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How to Migrate HostGator Email to Office 365 Account Quickly?

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Written By Mohit Jha
Anuraag Singh
Approved By Anuraag Singh
Published On November 23rd, 2023
Reading Time 10 Minutes Reading

If you are wondering of migrating from an old email service platform to an updated platform with advanced features. Then, in this case, MS Office 365 is much better option to manage large email data smoothly. It even helps in meeting the organizational needs for smooth functioning. So, in this article, we will share how to migrate HostGator email to Office 365 account. Here, we are going to explain all the possible methods available to complete the migration process on desktop.

Let us know about HostGator in brief-

HostGator is a web hosting service that is easy for novices to learn and build websites on. Although it is a leading provider of shared, reseller, VPS and dedicated web hosting for users. Even, this web hosting email platform also provides free webmail services to the users. But now it is one of the older webmail services and provides you less storage space to store data. So, to prevent any inconvenience, users prefer to migrate to Office 365 platform.

User Query: We used HostGator webmail service in the early days of our startup but we have now grown up company. And hence a large data needs to be maintained with complete security. So, we decided to migrate to Microsoft 365 platform. Please share a reliable solution to migrate email from HostGator to Office 365 account.

Now, let’s dive into the reasons for this migration in detail.

Why Do Users Switch to Microsoft 365 from HostGator?

Practically there are many reasons for this, such as-

  1. HostGator is basically a hosting webmail which is more beneficial for small enterprises. Whereas, Microsoft 365 is great for both small and large organizations.
  2. Microsoft 365 is better for managing large email data on cloud and it is also more flexible than HostGator.
  3. There are different subscription plans of Office 365 which allows the users to go for the plan as per the requirement. On the other hand, HostGator does not provide such facility to the users.
  4. Furthermore, Microsoft Office 365 has a collaboration feature that allows multiple users to work together at a time.
  5. HostGator webmail offers less storage of data with a limited number of emails to share at a time. On the other hand, O365 has a huge storage data to provide its users to have no such limitation while sharing emails.

Manual Approach to Migrate HostGator Email to Office 365

Note: Practically, there is no direct way that HostGator provides to transfer its emails to some other platform. Therefore, there are a few indirect steps to perform this migration with all emails from HostGator account to Microsoft 365-

  • Premigration Settings in HostGator Account
  • Configure HostGator Account in MS Outlook
  • Take out all the emails on desktop
  • Remove the configured HostGator Account
  • HostGator to Office 365 Migration Manually

Step 1- Premigration Settings in HostGator Account

  1. To start the manual procedure, first, go to HostGator Customer Portal and login with your details.
  2. After this, select the Email Account option >> Connect Devices button.
  3. From the Mail Client Manual Setting, note down all the details of the Secure SSL/TLS Settings (Recommended) somewhere, including user name, password, incoming server, outgoing server.

Step 2- Configure HostGator Account in MS Outlook

After all the premigration settings, now implement the steps mentioned to below-

  1. Open MS Outlook 2021, 2019, 2016 on your desktop or PC.
  2. From the menu, click on the File option >> Info >> Add Account button.
  3. It will take you to another step to Setup new account, here, enter HostGator user email address and tap on the Connect icon.
  4. After this, in the Advance setup window, tap on the IMAP option.
  5. Here, now just enter all the required details in the fields that you noted down earlier from Secure SSL/TLS Settings.
  6. Afterwards, just click on the Next > enter password > tap Done.
  7. This is how your HostGator Email account will be configured with MS Outlook application and all the email folders/subfolders will appear on the screen.

Step 3- Save All Emails to the Desktop

After completion of the synchronization process, you will be required to take out all the emails from the HostGator mailbox. So, perform the below steps to do so-

  1. From the Outlook 2021, 2019, 2016 >> File >> Open & Export >> Import/Export option.
  2. Here, from the new wizard, select Export a file and hit Next.
  3. Now, in this step, opt with Outlook Data File (.pst) and press the Next button.
  4. After this, just tap on the required account for exporting emails and check the Include subfolder option, click Next.
  5. Here, you need to assign the saving path for a new PST file by tapping on the Browse button, tap Finish button.
  6. Before moving further with the next step, make sure to verify that the file is saved to the selected location.

Step 4- Remove Configured HostGator Account

Once you get the emails in exported file on desktop, it is necessary to remove your HostGator email account before connecting your Office 365 account in order to migrate HostGator email to Office 365-

  1. To do so, again open MS Outlook >> File >> Account Settings >> Account Settings.
  2. Here, from the synchronized accounts, select the HostGator account and click on the Remove button.
  3. It will prompt a dialog box on the screen: Do you want to continue? Tap Yes to move further.
  4. By performing these steps, your HostGator account will be removed. Now, move to the last step for the completion of the manual method.

