Switch from iCloud Mail to Fastmail: step by step
How to move your mail, contacts and address from iCloud Mail to Fastmail without losing anything. Most moves take an evening to set up, then a few weeks of forwarding.
Watch out for
- iCloud.com has no export button. Copy your mail out with the Mail app on a Mac, or any mail app over IMAP with an app-specific password.
- Big imports can take up to a day, and Fastmail emails you when it's done. Don't start a second import from the same account while one is running, or you'll get two copies of everything.
- You can import during the free trial.
Before you start
- Check where your address lives. If it ends in @icloud.com, it belongs to iCloud Mail and stays there: you'll forward your mail and tell people your new address. If it's on your own domain, like you@yourname.co.uk, it comes with you: you'll change a few DNS settings.
- Check the space you need. See how much mail you have in iCloud Mail, and compare it with Fastmail's plans (the cheapest is Individual, $5 a month, yearly, with 50 GB).
- Read the small print. Fastmail's page covers exporting, cancelling and refunds under "Before you sign up".
Open your Fastmail account
Sign up on Fastmail's website (30 days free), and turn on two-step sign-in straight away. You'll find the link on Fastmail's page: Fastmail.
Bring your mail across
Use Fastmail's importer. Fastmail's importer copies mail, contacts and calendars from most providers. Open Settings, then Migration, then Import. It also takes .mbox and .eml files. Fastmail's guide ↗
Your old mail stays where it is while it's copied, so nothing is lost if you need to start again.
Move your contacts and calendar
Export your contacts as a .vcf file and each calendar as an .ics file from iCloud Mail, then import them into Fastmail. Most providers have both options in their contacts and calendar settings.
Keep your @icloud.com address working
- Forward new mail. At icloud.com/mail, open Settings, then Mail Forwarding, and enter your new address. iCloud Mail's guide ↗
- Tell people. Send your new address to the people who matter, and add it to your email signature.
- Update your sign-ins. Change the email address on your bank, shopping, social and work accounts. A password manager's list of saved sign-ins is the quickest checklist.
- Keep the old account open for a while. Mail will keep arriving there for months. Sign in now and then so it isn't closed for not being used.
If you use your own domain
Your address moves with you. Do this after your mail has been copied:
- Add your domain in Fastmail's settings, and create the same addresses there.
- A day before, lower the TTL on your domain's MX records (to 300 seconds, say), so the change takes effect quickly.
- Replace the MX records with Fastmail's, and swap iCloud Mail's entry in your SPF record for Fastmail's.
- Add Fastmail's DKIM record, and keep your DMARC record.
- Check the result with a free DNS checker before you rely on it.
Not sure what these mean? See my email glossary.
Check everything arrived
- Compare the number of emails in each folder on both sides.
- Send a test email to your new address from another account, and reply to it.
- Check that mail forwarded from iCloud Mail is arriving, and isn't going to spam.
Close iCloud Mail, when you're ready
Wait at least a month, until nothing new arrives there. On a free account you can leave it open with forwarding on instead. Before you close a paid account, download a last copy of your mail.
- Cancelling: Cancel iCloud+ from Subscriptions in your Apple Account settings, on your device or the web. Cancel a free trial at least 24 hours before it ends.
From iCloud Mail's page: iCloud Mail.
I checked the providers' help pages on 24 October 2026. Menus move, so if a step doesn't match what you see, tell me and I'll update it.
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