Ugh! I hate it when I have to do that - not just contacting people to tell them of the change, but migrating all your stored emails. It's doable, but unpleasant. I'm considering doing it myself, as my current provider has made 2 major errors that required time and assistance to resolve, which is not what I want or expect from a paid email service. But the thought of switching is daunting.

You pay for email?

I'm surprised you've paid for email but I suggest it's time to migrate off and close what you have.

I don't think it will be that big a deal. I did it myself a few years ago, it was pretty easy.

-Send a message to all your key personal contacts using the account you plan to move forward with, asking them to use that new address beginning immediately because the old account will be closed. That can be one message, list the recipients in the BCC field. If you've been careful keeping an up to date contact file in your old email account, do a dummy message in that account that then copy the BCC field to a message in the new account.

-Change your account email settings for financial accounts, vendors, and suppliers.

-Emails you receive on the soon to be discontinued account should dwindle immediately but the ones you do get will tell you who to contact and advise of your new address.

Good luck

I'm going to be reading for advice because we have been needing to do this but still have things that have no way to change without calling someone or making a personal appearance to the store to change it as a rewards customer. Some companies seem to be behind times. So far, changing emails has proven to be a royal pain!🙄

In my case, I want to create a new email address in addition to the one that I have. The existing one is with my maiden name on it. I want one with my married name, but don't want to have everyone have to change it on their end. So I'd like to forward emails that come in on my existing address to the new one that I want to create.

So any emails that go to what i have now will forward to the new one.

I'm fairly tech-savvy, but I just can't seem to figure it out, despite lots of googling and chatgpt'ing. It's a Comcast account.

When I'm finally able to figure it out, I'll gradually start doing all responses and online stuff using the new one, and gradually phase out the old one,

Suzieque, does this help? https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/xconn-auto-forward

Currently, one of my two other accounts is being forwarded to the account I’m looking to close. The other account is downloaded to my iPad mail along with the mail from the account I’m looking to close. Neither of these accounts receive more than a couple of emails a month.

And yes, @Toronto Veterinarian, I’m guessing this inconvenience is what my current account is counting on me continuing with this account.

I guess I’ll pick one of these two accounts to be my primary. And then, methodically go about making this change using Elmer’s suggestions.

You will forget some places that will need an email change, so be prepared for that, and I'd suggest keeping your old account open for a month or two in case any of them appear.

I'm one of those weird people who will pay for an email server, specifically one that is not based in the US. I don't have any email that comes with my internet connection, as is often the case, since I have Starlink satellite internet.

" is not based in the US "

Well, something to keep in mind:

Gmail. Your software and past email history are on servers in Iceland. Or Poland. Or in Mexico. Or Turkey. Or Bahrain. Or India. Or, all of the above at the same time. And in the US.

You get email from a Canadian provider, or a British one - same thing.

All are everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

The ones who aren't have improper backup and redundancy to protect information.

Something to keep in mind about Google and security - it's a US Government contractor for IT services. If the CIA thinks it's secure, your messages are too.

All are everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

They are where their servers are.

it's a US Government contractor for IT services. If the CIA thinks it's secure, your messages are too.

No, it doesn't work that way - they can have 2 different services for different user groups, and what they offer the CIA is - I'm very sure - different than what they offer average consumers. We know that emails aren't secured from Google, so you can't say that they're secure.

I don't trust anything American these days - there are too many changes at the government and corporate levels, happening without much if any warning.

My information is accurate, interoperative and redundant servers for even small players wind up physically located all over and have been for a long time. Your skepticism to remain with your view of the world is of course your choice.

The physical task of locating and running server farms is one that most companies outsource. One of Amazon's HUGE divisions provides hosting services to many, many, many companies in its far flung and redundant server farms. There are other companies in the same business too. WIdespread simultaneous location choices provides many benefits but one of which is when a segment of the internet goes down or has issues, info can be served up quicker when routed to the user from a different location.

My information is accurate

Then you'll be happy to share proof of that, showing that there aren't any email companies with email servers located locally and that don't use AWS hosting.

This thread arrived just in time. I was just thinking that I need to change my primary email,as the one I use is still tied to my parents internet account. Its not an issue now, but i think in a decade or 2 when they are no longer here I will have to do it anyway. Its a daunting thought. I have had this email since high school and SO MUCH STUFF is tied to it, I get overwhelmed and put it off.

"Then you'll be happy to share proof of that"

Nope. I'm not inclined to have more exposure to your attitude.

I too paid 4 times a year for an email account for a few years. It was a local company with use of their name, they also had computers, parts, sales and excellent service. Family owned. There was a death in the family and after a few years the business closed, I had no choice but to change emails. After a period of time, the account wouldn't even open for me so I could check for stragglers.

When people first began buying home computers, we had only dial up available to us in this community. There was no cable internet! It arrived and was made available much sooner than many of us had been told.

