Guide
Move your business email to your own domain
If your mailboxes live on Alibaba Mail, Tencent Exmail, 163 Business Mail, or any IMAP provider, you can import every message into Rovela while keeping your domain. No mail is lost and the switch takes effect the moment the MX record changes.
How the migration works
- 01
Add your domain to Rovela
Create a free account and add the domain you want to migrate to. You don't publish the MX record yet — your old provider keeps receiving mail while you get ready.
- 02
Create the mailboxes
Add one mailbox per address you are moving. The addresses can be identical to the old ones; the domain is the same, so only the server changes.
- 03
Import historical mail
Open each mailbox, choose Import, and enter the credentials for the same address at your current provider. Rovela logs in over IMAP and copies every folder — Inbox, Sent, custom folders, all of it.
- 04
Publish the new MX record
Once the import finishes, update the MX record in your DNS panel to point at Rovela. New mail starts arriving within minutes. The old provider's copy is untouched and you can read it until you are sure everything is there.
- 05
Update SPF, DKIM, and DMARC
Swap the old provider's SPF include and DKIM selector for Rovela's. The domain setup guide has the exact records. Without them your outgoing mail may land in spam.
Which providers can I import from?
Any mailbox reachable over standard IMAP works: Alibaba Mail (imap.qiye.aliyun.com), Tencent Exmail (imap.exmail.qq.com), 163 Business Mail (imap.qiye.163.com), Gmail, Outlook, Fastmail, or a self-hosted server. You need IMAP access and the credentials for each mailbox.
Before you start
- Enable IMAP on each mailbox at your current provider if it is off by default — Alibaba and Tencent both require this.
- Use an app-specific password if your provider requires one for third-party IMAP clients.
- Check your plan's mailbox quota: you need one slot per address you are moving.
- Pick a quiet time to flip the MX record. The DNS change itself takes minutes but you may want to do it outside business hours.
Common questions
- Will there be any mail loss during the switch?
- No. The import copies messages while your old MX is still active. New mail keeps arriving at the old server right up until you update the record. After the switch, any mail that arrived at the old server just before the cut-over is still in the import you already ran — and you can run another import pass to catch the last few messages.
- How long does the import take?
- It depends on mailbox size and your old provider's IMAP speed. A 2 GiB mailbox typically imports in 10–30 minutes. The import runs in the background; you don't need to keep the page open.
- Can I import from Alibaba Mail without enabling IMAP?
- No — Alibaba only exposes mail over IMAP, and IMAP has to be enabled per mailbox in the Alibaba admin console. The path is: Admin console → Mail settings → Enable IMAP/POP3. Check the current menu path in the Alibaba console; the label moves between versions.
- I have 50 mailboxes. Do I have to import one by one?
- The current import tool works one mailbox at a time. For larger migrations, contact support — bulk import via a CSV of addresses and credentials is on the roadmap.
- What happens to shared mailboxes and aliases?
- Import them as separate mailboxes. Aliases (addresses that deliver into the same mailbox) can be added on the Rovela mailbox after creation, so the forwarding behaviour is preserved.
- Can I keep the old provider running in parallel for a while?
- Yes. Once you flip the MX record, new mail goes to Rovela. The old server keeps the historical copy and any stragglers that hit it before DNS propagated. You can read both until you are confident and then let the old account lapse.