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Migrating from Gmail or Google Workspace

Move your mail and your domain from Gmail or Google Workspace to centomail without losing a message.

There are two different situations. Pick the one that matches yours.

  • A gmail.com address. The address belongs to Google and cannot move. You can bring your old mail, forward new mail, and gradually switch your accounts to addresses on your own domain.
  • Google Workspace on your own domain. The domain is yours, so the address moves with it. You import your mail and then point the domain's MX records to centomail.

A gmail.com address

  1. Import your mail. In centomail, open Settings → Import and choose Gmail. You sign in with Google and approve read access. Folders and labels are kept.
  2. Forward new mail. In Gmail, open Settings → See all settings → Forwarding and POP/IMAP and add your new centomail address as a forwarding address. Gmail sends a confirmation code there first.
  3. Move your accounts over time. Each time you log in somewhere, change the email to a new alias on your domain. Using one alias per site makes it easy to see who shares your address.
  4. Keep the Gmail account for a while. You can use it as the recovery address for centomail, as long as it is not on a domain you connect.

Google Workspace on your own domain

The order matters: import first, switch MX last, keep the old account for a short while.

1. Connect the domain, but keep Google's MX

Add your domain in centomail and add the verification, SPF, DKIM and recommended records. Do not touch the MX records yet. For SPF, add include:spf.centomail.com to the existing record next to include:_spf.google.com.

2. Create your addresses

In Workspace, every person and alias is a separate user or group. In centomail, they are all addresses in one inbox. Create an address for each one you want to keep receiving, for example you@, hello@ and billing@.

3. Import your mail

Open Settings → Import, choose Google Workspace / Gmail, and sign in with your Workspace account. Labels become folders and labels in centomail. Large mailboxes can take a few hours; you can keep using Gmail in the meantime.

4. Lower the MX TTL

At your DNS provider, set the TTL of the existing MX records to 300 seconds (5 minutes). Wait at least as long as the old TTL (often one hour, sometimes a day) before the next step.

5. Switch the MX records

Delete Google's MX records (for example smtp.google.com, or the older aspmx.l.google.com and its alternates) and add ours: mail.centomail.com with priority 10. The centomail dashboard shows when the first message arrives.

6. Import again and keep a bridge

Run the import a second time to pick up what arrived during the switch. For 14 days after the switch, centomail keeps checking the old Google mailbox and brings over anything that still lands there because of cached DNS.

7. Clean up

  • Remove include:_spf.google.com from your SPF record once nothing sends through Google any more.
  • Remove Google's DKIM record (usually google._domainkey) at the same time.
  • Export calendars and contacts from Google if you need them (calendar sync in centomail arrives later).
  • Then cancel or downgrade your Workspace subscription.

If something goes wrong

Put Google's MX records back and remove ours. Mail starts flowing to Google again as the DNS change spreads. Nothing already delivered to centomail is lost; it stays in your mailbox.