Migrating from Gmail

Moving from Gmail (or Google Workspace) to Faivelo takes three things: a Google app password, a destination mailbox on your Faivelo domain, and a few minutes to kick off the import. Faivelo copies your mail over IMAP — nothing is deleted from your Google account.

New to this? Start with the migration overview for how the whole wizard works.

Before you start

• Your domain is added to Faivelo. The wizard creates the destination mailbox for you (or you can point it at an existing one), so you don’t need to set one up first.
• Testing the connection (the pre-flight check) is free; running the actual migration is included with any paid plan.

Step 1: Turn on 2-Step Verification

Google only issues app passwords for accounts with 2-Step Verification enabled. If you haven’t already, turn it on at myaccount.google.com/security.

Step 2: Create an app password

1. Go to myaccount.google.com/apppasswords.
2. Give it a name (something like “Faivelo migration”) and click Create.
3. Copy the 16-character password Google shows you.

Note

An app password is not your normal Gmail password. It’s a one-off credential you can revoke later without touching your real login. Faivelo removes the spaces automatically when you paste it, so don’t worry about formatting.

Step 3: Start the migration

1. In your Faivelo dashboard, open Migrations.
2. Pick Gmail / Google Workspace as the source — the server settings (imap.gmail.com) are filled in for you.
3. Choose the destination domain, then enter your Gmail address and paste the app password, and map it to the destination mailbox.
4. Faivelo runs a quick pre-flight check and shows you exactly what will move: your folders, the message count, the size, and a time estimate.
5. Review the folder list, then click Start migration.

What gets copied

• All your mail folders (labels) and the messages in them, preserving folder structure.
• Trash and Spam are skipped by default — they rarely need to come along and just slow things down.
• Gmail’s virtual folders like All Mail, Important, and Starred are excluded automatically, so you won’t end up with duplicate copies of every message.

How long it takes

The pre-flight check gives you an estimate up front. As a rule of thumb, expect roughly a few messages per second — Gmail throttles bulk IMAP access, so a large mailbox with tens of thousands of messages can take a few hours. You can watch live progress bars in the dashboard, and you don’t need to keep the page open.

Mail keeps flowing

The migration only reads from Gmail — it never deletes or changes anything there. Your Faivelo mailbox receives new mail normally the whole time, so there’s no downtime and no gap in your inbox. You can keep sending and receiving while old mail copies over in the background.

Bringing your calendar

Mail moves over IMAP; your calendar comes across as a file — it takes about a minute:

1. In Google Calendar, open Settings → Import & export → Export. Google downloads a zip with one .ics file per calendar.
2. In Faivelo webmail, open Calendar → Sync, then Import a calendar (.ics) and pick the file.
3. Every event lands in your Faivelo calendar — including repeating events — and syncs out to any device you’ve connected. Importing the same file again updates events instead of duplicating them.

Bringing your contacts

1. In Google Contacts, choose Export and keep the default Google CSV format.
2. In your Faivelo dashboard, open Contacts → Import and drop the file in — Faivelo recognizes Google’s column names automatically.
3. Imported contacts appear in compose autocomplete in webmail, and sync to phones and Apple Contacts for every mailbox you’ve granted address-book access.

After the migration

• Spot-check a few folders in Faivelo webmail to confirm everything arrived.
• Revoke the app password in your Google account — it’s no longer needed.
• If you’re moving off Gmail entirely, make sure your domain’s MX records point at Faivelo so new mail arrives in the right place.

Next steps

• Migrating from Microsoft 365 — if you have other accounts to bring over.
• Set up your mail apps with your new Faivelo mailbox, or use Faivelo webmail right away.