Step 5 – Migrate HostGator Email to Office 365 Manually

In this step, you have to first connect your Microsoft Office 365 account with MS Outlook 2021, 2019, 2016, 2013. To do this, make sure to follow the same steps from step 2, but here you will have to select Microsoft 365 instead of IMAP’s.

  1. Now go ahead and open Outlook again >> File >> Open and Export >> Tap on Import/Export option.
  2. To migrate email to Office 365, select the Import from another program or file option, then tap Next.
  3. In this step, click the Outlook Data File (.pst) with the mouse and click the Next icon.
  4. Here, tap on the Browse button and you need to select the PST files that we have created above.
  5. From the bottom section, tick mark any of the inbuilt options to remove duplicate emails and hit the Next button.
  6. Now, select the Import items into the same folder in and select Office 365 mailbox account from dropdown list, tap on Finish button.

Few Drawbacks of the Manual Method

  1. To migrate email from HostGator to Office 365 account with this manual method, you will need an Outlook application installation.
  2. Also, if you have a large HostGator mailbox then this whole process is quite long and time consuming.
  3. There is no option available if you are planning to migrate emails from multiple HostGator accounts to Microsoft 365. However, to do so, you will have to follow the entire process again.
  4. Furthermore, this method also does not provide the facility to transfer only selected emails from the HostGator hosted account.
  5. In case of any interruption, there is a high chance of data loss while using this indirect manual method.

Automated Solution to Migrate HostGator Email to Office 365

It is better to choose a professional solution to securely transfer emails from one platform to another. So, in this case, you can choose SysTools IMAP to Microsoft 365 Migration Software for smooth HostGator to Office 365 migration.

Download Now Purchase Now

So, using this automated solution the user can perform bulk email migration from HostGator account. In addition, it also features several built-in features to optimize the process. Hence, the user can customize the settings as per the requirement on the supported Windows OS.

But in case, if you are a Mac user and looking for a working solution for the same on Mac operating system. Then, using IMAP Server Migration Tool would be a great option to transfer bulk email files from HostGator to O365. However, it will keep all metadata and properties the same through the process on the latest and older version of Mac OS.

Download Now Purchase Now

Top Facilities That This Tool Offers

Technically, this software has a lot to offer to its users, but here we are sharing some of the benefits of the tool-

  1. This HostGator to Office 365 migration tool allows users to transfer bulk emails in one go without any data manipulation.
  2. It is also functional with Windows operating systems which include Windows Server 2012/2016, Windows 10/11 (64bit) editions.
  3. This tool ensures to migrate HostGator email to Office 365 safely, so that the user does not have to worry about any data loss during migration. So, in short, the software just provides the end result with the same formatting or email properties.
  4. After the migration is completed, it also provides automated software summary or detailed report that it generates with all the details. So, that you can save the generated report on the local computer for any future reference.
  5. Along with these, the tool also allows users to do concurrent migration from source to destination account. This means that with this feature, HostGator email data can be easily transferred to multiple Office 365 accounts at once. If required, you can also set priority as per requirement to transfer HostGator email of selected accounts first.

Step by Step Guide to Migrate HostGator Email to Office 365

Download the Windows based tool on supported version first, then follow the below guidelines to initiate transfer process-

  • Once you activate the key, just run the software on supported Windows machine. From the home screen of software pane, pick IMAP option as a source and Office 365 option as destination.

select source and destination account

  • Tick the Email checkbox containing HostGator emails with attachments. Or if required, set the Date Filter button to migrate emails from HostGator to Microsoft 365 account selectively.

migrate hostgator email to office 365

  • Thereafter, just pick the Other option as a IMAP host server, and enter HostGator Webmail account details for validation.

choose others

  • Now, select the Office 365 option as IMAP destination account, enter the required user ID and password to validate, click Next.

office 365account

  • Tap on the Start Migration button to begin a bulk HostGator to Office 365 migration on local computer.

migrate hostgator email to office 365

Conclusion

In this article, we have explained how to migrate HostGator email to Office 365 account for better understanding. For this task, we have shared two best solutions in above section. Where one is manual or free way and another is its alternative which is also suggested by top professionals. Hence, using the software, bulk migration can be initiated in a few simple clicks. And to know the tool firsthand before going for the activated license key, you can try its free trial version.

Read More: Complete Guide to HostMonster to Office 365 Migration
  author

By Mohit Jha

Mohit is a Microsoft-certified expert who has assisted thousands of clients with Outlook & Microsoft Office 365 issues. He enjoys writing on email clients as well as data migration. He is always excited about giving troubled readers the most up-to-date knowledge, explanation, and refinements.