How to move your email accounts to Ex2

Moving mailboxes takes a little planning, but done in this order you won't lose a single message.

48 hours before the move:

1. At your current DNS provider, lower the TTL on your MX records to 300 seconds. This makes the final switch propagate in minutes instead of hours.

On moving day:

2. Recreate every mailbox in Ex2 first: cPanel → Email Accounts → create each address with the same name as before, and set a strong password for each.
3. Copy the existing mail. The reliable method: add both the old and the new account to a desktop mail client (e.g. Thunderbird) via IMAP, then drag folders from the old account to the new one. Leave both accounts connected until everything is copied.
4. Switch the MX records to point to Ex2: set them to mail.yourdomain.com (priority 0) at your DNS provider. Because you lowered the TTL, mail starts arriving at Ex2 within minutes.
5. Update every device. Point phones and computers at the new server: incoming mail.yourdomain.com port 993 (IMAP, SSL) or 995 (POP3, SSL); outgoing mail.yourdomain.com port 465 (SSL) or 587 (STARTTLS). Use the full email address as the username.
6. Verify, then clean up. Send test emails in both directions and check that old folders are present. Keep the old mailbox active for a week as a safety net before closing it.

Good to know: Ex2's migration guide covers moving mailboxes as one step of a full site migration — this article is the standalone version for email-only moves.

Updated on: 07/10/2026