How to Migrate from Zoho Mail to PolarisMail
Whether you’re a reseller preparing a client’s Zoho Mail domain for migration, or you’re moving your own mailbox, Zoho migrates like most IMAP-based providers, with two things worth checking first: whether IMAP access is turned on, and whether the account needs an app-specific password instead of its regular one.
This applies whether you’re a reseller preparing a client’s migration or migrating your own mailbox. Once IMAP access is confirmed and you have working credentials, the migration guide covers how to actually submit and run the migration.
Which tier matches your Zoho Mail usage?
Zoho bundles mail with a wider suite of apps — Cliq, Meeting, Calendar, WorkDrive, and the Writer/Sheet/Show editors. Here’s how the parts you actually use line up against our tiers:
✗ Not available
Italics = partial support
| If you use… | The equivalent is… | Basic | Enhanced |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zoho Mail (webmail) | Webmail | ✓ | ✓ |
| Zoho Cliq | Live Chat in Webmail | ✓ | ✓ |
| Zoho Meeting | Video calls in Webmail | ✓ | ✓ |
| Zoho Groups / distribution lists | Distribution lists | ✓ | ✓ |
| Shared team calendars (Zoho Calendar) | Advanced groupware | Shared folders only | ✓ |
| Calendar & contacts synced to phone / Outlook | CalDAV/CardDAV sync | ✗ | ✓ |
| Mobile device sync beyond email | ActiveSync | ✗ | ✓ |
| Writer, Sheet, Show (co-authoring) | Office Docs | View, upload, share only | ✓ |
| Zoho WorkDrive file storage | Personal Drive | 5 GB | 15 GB |
If your team mostly uses Zoho Mail, Cliq, and Meeting, Basic covers that. If you rely on shared calendars synced across devices, real-time document co-authoring, or mobile calendar/contact sync, Enhanced is the closer match. Mailboxes can be mixed under the same domain, so different users can land on different tiers based on what they actually use.
Before you migrate
Admin-side setup
For Zoho admins
If you manage the Zoho Mail domain (or you’re a reseller working with the client’s admin), start here.
- Sign in to the Zoho Mail Control Panel as an admin.
- Go to the migration or POP/IMAP access settings and enable IMAP access for the organization, or for the specific users being migrated.
Check the plan first. IMAP access has historically been restricted on Zoho Mail’s free tier. If the domain is on a free plan, confirm IMAP is actually available before relying on it — an upgrade may be needed first.
Per-user setup
For each mailbox owner
- Confirm IMAP is enabled for the account (the admin step above may already cover this).
- Check whether Multi-Factor Authentication is turned on for the account.
- If MFA is off, the regular Zoho account password works for the migration.
- If MFA is on, generate an Application-Specific Password from the account’s security settings, and use that instead of the regular password.
Set temporary passwords before you start
Whether you’re using the regular password or an app-specific one, set it up as a temporary credential for the migration window rather than asking customers for their everyday password. Let your customers know what to use in the meantime, so they’re not locked out of their own mailbox mid-migration.
Watch for password changes mid-migration. If a user changes their password (or revokes an app-specific password) after you’ve set it up, that account’s migration will fail. We retry failed accounts whenever you confirm it’s safe to do so — keeping your migration batches small makes those retries faster, since a lean batch finishes and can be retried sooner than one bundled with hundreds of other mailboxes.
What happens next
Once IMAP access is confirmed and you have working credentials for each mailbox, you’re set to start the migration itself. The full process, whether you’re moving one mailbox or a hundred, is covered in the migration guide:
Start your 30-day trial — migration included.