Before moving email, list everything the office uses beyond messages: shared calendars, shared contacts, invitations and phones. Ordinary hosting mailboxes may carry mail only, so confirm the new service syncs calendars and contacts first.

Mail on every phone, and nothing else

A property management office moves its email to the mailboxes that came with its hosting plan. By lunch, messages are arriving on every computer and every phone, and the move looks finished.

The next morning a manager opens the calendar on her phone, and this week's inspections are missing. The shared list of owners, tenants and trades has gone from everyone's contacts too.

Nothing was deleted. The calendars and contacts never moved, because the new mailboxes were built to carry messages and nothing more.

Mail and calendars are different services

Hosting mailboxes usually offer the standard mail protocols: IMAP, which keeps folders in step on every device, and SMTP, which sends messages. Neither carries a calendar or a contact list.

Shared calendars and contacts need a server that stores them and keeps every device in step, through a group mail system or through the open standards called CalDAV and CardDAV.

Some hosting plans include that; many do not. A plan's description may say email without saying which of these it means.

What the office actually uses

Before choosing where email lives, list what the office relies on beyond the inbox:

Each line is a question for the new service. An office that needs only mail can move freely; one that needs all six should have every answer before it moves.

Where the old calendar lives

The old calendars live wherever the old service kept them: on its server, or sometimes in one person's Outlook file on one desk. Cancelling the old service can take them with it.

Exporting them gives a file, a snapshot of the day it was made. Imported into one person's calendar, it shows the past but shares nothing and updates for nobody else.

So the export is a backup, not a move. Take it before anything is cancelled, then plan where the shared versions will actually live.

What happens to invitations

Meeting invitations travel as email, with a calendar file attached. A full group service reads that file and places the meeting in the calendar; a plain mailbox shows it as a message.

Accepting it on one phone may add it to that phone alone. Colleagues see nothing, and the person who sent it receives a reply that may or may not register.

A worked example

An energy auditing firm with an office coordinator and three auditors visits homes across the suburbs, testing for air leaks and heat loss and writing up reports for the owners.

The coordinator booked every visit into a shared calendar that the auditors checked on their phones each morning, with each homeowner's details in a shared contact list.

To save a monthly fee, the firm moved its email to the mailboxes included with its hosting. Mail arrived everywhere, and two days later two auditors drove to the same house.

The calendar had stopped updating the moment the old service was cancelled. Contacts had been exported to a file on the coordinator's computer, and nowhere else.

The firm chose a mail service that stores shared calendars and contacts and syncs them to each kind of phone it uses. Its host pointed the domain's mail there, and the website stayed where it was.

The calendar and contacts were rebuilt from the exports, and each phone was connected once and tested. When the coordinator moves an appointment now, it moves on every auditor's phone within minutes.

Questions to ask before choosing

For each option, ask whether shared calendars and contacts are included, and how they reach the phones and computers the office already uses.

Ask how invitations are handled, whether one person can manage another's calendar, how mail and calendars are backed up, and what happens when a phone is lost.

Ask the price per person with all of it included. A cheaper mail-only option that leaves staff emailing each other appointments is not cheaper for long.

Phones are where it shows

iPhones, Android phones and Outlook on the desk each connect to calendars in their own way. A setup that works on one may need a different setting, or an app, on another.

Test each kind of device the office uses before the move: add an appointment on the desk and watch it appear on the phone, then the other way round.

Watch the timing as well. Some phones fetch calendar changes every few minutes, others only when the calendar is opened, and staff in the field need to know which they have.

Mail does not have to live with the website

Where email lives is set by records on the domain, separately from where the website lives. The site can stay on its hosting while mail goes to a service built for groups.

A good host will explain the options plainly and make the change for you, including the records that tell other mail servers which machines may send for your domain.

The counter-case

For a one-person office, or a small team that keeps personal calendars and shares nothing, hosting mailboxes may be exactly right. Plenty of businesses run on mail alone.

Some hosting plans also include calendars and contacts, and for them the question is only whether every device connects properly.

But an office that books work into a shared calendar should know before the move where that calendar will live. Finding out afterwards means a morning like the one the auditors had.

Before the mail moves

  1. List every shared calendar and who uses it.
  2. List the shared contacts and where they live now.
  3. Note each kind of phone and computer in use.
  4. Ask each option what it syncs, and to which devices.
  5. Export calendars and contacts before cancelling anything.
  6. Test on every device before staff rely on it.
  7. Move in a quiet week, with the old service still running.

Step seven is what turns a mistake into an inconvenience. With the old service still running for a week or two, anything missing can be found and carried across before it is gone.

For opening and closing mailboxes as staff come and go, see email accounts for summer staff that never close.

Frequently asked questions

Why did our calendars not move with our email?

Hosting mailboxes often handle messages only. Shared calendars and contacts live on a different kind of server, and they stay with the old service unless moved deliberately.

What is the difference between IMAP and calendar sync?

IMAP keeps mail folders in step across devices. Calendars and contacts need separate standards, such as CalDAV and CardDAV, or a group mail system that includes them.

Can we just export the old calendar?

Export it as a backup, but an exported file is only a snapshot. Imported into one calendar, it shares nothing with colleagues and stops updating.

What should we list before moving email?

Shared calendars, shared contacts, meeting invitations, shared mailboxes, out-of-office replies, and every kind of phone, tablet and computer that must show them.

Does email have to be hosted with the website?

No. Records on the domain decide where mail goes, separately from the website, so the site can stay on its hosting while mail goes to a group service.

How do we avoid a gap during the move?

Export calendars and contacts first, test every device before staff rely on it, and leave the old service active for a week or two afterwards.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Calendars missing since the email move?

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