I have had to change my email provider for our small business email.
I have it up and running on the web app but I now want to have it on Outlook.
If I just modify the existing settings for the previous provider, will Outlook update to the new email server and will I lose my old messages and folders, or will they remain?
Or do I have archive everything, before adding the new settings?
That really depends on the connection type you have with outlook and the back end. If it’s a POP/IMAP connection it shouldn’t matter as everything is usually local (imap can sometimes be a pain here). If it’s an exchange / Mapi connection it’s likely you’ll lose everything. You could perhaps locally archive your mail. Have you considered asking your previous provider to export your mail en-masse via as PST file? Your new provider could then import this, or you could attach it locally.
Sometimes your new provider will have a connector to suck mail out of the old system.
Really depends on the flexibility of both providers. We essentially built a billion $ enterprise specialising in migrating mail and accounts between providers and systems as it can be amusing. Microsoft and google are probably the worst for miraculously losing entire organisation’s with of data when they try and migrate away from them.