If you use our Axigen mailbox, can you move to Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 later?

Why it’s easy

Some email services keep your mail in their own format, so getting it out means a special export or a paid migration. Ours doesn’t. Your mailbox speaks IMAP, the standard mail apps use to show your folders, and IMAP is exactly what import tools read. Google’s and Microsoft’s importers sign in to your Axigen mailbox the same way the Gmail app on your phone does, and copy everything into the new mailbox.

Your address doesn’t change either. It belongs to your domain, not to us, so hello@yourname.com.au moves with you. All that changes is where the domain’s MX records send new mail.

What comes across

The order that loses nothing

Whichever service you move to, do it in this order. The new mailbox fills up while your old one keeps working, and the switch happens only once your mail is safely across.

Moving to Google Workspace

Google Workspace is Gmail at your own address. Its Data import tool copies a mailbox from any IMAP server. You need to be the Workspace super administrator, which you are if you set Workspace up yourself.

1. Set up Workspace for your domain and create the mailbox for the same address, for example hello@yourname.com.au. Verify the domain, but don’t change the MX records yet. Our Google Workspace setup guide covers the records; leave the MX step until step 6 below.
2. In the Google Admin console, go to Menu › Data › Data import & export › Data import, and click Import next to IMAP.
3. Enter the IMAP server name from the settings we emailed when your Axigen mailbox was set up, then click Test connection. If the test fails, reply to our set-up email and we’ll check it with you.
4. Add the user: your Axigen email address and password, and the Workspace address to copy into.
5. Optionally choose a start date, whether to include deleted mail and spam, and any folders to skip. Then click Start import. Google emails you when it’s finished, with a report.
6. Switch the mail records to Google’s (see below).
7. About three days later, run a delta import from the same page. It copies only the mail that arrived in the Axigen mailbox after the first import.

Moving to Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365 gives you Outlook at your own address. Its IMAP migration copies mail from any IMAP server and keeps copying new mail once a day until you tell it to stop.

1. Add your domain to Microsoft 365 and create a licensed user with the same address. Verify the domain, but leave the MX record pointing at the Axigen mailbox for now. Our Microsoft 365 setup guide covers the records.
2. In the Exchange admin center, go to Migration, click Endpoints, then Add. Choose IMAP and enter the IMAP server name from the settings email we sent for your Axigen mailbox.
3. Make a small spreadsheet with three column headings, EmailAddress, UserName and Password: the new Microsoft 365 address, then your Axigen email address and password. Save it as a CSV file. As you’re keeping the same address, the first two columns are usually the same. Delete the CSV when you’re done: it holds your password.
4. Back in Migration, click Add migration batch, choose Migrate to Exchange Online, then IMAP migration. Pick the endpoint you made, upload the CSV, and start the batch.
5. When the batch shows your mail is across, switch the mail records to Microsoft’s (see below).
6. Leave the batch running for at least 72 hours after the switch, Microsoft’s advice, so it can pick up anything still arriving at the Axigen mailbox. Then select the batch and click Delete to stop it.

Microsoft’s limits are 500,000 emails per mailbox and 35 MB per email, well beyond what most of our Axigen mailboxes hold. Like Google’s tool, it moves email only, not contacts.

Switching the mail records

Your new provider gives you a set of records to add: usually MX (where mail is delivered), SPF (who may send as your domain) and DKIM (a signature that proves it). The new MX and SPF records replace the Axigen ones, because a domain’s mail can only be delivered to one place. Email and your domain explains what each record does.

• Domain with us? Reply to any of our emails with the records your new provider gave you, and we’ll add them and swap out the Axigen ones, free. Or change them yourself on the domain’s DNS page in your dashboard.
• Domain somewhere else? Change the records wherever your domain’s DNS is managed, the same place you added the Axigen records.

Most new mail moves over within hours, but some senders hold on to the old MX record for up to a few days. That’s why the final copy waits about three days after the switch.

Keeping a copy for yourself

Not moving, just want a backup? Add your Axigen mailbox to a mail program such as Thunderbird (free) and copy your folders into its Local Folders, which are stored on your own computer. That copy stays put even if the mailbox is later closed. It’s a good habit before any big change.

Common questions

Sources

All read on 27 October 2026.

• Migrate email from an IMAP account (Google Workspace): the Data import path, super administrator requirement, Test connection, start date and folder options, and delta imports.
• What you need to know about migrating your IMAP mailboxes (Microsoft): mail only, no contacts or calendar; 500,000 items and 35 MB per email; mailboxes must exist first.
• Migrate other types of IMAP mailboxes (Microsoft): the endpoint and migration batch steps, the CSV headings, daily synchronisation, and waiting 72 hours after the MX change before deleting the batch.

Keep reading

• Email via Axigen: a simple mailbox at your own domain, $24, $36 or $60 a year by size.
• How to set up Google Workspace email: Gmail at your own address.
• How to set up Microsoft 365 email: Outlook at your own address.
• Email and your domain: how MX records deliver mail, and what SPF, DKIM and DMARC each check.