you don’t have to change every email address in an afternoon. a gradual move gives you time to find forgotten accounts, check receiving, and keep a way back if something needs attention.

start with a working vael account. then decide which addresses, services and old messages actually need to move.

get the new inbox ready.

choose your main @vael.email address and save your account number somewhere private. add a second factor in security and save any recovery codes shown.

choose your plan before you need to reply. free can receive mail; sending requires plus. compare the storage allowances too: free includes 50 mb and plus includes 1 gb. neither is a reason to copy an old archive without checking its size first.

if you use a desktop or phone mail app, connect it with a separate app credential. keep the account number out of the app’s password field.

make a list of what uses your old address.

think about both ordinary messages and account recovery. useful groups include:

• accounts whose password resets go to the old inbox.

• purchases, bookings and subscriptions with receipts still to arrive.

• people who need to reach you directly.

• newsletters and other mail you actually want to keep.

you can give outside services separate aliases rather than reuse the new main address everywhere. record which service uses each one.

change one service at a time.

sign in to the service using an address or bookmark you already trust. update its email address, complete any confirmation at the old and new destinations, and check that the new address appears in the account settings.

keep the old inbox available while you work through the list. a confirmation email arriving once does not prove that every account, mailing list or contact has switched. review later mail at the old address to catch what you missed.

if you use forwarding, configure it with the old provider and check that it actually reaches the new address. forwarding availability and behavior belong to that provider; creating a vael account does not set it up automatically.

keep an independent copy of old mail.

use your previous provider’s export options before closing the account. check that you can open the downloaded archive and that it includes the messages and attachments you need.

if your mail app supports copying messages between imap accounts, try a small copy first and confirm the result in vael webmail. copying and moving are different actions. a move can remove the source copy, and a synchronized deletion is not a backup.

large archives may not fit your vael storage allowance. keeping an offline archive and moving only useful recent mail can be a better fit than filling the new inbox immediately.

don’t close the old account too early.

before closing it, check important password-reset destinations, contacts and outstanding receipts. keep the archive in a place you can still access after the old account is gone.

vael also lets you export account metadata as json and mailbox content as mbox in your data. those are separate exports, and downloading one does not delete the account. a careful move leaves you with a working inbox and a copy of what matters.