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Has anyone had a successful, pain free migration to Google Mail?
Most people discussing the migration of Telus email to Google Mail are coming with questions and/or complaints. This is unnerving as I contemplate initiating the migration. It would be helpful to know how often the migration works seamlessly. If ever. 😉
Has anyone had a successful, problem free migration to Google Mail?
If we restrict the scope to mail only, then yes, I had a seamless pain free migration from Telus mail to Gmail. I was using Thunderbird and POP3. Incoming mail was downloaded from the Telus server each time I logged in. I very rarely used the Telus Webmail, only when traveling. And if we put aside the risk of having your mail stored on a Google floating barge in a third world country, I am more happy with the Gmail system than the Telus system. I can now access my mail on my phone. I still use Thunderbird and am quite happy with that arrangement. I now use IMAP instead of POP3. That means the mail stays on the Google server (so I can access it from my phone or anywhere I have internet), but Thunderbird mirrors it and downloads a copy of the mail to my home PC where it is saved on my hard drive. Changes made in Thunderbird are immediately also made on the Google server, and vice versa. The only issue I am having is that I occasionally have to resign into Google and enter my password. Not sure what is causing that...
The Calendar is another matter. I was using Thunderbird Lightning. There is an add on for Thunderbird that is supposed to sync a Google Calendar to the Lightning calendar. That did not work and it seemed to be caused by the flavour of the gmail account that Telus created. The add on worked for direct gmail accounts, but not the Telus created account. I finally found a work around with another add on, that simply displays the Google Calendar as a tab in Thunderbird, and does not use Lightning. That seems to work fine.
I don't know what you are using for an e-mail on your computer, but one piece of advice I would give you is to go into the Telus Webmail and download all the mail on their server. If you have an email system that saves your email on your hard drive, then you will have all your old email regardless of what Telus does.
Hope that helps some,
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No, it is a disaster......nothing works, my old telus email password is not recognized (did 2 days ago!)....on and on......no explanations or help when I look for it.
For what it's worth, I did my parents' migration this week. They've had their Telus accounts for basically 20 years and it went through without major issue. The only thing that annoyed me is I was only allowed to schedule the migration on a Tuesday or Thursday so I had to go out to their place on a weekday after work to make sure they could continue to use their emails.
I used to switch between Shaw and Telus every few years to score better deals so I avoided using Telus webmail. I've been with Telus now for 10 years or so consistently, but I'm entrenched with non-Telus email. I do wish my providers were subject to Canadian privacy laws, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
no email for 6+ days and no help despite many HOURS of phone calls. awful service and no recourse , told I could leave Telus but would still have to pay for 2 years. customer for about 25 years with no real problems until now.
Note: you might need a cell phone to set up your Google account.
Well, I didn't get very far in the migration today. I used my work email for the alternate email required. I clicked the link and found the telus.net account.
Next: "This device isn't recognized. For your security, Google wants to make sure it's really you." - the only option they provide is to send a security code to a cell phone, which I do not have.
This does not make any sense either, how does sending a security code to an unregistered cell phone number help verify "it's really you"?
I will try and sort it out on my Chromebook at home tonight.
I know this is no longer a common issues, but my wife and I try and live cell phone free.
Chromebook and other Google Devices - change login from telus.net email before migrating.
Thought I would share my latest adventure. I finally managed to complete the migration but can no longer login to my owner account on my Chromebook because it was linked to my existing Google account that used my telus.net email to login. The new Gmail account set up through the Telus migration voided my original Google account. I can fix it, but it is just one more hassle that could have been avoided if Telus had done some research first.
Dear Telus Google migration team,
I would have been great to know about this before I did the migration: https://support.google.com/a/answer/7044710
- NFtoBC
Community Power User
The process was to identify the cellphone number while logged into your Telus account, thus not an unregistered cellphone number. You then identify yourself with that cellphone. You will likely need to contact Telus directly to address this issue, as other credentials will be needed.
Yep, which means that this will not be a "pain free migration". Nothing like waiting for a real person at Telus support.
