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An update on leaving Gmail for Fastmail

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Re: An update on leaving Gmail for Fastmail

#101

Post by turpentine »

frou_dh wrote: post #53

I like Fastmail but I'm starting to feel that the subscription cost is a bit overpriced for the way I use it (just IMAP email - not using the app, calendars, contacts, file hosting, ...). I've researched and found some other independent paid email providers that are significantly cheaper, although I suspect most of having a low bus factor with just 1 or 2 people operating them.

It's likely that regular Fastmail users are subsidising their AI costs. I've talked to several people who were a bit shocked when Fastmail decided to complicate their offering with the current hyped trash.

Re: An update on leaving Gmail for Fastmail

#104

Post by havaloc »

kiwijamo wrote: post #56
paxys wrote: post #42

> Going and updating my accounts with a new address was easier than I was expecting Is this really true? Out of the probably many hundreds of online accounts I use I can think of very few that actually let you change the underlying email (which in almost ever case is the username) without having to create a brand new account.

Can you cite an example of a big, well-known, etc service that enforces a 'you can't change your email address' rule? I haven't really seen this sort of thing in the wild to be honest. Maybe one or two over 20+ years? I think the norm is using a username or an internal identification number (such as an UUID). It is rare the email address is actually used as the primary key to identify an account.

McDonald's. I wish I was kidding. https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/faq/can-i-change-the-emai...

Re: An update on leaving Gmail for Fastmail

#105

Post by ButlerianJihad »

kiwijamo wrote: post #56
paxys wrote: post #42

> Going and updating my accounts with a new address was easier than I was expecting Is this really true? Out of the probably many hundreds of online accounts I use I can think of very few that actually let you change the underlying email (which in almost ever case is the username) without having to create a brand new account.

Can you cite an example of a big, well-known, etc service that enforces a 'you can't change your email address' rule? I haven't really seen this sort of thing in the wild to be honest. Maybe one or two over 20+ years? I think the norm is using a username or an internal identification number (such as an UUID). It is rare the email address is actually used as the primary key to identify an account.

My hospital.

Yeah, and they insist on using it for MFA.

Actually the tech support did change what I use to sign in, but the patient record/profile is separate, and not user-serviceable.

I tried twice to change it, but they were able to send me on epic bureaucratic fools errands; I had to give up!

Re: An update on leaving Gmail for Fastmail

#107

Post by zacwest »

The real downside to subdomain addressing is that very few other providers support it. I think Migadu is the only one I could find. If you do end up needing to leave Fastmail, you might have to configure each and every subdomain as a unique email domain somewhere else. I would avoid it if you're starting fresh.

Re: An update on leaving Gmail for Fastmail

#108

Post by [deleted] »

kevinob11 wrote: post #80
beart wrote: post #5

Changing email providers sounds daunting, but it was relatively painless when I actually committed to it. I did a search over my password manager for my old email and just went through the list logging in and switching to the new email. Probably took a few hours at most. For anything I missed, I set gmail to forward everything to my new host. Cleaned up the few things I missed, and am only left with spam. I still lea…

I want to try another provider, but my family (partner, kids, grandparents) stores pictures in Google Photos, shares docs from google drive, etc. It is all the extra stuff I get with Google that feels daunting to me, I'd love to switch for email and calendar.

[deleted]

Re: An update on leaving Gmail for Fastmail

#109

Post by chrismorgan »

turpentine wrote: post #101
frou_dh wrote: post #53

I like Fastmail but I'm starting to feel that the subscription cost is a bit overpriced for the way I use it (just IMAP email - not using the app, calendars, contacts, file hosting, ...). I've researched and found some other independent paid email providers that are significantly cheaper, although I suspect most of having a low bus factor with just 1 or 2 people operating them.

It's likely that regular Fastmail users are subsidising their AI costs. I've talked to several people who were a bit shocked when Fastmail decided to complicate their offering with the current hyped trash.

Are you thinking of some other company? The most Fastmail has done in LLM directions is offering an MCP API: https://www.fastmail.com/blog/an-mcp-server-for-fastmail/.

Re: An update on leaving Gmail for Fastmail

#110

Post by [deleted] »

georgemcbay wrote: post #77
Vinnl wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Changing email providers sounds daunting, but it ... Probably took a few hours at most. That does indeed sound as daunting as I feared, unfortunately.

> That does indeed sound as daunting as I feared, unfortunately. You don't have to do it all in one go. It isn't like you have to move everything all at once like you're moving to a new apartment. I started moving away from gmail years ago. It took probably like 5-10 minutes to set up email under my own DNS control and to set a forwarding address on gmail that pointed to that email. I didn't even bother to do an init…

[deleted]
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