JRB451, one pitfall you will find is there will be those who don't know how to permanently remove your old address from their computers and their email programs will pick up and send to the 'old' automatically. You may be accused of not responding or ignoring a question that you never received if you are unable to open and read that old account.

More than once my brother typed up a 'family style' email of something he wanted brought to everyone's attention and sent to an address I hadn't used in a few years. My sister would notice on her end and alert me :) He's an engineer. He should have been able to permanently remove that old address from his address books (more than one computer, some personal, some belonging to his private company.)

We don't all have helpful teens in our lives who grew up with all of this. I'd like to briefly tell you about my first computer experiences. I was somewhat newly married ( it was approx 1980) and doing bookkeeping in an appliance store. I was sent to three days of classes at a large branch of our store bank in Seattle (all expenses paid, very nice hotel downtown) where I learned to assign and code all customers, types of charges, payments, transactions by number. Early in the day before the store had opened, I would go through all the salesmens slips from the day before, dial the Seattle appropriate bank number and office, lay the phone handset down (none were cordless then) and proceed to touch tone in all the information into the phone - phone that was laying on my desk. The following morning, I"d walk the two blocks to our branch of that bank and pick up a computer print out. Voila! A daily record of all sales and payments. It had only taken 48 hours and was considered cutting edge contemporary......

" Nope. I'm not inclined to have more exposure to your attitude "

No problem. I'm not inclined to believe your self-promotion. Win-win.

Morz8 reminds me of another snafu I've come across - some companies will have my address in multiple places (eg sales, accounts receivable, seasonal updates), and I will contact the sales person to let them know of the change, but the other departments will still have my old address. Those issues get worked out in time, but I may get a query wondering why I didn't pay the bill that went to my old address.

@morz8 - Washington Coast, good points you make. I’ve had this address since the dial-up modem days. It’s short, 10 characters total, including the @. So, it was like a vanity plate the first few years. Now, that’s not such a big deal.

My technology story from the 80s is about the fax machine and goes like this. I worked in a state agency, housing seven divisions, in three buildings. The first fax machine was located in the director’s office. A fax for me would be sent to their machine. I’d get a call. Walk or elevator down four floors, cross the street and walk or elevator four floors up to the director’s office to receive my fax, after first signing for it.

Times have changed.

Can you create one mass email to all your current contacts to notify them of your change of email address?

And can't business contacts, utilities, banking etc. be changed ad hoc?

I’m surprised that people are paying for an email service.

My first was AOL email, 1990s. I now have 3 personal email addresses. One used for family and friends, the second for registering and using for online shopping/houz browsing, the third is mostly for digital billing, banking and medical.

When I change email addresses, I notify those that need to be notified. My subscription services and registrations for services like Amazon are easy to update.

When I check My Mail, all 3 boxes are included in ”All Mail”, or I can check each box on its own.

“Currently, one of my two other accounts is being forwarded to the account I’m looking to close”

Go to those accounts and update your email address?

I've also never had an email account I paid for - First I had roadrunner from my server, then I got hotmail and yahoo, then gmail. Now I just use hotmail and gmail and occasionally check the other 2, just in case, but they're always filled with spam.

"I'm not inclined to believe"

Exactly.

I've changed email addresses several times, due to change of ISP when they provided email. The most recent change was (reluctantly) to gmail as primary. I also have a couple throw-away yahoo addys.

One ISP (I worked there for 9 years) shut down when the owner went into bad health and died a couple years later. The other is the local cable provider which changed name/parent company three times (and the domain name of the email service) and then eliminated in-house email service.

I never lost any archived mail. I never leave mail on the server, always download it to my computer, delete it from the server.

The main trick with changing a primary email is to get it all done before the old addy becomes non-functional, being that a confirmation for utilities, banking, and such may be sent to the old address and require a response to enact the change.

So, I guess I’ll begin the process of migrating to a new primary email account. I‘m looking at using an old Yahoo address I’ve had for years but have other options.

Is there a benefit to using one of these over the others - gmail, yahoo, icloud, Microsoft, etc? Suggestions?

TIA

If you use Apple products for PC/tablet/phone, icloud would make sense though there's nothing special about it.

I'd stay away from Yahoo if you want a "forever" address. I don't know how long its "forever" is.

Personally, I like Gmail. Its cross-app integration (including on iPhones) is terrific and its apps are superb. I'm thinking of things like Calendar, Contacts and Maps. One feature I particularly like, not of interest to everyone, is that when you get an email confirming a travel reservation, the dates automatically transfer to the calendar app along with all the pertinent information. Reservation number, phone number and address if a hotel, flight numbers and times, etc are included. Makes it easy to access the info quickly by simply opening the calendar app.

" Is there a benefit to using one of these over the others - gmail, yahoo, icloud, Microsoft, etc? Suggestions? "

They have different user interfaces - they look and act a little differently, so take a look at them and see if you like the look and feel of each. Otherwise, I think all of those are pretty much alike - I've used Yahoo, Microsoft Outlook, and Gmail over the years, and they are fine.