Migrate to Fastmail from Gmail (2024)

The following information makes it easy to move all your information into Fastmail, once you have chosen a plan. Our plan offerings can be found on our Pricing page. Toggle theMonthly prices / Annual prices (Best Value) button to see how much you can save by paying yearly. If you have a multi-user account, mix and match pricing lets you pick the best plan to suit each person's needs.

• Set up your email address and/or domain
• Set up your other users
• Transfer your mail
• Transfer your calendars
• Transfer your contacts
• Transfer your rules
• Making the most of Fastmail
  • Using Labels mode
  • Viewing pinned mail

Set up your email address and/or domain

The first step is to simply sign up with the email address you want to use with Fastmail.

If you don't own your own domain, you'll need to select an email address using one of Fastmail's domains.

If you have your own domain, follow our domain and email migration guide to learn how to transfer your domain, mail accounts, and addresses to Fastmail.

Set up your other users

If you are migrating an account with more than one user, you'll need to set up a group account. For this, use our multi-user guide here.

Transfer your mail

You can import all your mail from Gmail to Fastmail. This is a one-time task to transfer all your mail, and may take some time to complete.

1. Open the Settings → Migration → Import screen.
2. In the Import mail, calendars, and contacts section, select Gmail / Google Workspace.
3. On the next screen, you'll be asked to log in to your Gmail account. ClickSign in with Google. A pop up window will appear prompting you to enter in your Gmail credentials, and then asking you if you would allow certain permissions for Fastmail. ClickAllow to proceed.
4. You'll then be asked what you want to import, and if you'd like mail to continually be fetched from your Gmail account. Please select the options you'd like.
5. Click Do it.

Note Each label in Gmail is created as a folder in Fastmail. If you have an email with more than one label, you will end up with multiple copies of that email: one in each resulting folder. These additional copies of imported messages do not impact your account's storage quota.

Imports can take some time, especially for accounts with a lot of mail. Do not start another migration from your account whilst the first one is still running as it will result in 2 copies of every message in your account. You can continue to use your account as normal while the migration is running.

When your mail is done importing, you'll receive a message from us letting you know. We'll also email you if there were any issues importing your mail.

Note: To import multiple users' mail into separate mailboxes, do separate imports from within the settings of each user in your group account.

Transfer your calendars

You can also import your calendars from Gmail to Fastmail.

1. Open the Settings → Migration → Import screen.
2. Go to the Import mail, calendars, and contacts section and select Gmail / Google Workspace.
3. On the next screen, you'll be asked to log in to your Gmail account. ClickSign in with Google. A pop up window will appear prompting you to enter in your Gmail credentials, and then asking you if you would allow certain permissions for Fastmail. ClickAllow to proceed.
4. You'll then be asked what you want to import. Please select Calendars to import them from Gmail.
5. Click Do it.

You can continue to use your account as normal while the migration is running.

Additionally, you can also import your calendars to Fastmail using another method:

1. Open the Settings → Migration → Import screen.
2. Go to the Import mail, calendars, and contacts section and select Upload contacts and calendars.
3. ClickUpload calendar file.
4. Find the ICS file and click the Select button.

To export a calendar from Gmail:

1. Hover over the calendar you want to export and click the three dot icon.
2. Click Settings and Sharing.
3. Click Export Calendar and you’ll be prompted to save it in a zip file.

Need more information? Check out our calendar migration guide.

Transfer your contacts

To import your contacts from Gmail to Fastmail.

1. Open the Settings → Migration → Import screen.
2. Go to the Import mail, calendars, and contacts section and select Gmail / Google Workspace.
3. On the next screen, you'll be asked to log in to your Gmail account. ClickSign in with Google. A pop up window will appear prompting you to enter in your Gmail credentials, and then asking you if you would allow certain permissions for Fastmail. ClickAllow to proceed.
4. You'll then be asked what you want to import. Please select Contacts to import them from Gmail.
5. Click Do it.

You can continue to use your account as normal while the migration is running.

Gmail contacts can also be imported to Fastmail by using an alternative method.

To do this you'll need to export your contacts from Gmail first:

1. Log in to your Gmail account and open Contacts.
2. Select the contacts you wish to export, then click the three dot icon to open theMore actions menu.
3. ClickExport. You will be prompted to select a file format for your exported contacts. The compatible formats to import to Fastmail are Google CSV and vCard.

Once you've exported your contacts, they can then be imported to Fastmail.

1. Open the Settings → Migration → Import screen.
2. Go to the Import mail, calendars, and contacts section and select Upload contacts and calendars.
3. Click Upload address book file.
4. Select the file you downloaded from Gmail earlier and upload it into Fastmail.

Transfer your rules

We make it easy to transfer any rules you have set up on your Gmail account, so you can have new mail organized as you like right away.

To transfer your Gmail rules to Fastmail, first export them from Gmail. Once you have this exported file ready, log in to Fastmail and go to your Settings → Mail rules screen.

Here, click on the Import... button. You can then upload the file containing your rules.

Your imported rules are visible on your Settings → Mail rulesscreen.

Making the most of Fastmail

For general steps you can take to migrate smoothly to Fastmail, please see the "Making the most of Fastmail" section in our full migration guide.

Using Labels mode

If you used labels in Gmail, you can switch to using labels instead of folders in Fastmail. To switch to Labels mode, go to your Settings → Folders screen and scroll down to the Organize messages withsection. Select Labelsinstead ofFolders. Your folders will immediately be converted to labels.

For more information on using labels in Fastmail, see our help page here.

Viewing pinned mail

If you're used to Gmail's Star feature to save important messages and view them quickly, you can use ourpin feature. Pinned messages are flagged as special. To pin a message, click the small thumbtack icon.

If you're used to Gmail's "Starred" mail view, this can be replicated by typing is:pinned into theSearch Mail bar. This will show all pinned messages in all folders of your account (excluding Spam and Trash). Click theSave button to save this view to your folder list so you can see all pinned mail at any time.

For more information on how to use the pin feature, see our help page here.

Migration complete

You're done! Welcome to email, calendars, and contacts done right.