It would have been nice if Telus had arranged for back-up security codes to be sent with the migration email sent to the alternate account. This is Telus' lack of foresight rather than Google. My work IT did a similar migration and sent Google back-up codes and registered user phone #s (landline included) prior to the migration, so all went smoothly. No cell phones required.
These are all things Telus could have investigated prior to mandating this migration and sent a pre-migration survey to users to make sure everything would be addressed prior to migration.
- I have had similar issues. I avoid using Google mail and the only cell phone we have is for travel and it rarely gets used during the pandemic.
I installed Mac Mail on my iMac and my old Telus is working with all the mailboxes and saved data, which was not the case when we tried Google.
Telus let their customers down by switching before they had the ability to do so smoothly, which has not been the case as we have seen and heard.
John
My conversion was a nightmare. Every mail moved over to google however now my Outlook 2016 client will not recognize the imap google server and my contacts are totally messed up. I am an ex 20 year employee of Telus and understand IT pretty well. Telus "help desk" said wait 24 hours and see if it works...and its been 3 days and it still doesn't work on Outlook. Fair warning to others...this migration is not well planned. Back up your old info.
--------> I would also HIGHLY suggest that if you have not used your telus online webmail contacts as your primary contacts; that before you go through this migration that you delete every single contact inside of the telus webmail and then upload (import) the contact list that you do use regularly into the telus webmail......or else your contacts will be as messed up as mine.
My emails transferred over, but not my contacts, notes or calendar.
Also I cannot set up telus email in Outlook 365 on my laptop
For those having apparent issues with contacts, my experience might be of use. Google annoyingly has Contacts as an app unto itself, which you have to pick from the Apps grid. After conversion, my contacts weren't visible in that app. However, when I tried to compose a new message and entered the beginnings of a contact/addressee, I was presented with the pick list with the appropriate contacts listed. That was evidence that they made it through the migration. Coincidentally, a friend mentioned that her apparent problems with the migration had resolved when she shut down her computer that night and started up the next day. Behold, the contacts were now listed in the Contacts app. So, I tried the same thing. I shut down and rebooted, and the Contacts appeared in the Contacts app.
This note may be too late to solve some people's frustration, but it might be of use to others.
- Re: Telus regular Email changed to Telus Google Mail
We are a small business and have just been migrated from our very reliable MS OutlooK 10, including use of offline folders, many contacts, the ability to print in a letter format and actually be able to read the print with out a magnifying glass. No one has assisted or given actual one on one guidance with their transfer to Telus Google Mail. We do want to try to find apps that might help with printing or things like this. Still waiting for the promised transfer of contacts or how to connect to our many offline folders.
Spent many hours several times on hold to no avail. Now have read that there is no way to reconnect to the offline folders. As well another comment stated to get past tier one help - it must be paid for?!
Seems no one can assist - you are on your own! We can’t even get back into our previous MS Outlook 10 program on our own computer to at least go through our offline folders!
Please bring back the previous reliable system!!- Please to note for BA2020.
I missed out the most important word in my post approx 8 hrs ago!
We DON’T want to try to find suitable apps that “might” be able to help with printing or email formatting or needed to open attachments, etc.
We do not have a lot of computer knowledge at all. We are not pleased.
We are now only receiving in box email to which google has already sifted through the inbox putting what they think is important to us into the inbox and rest into other folders - oops now called “labels”?! This pre-sifting of our mail should not be done at all it should be left up to the email user to decide what's important for themselves.
Still not able to get through to Telus as to finding contacts and help with offline folders. EGADS!!First off, I am not from Telus, and I am not sure anyone here is. We are just users of the Telus services in most cases. I am retired and not so young any longer either. I did not ask for this migration to Gmail either. But, it does have some advantages, but certainly comes with the pain of having to make changes. The up side is that you do not have to notify everyone that your email address has changed.
On the print size for Gmail that is a common problem for new users. When you want to print an email make sure you use the Print Icon just to the right of the title of the email. See the icon highlighted in yellow in the snip below.
