I’ve had my GMail account for what must be almost 20 years now, and it’s pretty ingrained in my life. My mortgage info comes via GMail, my bank statements come via GMail, my health insurance comes via GMail, etc.
Thinking about migrating honestly seems like an insurmountable task. I have no idea where to begin. How the hell do I go about untangling GMail services from my life.
I’ve potentially been looking to move to Proton for email, but any other suggestions (preferably European based) would be welcome.
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I moved in stages:
- Set up my new email account
- Forward all messages that reached my Gmail to my new email account
- Gradually changed my email with each service.
I started with key stuff, but eventually noticing anything still going through Gmail made me feel vulnerable. I was really vulnerable all along - imagine if Gmail had revoked my account back when they controlled my entire online identity!
Like everyone’s saying it’s something that will take time. I recommend getting your own domain and make it your main address for serious/professional things. This will give you the flexibility of changing providers whenever you want without losing your address. It may require a subscription to a paid email plan, but I think it’s worth it on the long run.
Also, start using an alias provider like addy.io or SimpleLogin for general account registrations. Recently I’ve been running through a lot of websites and replacing the email for an alias or even completely deleting the account.
To transfer you life to another email, do it slowly, each time you can transfer your stuff, and slowly all of it will be transferred :)
As others have said… slowly is how you do it. Every time you get an email at the gmail account, update your address with that account. In time you’ll get fewer and fewer things there until one day you’re done.
His do you eat a whale? One bite at a time.
I was the same as you. Got Gmail way back when. I’ve left pretty much all google services at this point except YouTube.
For me, mail and cal were the easiest things to switch switched to mailbox.org. I tried Proton first, and i like using Proton quite a bit, but opted for Mailbox because my my wife (who wants to keep Gmail for personal) can get IMAP for mailbox and her remaining google in a single app. Proton is more polished, but Mailbox suited our need better. Tuta is good too.
Switching away from Google docs and Photos was harder. I used google docs extensively, and it was harder to find a good replacement. Same for photos which used since it was Picasa. I opted for self hosted for those (Paperless-ngx, nextcloud, and immich). I like paperless a lot. Its tons better than google drive for static docs. Immich is pretty promising, and has some great tools. But you do sacrifice a bit of polish and simplicity. Still worth it for me.
Price of self hosting is probably a wash compared to paid storage as long as you ignore the cost of your labor to learn and set it all up.
I recently started using Ente as a Google Photos replacement and it been great so far. Its e2ee with any ML done fully local. The devs seem like they care about the right things and have a good plan to keep building out more features.
Yeah. I’ve heard good things about Ente. For me, I was at a storage tier where i was over 100gb of docs & photos, and between 1 & 2TB when you include video. Most hosted services get kinda pricey at those storage tiers.
I didn’t really set out to self host, but since in needed to solve for docs, photos, and videos, I just went with self hosting. I’m happy with it, just acknowledging that it’s not for everyone
Firstly, it doesn’t have to be all at once, do it in stages.
Also, when I switched I used it as an opportunity to organize my emails, so I made a finances tag, a medical tag, etc. I would make a tag and move over all the emails that fit that tag, eventually I had moved everything over. It also ended up being a good chance to close accounts I hadn’t used before.
I moved to proton because they had mail and calendar and now drive, etc. Tuta mail is another encrypted mail/calendar service.
Signup, and then everyday/week/month as emails come in make a point of changing them over to the new email. Don’t forget to give your medical practicioners your new contact info–if they arent in contact often
I started in the same position mate. My old Gmail is still there but rarely gets anything. My email transition was like thweek s:
- Set up auto forward to your new email system.
- Reply to people and companies you actually know from your gmail account, cc your new account saying that you’ve migrated. Peicemeal update your user details.with companies like utilities, rent, banks, and other logins.
- Set up auto reply after about 3 months to say that the account is only monitored weekly and you’ll reply when you check.
- Rinse & repeat step 2.
I only have good things to say about mailbox.org
Use your own domain for heavens sake, so you’re not stuck with a new corporation instead of google. It’s ok if you have the email for your domain hosted at an email provider since you can always move it or self-host it without your address changing.
For EU email hosting, migadu.com is still around and seems ok (I played with it a little, years ago). They start at 19 USD/year now it looks like. I’m on fastmail.com (Australian) which costs more but I’ve been happy there so whatever.
Eh, fastmail is no bueno anymore. The Australian government passed a law called the Access and Assistance bill, which would require any company to put a backdoor in their software should the government ask.
Yeah they posted something about it, https://www.fastmail.com/blog/access-and-assistance-bill/
I think that was before the bill passed. It seems to mean the AU govt can issue warrants for customer data but not outright install stuff on the servers. You’re right that it’s something to consider. OTOH email is inherently not very private, because the other person is probably using gmail.
there also is https://tuta.com/
To migrate historic email you can use Google Takeout.
I bought a domain and used my domain for email for a few years with Gmail being used. Then one day I switched it to Proton and I didn’t really have to do much because it is the same email address but a different service under the hood.
The thing that takes time is updating all of your accounts and contacts to use your new email. Took years for me. But I’m pretty free to move around now.
Get two or three emails. I use Proton for bullshit. That means job applications, news subscriptions, normal shit. Then I use Tuta for serious stuff like doctor’s appointments. Then for all your fun personal shit, use another one that is more anonymous if necessary (I rarely use it.) The point is, it is better to have at least two.
Do not get rid of gmail for a while. I have had my new emails for a year and like the other day I needed it to use Steam. I only get into gmail on my work computer at home or my Windows desktop which I assume is being watched/tracked (typically use Linux) when I absolutely need it (usually a password for some stuff I forgot about.) I will delete it eventually. I delete stuff off it sometimes and so should you, like the stuff on Google Drive and start using a different calendar.
Change bank account and brokerage emails. Change Steam email if you use it. Start using the others and just don’t login to gmail unless you have to, and only from a shitty device that you don’t care if it is being tracked. I might put Linux on that desktop soon and keep the Windows partition while I finish getting off Google just so their shitty trackers are not on all the devices I care about.
Good luck! You got this! It sounds harder than it is and you’ll feel so much better to just take that first step of getting a new email.
Edit: Also, I made another new gmail account just because proton forces you to import all the shitty spam from google. Or at least I couldnt figure out how to fix it.
Proton’s easy switch will automatically import your emails on the new account. Then you can setup email forwarding to the proton address. I recommend getting a custom domain. Otherwise, if you again try to change the provider, you’ll have to go through the same hassle.
I used to like Skiff a lot. But they were acquired by Notion all of a sudden. Then I had to change email of my every single online accounts. Had to go to the banks multiple times. Still haven’t managed access to some websites.
