Changing email provider from local company to iCloud email? Who is correct? Who is incorrect? What to do?

[IvyKing]

I've had fairly good luck with Fastmail. Fastmail supports web access as well as POP/IMAP access - works great with Thunderbird. This is a paid service, so there are no ads and I don't have to worry about the likes of Google going through my mail to generate ads. One possible downside is that my wife has been getting complaints that her Fastmail address is not a valid email address.

 

[zenmacx]

I would also stay away from Google on principle.

Yes, sage advice to avoid the big G.

It’s rather revealing how many people want a free ride with zero concern about handing over their email communications to others.

With seemingly no understanding or concern over their own privacy, they give it up to Google and others. Actually being so naive as to believe their mail is only being used to send them targeted ads when so much more is being done with it.

Even if an individual believes they have nothing to hide, their data can be used against them in decisions regarding employment, insurance, credit, and housing, often based on mistaken or aggregated data.

Denial about this is rampant and foolish.

 

[mudflap]

ICloud Mail isn’t great. I would also stay away from Google on principle. Look for another small but long-established email provider, or otherwise Fastmail or Proton Mail.

iCloud Mail is excellent. I've been using 3 iCloud mail accounts for more than 20 years, all @mac.com accounts. And yes I agree with you; Google is not allowed on my devices. If I need to test website designs on Chrome I use a Chromium derivative.

 

[CMoore515]

This may be too technical, but you could consider purchasing your own domain (~$20/year), subscribing to iCloud+ (which I think can be as cheap as $1/month), and routing your new domain's email to iCloud+. I.e., Apple would be hosting / sending your email, but under this hypothetical new domain.

If you don't use a custom domain (that you own), you'll always be at the mercy of some email hosting provider—be it Apple, Google, whomever. With a custom domain you can switch to a different email host but keep your email address (although you may lose your archived email unless you back it up independently of the host).

I use iCloud+ for my email and I am very happy with it, much happier than I was with Gmail, because with iCloud+ I'm a customer and not a product. Unless you buy Google Apps or G-Suite or Google Workspace or whatever the hell Google calls it now, you'll be data mined and sold to advertisers. I don't think Microsoft offers custom-domain email hosting except with enterprise 365 plans that include Exchange.

Apple/iCloud doesn't have much of a through-the-web email client, however. The assumption is you'd use an email app (like Mail.app) on your Mac / iPhone.

+1

This is what I did.

 

[2024]

My Mac has two iCloud+ email accounts (one per user account), each with a main address and three alias addresses, plus a bunch of Hide-my-Email addresses; all for personal, not business, use. Everything works fine. I recently also imported five accounts of old Comcast email into the Mail app without a hitch. I'm happy with it for what I do, and I no longer need another mail app (Thunderbird in my case).

Google is banned from my devices.

 

[Dervla]

Questions:

re webmail:
If I want to have more than one email address with a providing company and I want to check if I have any new incoming emails in any of those addresses, would I need to sign in to each of those email addresses one after another to check them all?
What I think I want is sign into one place and get all new emails in one go (like I do now). Am I writing a reason for me to not use webmail?

re checking email:
when I check email on my iMac I click on Mail, in the Dock, then click on the little envelope [it reads “Get new messages in all accounts”]. Then the new emails appear, both for email addresses with Burlington Telecom and with iCloud.
When Burlington telecom ceases its email business at the end of the year will I have to go to the iCloud website to check for new iCloud email?

re email on my iPhone:
the email accounts on my iMac are POP, the same addresses on my cellphone are IMAP, will all the emails on my iPhone disappear when my email provider ceases to operate at the end of the year?

Thank you

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

As you posted in the beginning, you said your ISP (Burlington Telecom?) is going to discontinue email at the end of the year.

Well, ok.

Have they posted anything about what will happen to EXISTING email accounts?
Are they "handing over" the email system to another provider (such as Yahoo)...
or...
Have they said that it's all just going to "disappear", and that customers are on their own to handle it...?

I believe that Comcast discontined their own email servers a year or two back, BUT...
... they "transferred everything" over to the Yahoo email system.

I think ATT did that as well, some years ago.

Hmmm...
Did a little searching, and there's a pdf from Burlington on how to transfer emails to iCloud:

https://www.burlingtontelecom.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/EMAIL-MIGRATION-INSTRUCTIONS.pdf

Also covers moving to Gmail (I wouldn't go there), Outlook (I wouldn't go there either), etc.

 

[Dervla]

OP:

As you posted in the beginning, you said your ISP (Burlington Telecom?) is going to discontinue email at the end of the year.

Well, ok.

Have they posted anything about what will happen to EXISTING email accounts?
Are they "handing over" the email system to another provider (such as Yahoo)...
or...
Have they said that it's all just going to "disappear", and that customers are on their own to handle it...?

I believe that Comcast discontined their own email servers a year or two back, BUT...
... they "transferred everything" over to the Yahoo email system.

I think ATT did that as well, some years ago.

Hmmm...
Did a little searching, and there's a pdf from Burlington on how to transfer emails to iCloud:

https://www.burlingtontelecom.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/EMAIL-MIGRATION-INSTRUCTIONS.pdf

Also covers moving to Gmail (I wouldn't go there), Outlook (I wouldn't go there either), etc.

Hi,

Thanks for writing.

I have seen the migration info at the BT website and a letter arrived yesterday by snail mail. To me the instructions are not clear. Also, there is a typo in the word Burlington.

I am asking questions because [there is much] I don't know.

 

[Dervla]

OP:

As you posted in the beginning, you said your ISP (Burlington Telecom?) is going to discontinue email at the end of the year.

Well, ok.

Have they posted anything about what will happen to EXISTING email accounts?
Are they "handing over" the email system to another provider (such as Yahoo)...
or...
Have they said that it's all just going to "disappear", and that customers are on their own to handle it...?

I believe that Comcast discontined their own email servers a year or two back, BUT...
... they "transferred everything" over to the Yahoo email system.

I think ATT did that as well, some years ago.

Hmmm...
Did a little searching, and there's a pdf from Burlington on how to transfer emails to iCloud:

https://www.burlingtontelecom.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/EMAIL-MIGRATION-INSTRUCTIONS.pdf

Also covers moving to Gmail (I wouldn't go there), Outlook (I wouldn't go there either), etc.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I would not use Yahoo. They have been hacked several times and to make matters worse, they were not forthcoming about it until much, much later.