This icon will bring up a print preview page which will show you what the printed page looks like. If it is not filling the page as you like, then scroll down to More, and then to Scale. In the scale set it to Default.
That is the simple part. Not having access to Outlook or your offline folders is more puzzling. If you created folders in Outlook and they were saved on the Telus server, then it will be Telus that has to give you access to them.
I have not used Outlook for 10 years or so, and cannot help you much with it. It appears that if you want to continue to use Outlook you have to download a file and do some setup to access the new Gmail account with Outlook. Here is a link that explains how to do it. You need to check you have a suitable version of Outlook before proceeding. Normally you select Help in your Outlook, and it will show you what version of Outlook you have. Here is the link:
Set up TELUS email on your computer using G Suite Sync for Microsoft® Outlook®
Hope that helps some,
This “migration” is a class one Cluster F..k.
I use the Mail app on my Mac. Thursday 3 Sep, it took me over an hour on telephone with a techie in Asia to get my mail up and running. In the process, I had to delete my Telus account and reinstall with the Google server. That resulted in the loss of virtually all my email: received, sent and drafts.
Today, 4 Sep, I found that all my Calendar entries of several years have disappeared.
I am tempted to switch to Shaw or Rogers.
Beware!
We are in an area that only has Shaw or Telus and they both have crappy customer service. Telus was supposed to move my mailboxes over a week ago and they have not nor have they had the decency of a follow up call or email. My wife still has the old email and she won't be switching to fckg Google unless they force her.
I have survived the migration and it went really well - I was surprised. In this household there are two iphones, two ipads, one android phone, a macbookpro, mac mini and two windows PC.
All the apple products went really fast without and issues setup was very easy and the information Telus provided was easy to follow.
The PC's were more of a challenge - both run Outlook 365 and I thought I would use my skills by manually setting them up - no go.
I ended up using the GSuite sync tool which worked really well - all the mail and all the folders we have were imported as expected to both machines.
The hiccough were contacts but that was not a Telus/Gmail issues as I have mine in icloud and my wife's are in outlook.com. However it was easy to import once the conversion was done. All in all I was surprised how easy this was and how relatively quickly it went!
I've been trying to help a handicapped friend with the migration. The problem starts with a forgotten password.
OK Telus has a procedure for that. Sure they do. I go through the RESET PASSWORD process enter an appropriate password (it gets a check mark) wait for Telus to send the 6-digit code. Enter the code and press SUBMIT.
Up pops a message saying "We're sorry something went wrong. Please try again."
Well I tried 10 times and got the same results. Yes I tried other passwords and yes I got the 6-digit code each time followed by the same message!
A phone number to a human could solve this VERY quickly. But I can only use the useless on-line help. Waiting over an hour for a return call does not work.
While I sympathize with both your situations, I have nothing to contribute in the way of help. Sorry.
It seems to me that there are two basic ways to hopefully survive the conversion from Telus mail to Telus Gmal. There are pros and cons to each, and it is worthwhile thinking about which will work best for you.
1. Use 3rd party email like Thunderbird set up for POP downloading of email. This program downloads all your new mail to Thunderbird and keeps a copy on your local hard drive. When it downloads the email it is then gone from the Telus Webmail server, and it only exists on your local hard drive. The big advantage of doing this, providing you check right before are transitioned that all your Telus mail is downloaded, and nothing remains on the Telus server, is that you are in control of your data, and Telus can't lose it. Then after the Telus Gmail account is set up, you create a second account in Thunderbird that links to the Gmail account. I think it makes most sense to use IMAP for this new account. That way you can take advantage of the web based Gmail that allows access from your phone or tablet, or browser. Thunderbird will mirror any changes you make locally in Thunderbird to the Gmail account and vice versa. Your old POP style account now essentially becomes dead historic data. You can still access it, and if you really want you can copy email from it to your new Gmail account in Thunderbird, and it will be mirrored up to the Gmail account. I have not done that though.
