Moving Email accounts from one cPanel server to another cPanel server

Requirements:

cPanel on both servers

Definitions:

The server you are transferring the accounts from = “old server”
The server you are transferring the accounts to = “new server”

Instructions:

Step 1: Create a new email account on the NEW SERVER with the same address and password

Log on to the cPanel on New Server. Click the ’email accounts’ icon and fill up the simple form to create the email account. Make sure to keep the password same as the one you had on the Old Server. Choose any amount of disk space you want.

Step 2: Download the files off of the OLD SERVER

FTP onto the OLD SERVER and download the files needed. From the root directory, go to “mail/domain.com/emailAccount”. Here you will see a bunch of files. All you really need to copy are the new and cur directories.

If you have a lot of emails this could take a while.

Step 3: Transfer files to NEW SERVER

When the files are downloaded in step 2 place the new and cur directories in the “root/mail/domain.com/emailAccount” of the respective account on the NEW SERVER. The folder should already be created since you already created the account in step 1.

This step will take awhile as well.

Step 4: Reset Mail Quota

Now if you check the NEW SERVER you will see that your emails are transferred but your quota says 0/xxx MB. To update a wrong mail quota in cPanel: FTP to the OLD SERVER, open up the maildirsize file at “root/mail/domain.com/emailAccount” and copy all of the contents and paste them into the maildirsize file on the NEW SERVER.
You may have luck copying the maildirsize file on the OLD SERVER and pasting it on the NEW SERVER, otherwise try editing the maildirsize file on New Server so that it matches the values on the Old Server.

Step 5: Change DNS

If you followed all of the steps up to this point you should have all the files transferred, but you still need to point your DNS records to the NEW SERVER in order to have mail go there. When you update your records it could take up to 24 hours to take effect.

Step 6: Test

Finally, send a test email to the account. If that works send an email from the account. You’re done!

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