2017, 01:35 PM	#9
Terry The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: VK4 Posts: 3,013	They don't have sieve script and they scan your mail... enough said.

23 Mar 2017, 09:18 PM	#10
jhollington Essential Contributor Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 371	Even those points aside, after years of using both services at different times (I still have a paid G Suite account, but I use FastMail for my e-mail), it also comes down to how you prefer to access your e-mail. The way I see it, Gmail is great if you're primarily going to access your mail through a web browser on the desktop and via Google's own native iOS and Android apps (Gmail or Inbox), but it starts to fall down if you want to use a traditional IMAP client, because Gmail's way of doing things isn't really fully up to the IMAP specs. As somebody who uses iOS and macOS devices primarily, my client of choice is Apple Mail on all of those platforms. FastMail works great with that — even to the point of supporting push notifications in a way that's even superior to how iCloud does it. While Gmail can be made to work, and many people are doing it, it's kludgy at best, and Apple itself has had to build workarounds in more recent macOS and iOS versions to specifically support things that Gmail does without messing things up too badly on the client side.