2. If you are a Telus Webmail only user or possibly are using an IMAP connected third party app, your email is then stored only on the Telus server. Your fate then is totally in the hands of Telus. You are depending on them to successfully transfer all your email from the Telus server to the Gmail server. IF they do that properly it is probably the most painless and least disturbing method. But, if you view the many posts here, it seems that Telus does not always do the job well. After the transition is made, then you can still use a third party program like Thunderbird. Using IMAP it lets the email reside both on your computer and on Gmail. The only real difference is in the reliability of getting there...
No! I started with Chat and spent ages trying to get my Telus Mailboxes moved as they have years of personal and business information that I need. The Telus person had no idea how to make the transfer to Google; so, he referred it to the technical team and they were going to make the migration. That was a week ago and my Mailboxes have not moved. Before requiring a move from Telus to Google, one would think that they would insure that they knew how to do it before requiring customers to make it the transfer. That would be common sense!
- NFtoBC
Simple thing would be to move your stored emails to a folder on your computer in your choice of email client. Than they aren’t subject to the migration process.
- Tried to move them. They won't move.
If we restrict the scope to mail only, then yes, I had a seamless pain free migration from Telus mail to Gmail. I was using Thunderbird and POP3. Incoming mail was downloaded from the Telus server each time I logged in. I very rarely used the Telus Webmail, only when traveling. And if we put aside the risk of having your mail stored on a Google floating barge in a third world country, I am more happy with the Gmail system than the Telus system. I can now access my mail on my phone. I still use Thunderbird and am quite happy with that arrangement. I now use IMAP instead of POP3. That means the mail stays on the Google server (so I can access it from my phone or anywhere I have internet), but Thunderbird mirrors it and downloads a copy of the mail to my home PC where it is saved on my hard drive. Changes made in Thunderbird are immediately also made on the Google server, and vice versa. The only issue I am having is that I occasionally have to resign into Google and enter my password. Not sure what is causing that...
The Calendar is another matter. I was using Thunderbird Lightning. There is an add on for Thunderbird that is supposed to sync a Google Calendar to the Lightning calendar. That did not work and it seemed to be caused by the flavour of the gmail account that Telus created. The add on worked for direct gmail accounts, but not the Telus created account. I finally found a work around with another add on, that simply displays the Google Calendar as a tab in Thunderbird, and does not use Lightning. That seems to work fine.
I don't know what you are using for an e-mail on your computer, but one piece of advice I would give you is to go into the Telus Webmail and download all the mail on their server. If you have an email system that saves your email on your hard drive, then you will have all your old email regardless of what Telus does.
Hope that helps some,
Thanks Ron. That's reassuring. The time may have finally come when I must abandon Eudora and switch to Thunderbird. I tried testing Eudora to get it to download messages from my Gmail account, which is theoretically possible, but I couldn't get it to work despite setting up Less Secure Apps etc. Which does not bode well for using Google Mail after the migration. Besides which Google is promising to stop allowing "less secure apps" altogether in 2021.
Essjay1; "The time may have finally come when I must abandon Eudora and switch to Thunderbird."
It looks like that is possible but not exactly straightforward. From what I see, you have to install an old version of Thunderbird (17.0.9) that has the capability to import Eudora to do it. I presume after you do the import and verify everything is good, then you can upgrade Thunderbird to the current version... See this link:
Importing from Eudora to Thunderbird
I don't know much about Eudora, but I suspect you will like Thunderbird. I find it so much better than Outlook or Outlook Express which I converted from. The only issue I had with the Telus conversion was with integrating the Google Calendar into Lightning which is the calendar add on to Thunderbird. The add on to do it did not work with the Telus created Google Account. However, I found another add on that inserts an Open Google Calendar tab right into Thunderbrid. I was also able to import all my past and future calendar appointments from Lightning to Google Calendar.
Hope that helps some. If you are going to convert to Thunderbird my suggestion would be to do it and get things all sorted out before you let Telus Google you.
