Switch to Orbit

Moving to Orbit, step by step

What comes with you from Gmail, Outlook, 1Password and Slack, what doesn't, and the order that keeps mail arriving while you move. Most of it is done in your browser, and everything you import is encrypted on your device before it reaches us.

What comes with you

Old mail

Import a .mbox file (Gmail Takeout, Apple Mail, Thunderbird) or .eml files (Outlook). Folders and read state aren't kept: imported mail lands in Archive, or Inbox if you choose, already read. How to import mail

Your domain

Keep your addresses. Prove you own the domain, set up everyone's mailboxes, then move the MX record when you're ready. How to move your domain

Passwords and codes

Orbit Pass reads the exports of every common password manager and browser, and Google Authenticator's. How to import passwords

Calendars and contacts

There's no calendar (.ics) or contacts (vCard) import yet. Orbit Mail saves everyone you write to, and everyone in your organization is already in its directory. Calendars and contacts

Slack or Teams history

Orbit Chat doesn't import other apps' history. Keep your Slack export for the record and start Orbit Chat fresh. After Slack or Teams

The order that works

1. Create your Orbit account. For a team, create a business from your profile in Mission Control and invite people by email. Getting started
2. Add your domain and prove you own it, without touching its MX record yet. Mail keeps going to your old provider.
3. Create everyone's addresses: mailboxes, aliases and shared mailboxes such as support@.
4. Import passwords into Orbit Pass, then delete the export file.
5. Publish SPF, DKIM and DMARC before you touch the MX record, so your mail is authenticated the moment it starts flowing through Orbit.
6. Move the MX record to Orbit. New mail starts arriving in Orbit Mail.
7. Import old mail, including whatever reached the old provider during the move.
8. Start Orbit Chat: everyone in the business is already there.
9. Keep the old account for a few weeks, then close it.

Bring your old mail

In Orbit Mail, open Settings, then Import mail, and choose the file. Your browser reads it a message at a time, so an export of any size works, and seals each message to your key exactly as if it had just arrived. Mail you sent goes to Sent Items, importing the same message twice does nothing, and imported mail never triggers rules, notifications or automatic replies. Messages over 20 MB are left out, and the import says how many.

From Gmail or Google Workspace

1. Go to Google Takeout signed in to the account you're leaving.
2. Press Deselect all, then tick only Mail. Leave it as all mail, or pick labels.
3. Create the export. Google emails a link when it's ready, which can take hours for a large mailbox.
4. Download and unzip it. Your mail is one .mbox file per label you chose; import it into Orbit Mail.

A Google Workspace admin can export everyone's mail from the Admin console's data export instead, which also gives one .mbox per person.

From Outlook or Microsoft 365

• Outlook on the web and the new Outlook for Windows save a message as an .eml file (Save as or Download). Choose several .eml files at once in Orbit Mail.
• Outlook for Mac: drag messages from the list into a Finder folder, and each becomes an .eml file.
• Classic Outlook for Windows saves .msg and .pst files, which Orbit Mail doesn't read. For a whole mailbox, add the account to Apple Mail or Thunderbird and export from there, below.

From Apple Mail, Thunderbird or anything else

• Apple Mail: select a mailbox, then Mailbox › Export Mailbox. The export holds an .mbox file.
• Thunderbird: the ImportExportTools NG add-on exports a folder as an .mbox file.
• Any other provider: add the account to Apple Mail or Thunderbird over IMAP, let it download, and export from there.

What about IMAP?

Orbit Mail doesn't use IMAP. It can't fetch mail from your old provider, and Apple Mail, Outlook or Thunderbird can't open Orbit Mail, because every message is sealed to your key and opened only in Orbit's own apps: on the web and for Mac, Windows and Linux, with iPhone and iPad apps on the way. So old mail moves as a file, once, as above, and if you want to keep reading the old account as it was, keep it.

Move your domain

Your domain's page in Mission Control (Mail, then Domains) shows every record to publish, with copy buttons, and Check records looks them up. The domain becomes active as soon as the ownership record is found, so you can set everything up before you move any mail.

1. A day before, lower the MX record's TTL at your DNS host (to 300 seconds, say), so the change takes effect quickly.
2. Publish the ownership record, press Check records, and create everyone's addresses on the domain's page.
3. Merge, don't duplicate, SPF. A domain can have only one SPF record. If a newsletter tool, a helpdesk or a billing system also sends as your domain, keep its include: in the one record alongside Orbit's.
4. Publish SPF, DKIM and DMARC before the cutover, so mail Orbit sends is signed and authenticated as soon as it starts flowing.
5. Swap the MX record for Orbit's. Within the TTL, new mail arrives in Orbit Mail.
6. Watch the old mailbox for a few days. Servers that looked up the old record can still deliver there; import that mail when it stops.

Prefer to run the relay yourself? Choose it on the domain's page and the MX and SPF records point at your server instead. Self-host the relay · Domains in detail

Bring your passwords

Export from your old password manager as a CSV file, then in Orbit Pass choose Import (in the web vault's sidebar or the extension, File › Import Passwords on the Mac, Settings › Import on iPhone and iPad). The file is read on your device and every item is sealed before it's uploaded. Orbit Pass reads exports from:

• 1Password (CSV)
• Bitwarden (CSV or unencrypted JSON)
• LastPass
• Dashlane
• Proton Pass
• NordPass
• KeePass
• Chrome, Edge and Brave
• Firefox
• Safari and Apple Passwords
• Any CSV with a header row

• 1Password: export as CSV. Its .1pux format isn't read.
• On iOS 26 and macOS 26, Apple Passwords and other managers can hand their items straight to Orbit Pass through the system's credential exchange, with no file at all.
• Afterwards, delete the export. It holds every password in plain text.

Verification codes

Orbit Pass adds codes from otpauth:// links, from Google Authenticator's export, from a QR code image, or with the camera on iPhone and iPad, and Orbit Authenticator shows every code in your vault. Check each new code works before you remove the old app.

After Slack or Microsoft Teams

Orbit Chat doesn't import Slack or Teams history. Every message in Orbit Chat is encrypted on its sender's device, so there's no way for us to load years of someone else's messages into it on your behalf. Keep your Slack or Teams export for the record. Then:

1. Everyone in your Orbit business is already listed in Orbit Chat, even before they first open it, so there's nobody to invite twice.
2. Recreate the channels you use, and add people to them.
3. Pin a message in the old workspace saying where the team has moved, and set a date after which it's read-only.

Calendars and contacts

Orbit Mail's calendar doesn't import .ics files yet, so add your repeating meetings again; it takes daily, weekday, weekly, monthly and yearly repeats. There's no vCard import either: everyone in your organization is already in the directory, and everyone you write to is saved to your contacts as you go.

Stuck?

Write to hello@orbit.com.ai with what you're moving from, and we'll help. Questions people ask · What an account holds