One email to rule them all...

January 23, 2018 12:09 PM

So, in a new year effort to streamline, I've been thinking a lot about downsizing my digital world. I finally counted up that I have at least a dozen different email addresses that all forward into either a hotmail account that is old enough to drive or a gmail account. Has anyone successfully consolidated their previous email life? And how did you do it?

1) I'm a compulsive email hoarder and love the ability to search for 10-year-old emails when I need to. Whatever system I go to, I'd love to be able to take all my old saved email folders with me. (Or even to just download them into something searchable on a hard drive.)

2) I use a ton of Google products anyway and have lots stored on GDrive. And, I know that gmail can absorb email archives from elsewhere fairly easily. But I'm growing increasingly wary of Google having access to every part of me. I'm tempted by Protonmail or something equivalent, but the lazy (and cheap) part of me also just feels like giving up and moving everything to gmail.

I heard a great Note to Self episode a few months back that talked about this issue, so I think that's where some of my motivation is coming from. Has anyone heard yet of a magic app that will allow me to move it all to one spot easily?

posted by hessie to Technology (1 answer total)

Most good email hosts have migration features. When I moved my personal mail from Gmail-for-domains to FastMail, I think I used such a tool.
posted by uberchet at 2:48 PM on January 23, 2018