Has anyone had a successful, pain free migration to Google Mail?

[essjay1]

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?

[RonAKA · Accepted solution]

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,

[essjay1]

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. 

[RonAKA]

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.

[essjay1]

I did install an earlier version of Tbird that would let me import my Eudora data, then upgraded to the current version.  That seemed successful.  I don’t use an online calendar, so that shouldn’t be a problem.

I have some questions in to the Tbird community forum.  As you say, Ron, it is best to have everything lined up before turning Telus and Google loose.

Thanks for your cogent advice.  I appreciate hearing from someone for whom the migration ran without hitches.  (If pressing the Go button happens to lead to problems, you may hear from me again. 😉 )

[RonAKA]

Another thing to think about is Contacts. I had thousands of contacts in my Thunderbird which were imported from Outlook, which mirrored my work Outlook. I'm long retired but never got around to cleaning up my Contacts. I did that also before migrating to Gmail. It was not really critical as I never had contacts in my Telus Webmail. They were all in the Thunderbird address book. In my iPhone I manually entered a very short list of contacts with mainly phone numbers, as I did not do email on my phone. I also installed an iPhone app for Ooma which has some neat features. It allows you to make cell phone calls for free whenever you have WiFi. It also lets me hear messages left on my home Ooma phone. It also has a contact list in addition to the iPhone contact list. All on its own it seem to sync with the iPhone list. All was kind of good.

Then I got Googled by Telus and started doing email on my iPhone using the Gmail app. I then discovered I had no contacts to use to send new emails. I could just respond to ones I received, or had to manually enter each email address. I kind of let sleeping dogs lie for a while, but today I decided to try and get the Google Contacts working. My first attempt which was easy was to export the Thunderbird Address book to a CSV file, and then import it into Google Contacts. That worked fine. Then I learned I could set my iPhone to sync my iPhone contact list with a Google Contacts, just using Settings, Accounts, etc... That worked pretty good as well. I knew there was another option to use a Thunderbird add on, gContactSync, to keep Thunderbird in sync with Google Contacts. After that step I got kind of a mess. Some contacts got duplicated, and some did not seem to sync. That is where I am at now, and don't really have it sorted out yet. It has gotten kind of complicated, and I don't know what is syncing with what. I think I will let the new sleeping dog lie for a while and see if I can figure out what is going on...

Sorry I don't have a perfect solution for you, but if you to have contacts imported from Eudora in Thunderbird it is something you should think about. 

[RonAKA]

Oh, and to be clear, if you only intend to send email from Thunderbird you do not have to do any of this. Your existing Thunderbird Address Book, can be used to start them. You can also respond to emails that are still in the POP3 account. 

[Oldislander]

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.

[Oldislander]

Tried to move them. They won't move.

[Rick81]

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.

[essjay1]

@Rick81 @Richmark40 

While I sympathize with both your situations, I have nothing to contribute in the way of help.  Sorry. 

[RonAKA]

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...

[Oldislander]

Thanks for the info. Have been considering trying Thunderbird if I have nothing to lose in the process.

[polecat]

@RonAKA @Oldislander  I am totally gmail (gsuite) So my gripe is storing emails in a folder or what ever and that email is not connected to all the mail like in gmail also having all emails for days weeks hanging around in all mail. I like a clean email platform like webmail was an easy to use and not having gmail going yoho u have read all your mail. Delete all mail and you delete mail in labels the pits. I want my storage safe within the email platform and not on another google platform. Will thunderbird do this for me. Polecat

[Oldislander]

That is what I am wondering as well. I am seriously thinking of downloading Thunderbird and if all the files and drafts can be safely transferred, then I will scrap Gmail and Telus...neither works for me at this time. I wonder how many other Telus customers are running into the same problems?

[polecat]

@Oldislander  I have a buddy that knows this stuff and i am not rushing to switch until sure of what i am getting into. Probably get a brand new email address and transfer my contacts by hand if need be. I would cancel all other email platforms.that is my hope anyway. Polecat

[Oldislander]

A wise move!  My wife has her own computer and Telus email and she is waiting until Telus forces the issue...in October.   By then, maybe they will have the bugs ironed out.

[polecat]

@Oldislander  The emails i lost did not matter to me. I printed several important ones and put them in a binder and will probably keep doing the same with gmail. For the amount of mail we get not going to change.The wife is used to it now so ok. We don't use a cell to access mail its a prepaid for travel safety only. With this virus thing i am finding that i pickup the phone and talk to people instead that way not waiting for a reply.  Most emails are news things that get deleted every day.  Good luck with your transfer. Polecat

[RonAKA]

@Oldislander as I mentioned to @polecat Thunderbird has no mail server. You still need to get that service elsewhere. It can't be Telus any longer as they have killed it. It could be Gmail, or perhaps Hotmail, but that seems to be falling out of favour, and of course there is the GSuit Gmail which Telus has created for you. My thoughts would be, especially if you do most of your email on a computer, is to download Thunderbird and try it with an IMAP interface to your new GSuite Gmail account. You will not lose anything from Gmail, and everything there will be copied to Thunderbird. Then you can try it to see if you like it. If you only do email on your computer, you will never have to look at Gmail, but you could with the browser. Or you could with a Gmail app on a phone. 

The process to set up the Thunderbird program is give by Telus at this link:

Set up TELUS email on your computer using Mozilla Thunderbird

[polecat]

@RonAKA  Thanks for your info i am not up on this email stuff so i think i will leave it as it is for now and explore thunderbird . It looks kike an easier format to use. TKS polecat