How to transfer a mailbox to a new committee member

Transferring acrodd and email account from Nepeta Consulting

Many organisations have mailboxes for their committee members. This makes a lot of sense as it separates “business” mail from personal and also can provide an archive of previous activity. We have several clients who use this facility and so we get the periodic question of how to transfer the mailbox across to the new treasurer, secretary or chairman.

We now have a checklist on how to manage the transfer. This was created for our hosting which uses cPanel mailboxes but can be used for other suppliers. The one caveat is Gmail which works differently.

Getting ready for the transfer

Before passing the mailbox on, it is a good idea to give it a bit of a spring clean:

  • Make sure there are no personal emails in the mailbox (including Sent items)..
  • Get rid of any junk or spam emails. Also, remove short term emails such as Zoom invitations and acknowledgements
  • If you have a system of folders for different types of mail, make sure your filing is up to date.
  • Make sure any folders you have created are in the mailbox and not on your local machine.
Webmail login screen from Nepeta Consulting

If you are managing the mailbox using Webmail, your job is easier as the mailbox is isolated so less likely to get mixed up. If you are using a mail client, you should be able to drag emails and folders to where they need to be.

The other important pre-requisite is to make sure you know the password for the mailbox. Webmail users should have no problem as they will have been logging in with it. Mail client users will have used it when they set up the account, but probably not since. The best way to check if you have the right password is to log in through webmail. Try either:

  • https://mydomain.co.uk/webmail or
  • https://webmail.mydomain.co.uk

If you do not know the password (or cannot find the webmail), you need to speak to the person/ company who manages or hosts your mailboxes. They can point you in the direction of your webmail and, if needed, reset your password.

Doing the transfer

We recommend that the new officer establishes their access before the retiring officer pulls the plug. Although none of the emails will be lost, it means that anything important will be picked up.

To ensure a smooth handover, we recommend that the old and new officers work together during the transfer. Provided you have the password, there are no inbuilt delays in the process, so a meeting or Zoom call will get it sorted in an hour or so.

The steps are as follows:

Retiring officer

  1. Make sure the mailbox is ready to pass on.
  2. Notify the new officer of the email address and password for the mailbox.
  3. Wait for the new officer to confirm that they have access to the mailbox.
  4. Remove the mailbox from all client mail apps (e.g. Outlook, Mac Mail, phone app).

New officer

  1. Wait for the retiring officer to advise you of the password for the mailbox.
  2. Go to your webmail login.
  3. Log in using the email address and password supplied.
  4. Confirm that you have access to the mailbox to the retiring officer.
  5. Change the password on the account from Webmail home page.
  6. Connect the account to your mail client, if desired.

After the transfer

Once the new officer has access to the mailbox through webmail, they may choose to connect the mailbox to the mail client on their laptop, tablet or phone. While you may be able to connect just by adding an account (of type ‘Other’ for cPanel mailboxes) and entering your email address and password, you may need to specify the server for IMAP (receiving emails) and SMTP (sending emails). Ask your mailbox supplier for this information if it has not been supplied. Always use secure (SSL) connections.

Our hosting, Clook, has a number of guides for connecting accounts to different mail clients – see here. If you are not using Clook, check your hostings provider’s Knowledgebase for instructions.

Potential Issues

iPhones and iPads

The biggest gotcha we have encountered is that on an iPhone or iPad, it suggests that the password on the SMTP settings is optional. Technically it is, but you need to supply it if you want to send emails as well as receive them!

Connecting with Gmail

We do not recommend managing your mailbox through Google mail. This is because it does not synchronise sent mail back to the server but keeps it within the Gmail account, so you lose any history to transfer.

If we manage your emails and you have any questions, please contact us.

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