Ask HN: Do you backup your Emails? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Do you backup your Emails?

#31

Post by rendaw » Sat, Dec 21, 2024, 2:47 PM UTC

DoingIsLearning wrote: post #28

Personal no. But professional, yes. Whenever I change jobs I always take a copy of all my emails and keep it in offline storage. Arguably not always legal/compliant. But both for CYA, learned history, relevant contacts etc. it has had use for me in multiple occasions in the past

If it's not legal, could it ever be used in a situation CYA is required?

Re: Ask HN: Do you backup your Emails?

#32

Post by pmontra » Sat, Dec 21, 2024, 2:50 PM UTC

I download all of my mail from POP3 accounts, then I backup my Thunderbird directory: one copy on my home server, one encrypted copy to a VPS in another country. I use duplicity for that. One full backup every 2 weeks, then incrementals.

Re: Ask HN: Do you backup your Emails?

#33

Post by cutler » Sat, Dec 21, 2024, 2:50 PM UTC

Yes. My devices retrieve email from a cheap VPS where cron periodically runs tar gz on $HOME/Maildir. scp then retrieves the backup. I use GMail for SMTP but all outgoing mail is copied to the IMAP server on the VPS.

Re: Ask HN: Do you backup your Emails?

#34

Post by smitelli » Sat, Dec 21, 2024, 2:56 PM UTC

jbub wrote: post #5

I can recommend https://github.com/joeyates/imap-backup for backing up gmail.

I've been using imap-backup for years on both my personal and work machines. IIRC I had to set up a Gmail app password to get it to work, but that landscape may have changed since then.

31 GB written and still going strong.

Re: Ask HN: Do you backup your Emails?

#35

Post by varjag » Sat, Dec 21, 2024, 2:56 PM UTC

rendaw wrote: post #31

DoingIsLearning wrote: post #28

Personal no. But professional, yes. Whenever I change jobs I always take a copy of all my emails and keep it in offline storage. Arguably not always legal/compliant. But both for CYA, learned history, relevant contacts etc. it has had use for me in multiple occasions in the past

If it's not legal, could it ever be used in a situation CYA is required?

"However, referring to the scope of work in your email dated 20-SEP-2021…"

Re: Ask HN: Do you backup your Emails?

#36

Post by Sponge5 » Sat, Dec 21, 2024, 3:00 PM UTC

rkagerer wrote: post #20

What's your favorite email search tool? Ideally something that runs against a local archive on PC, and has a mobile app. With instant results. I used to use Lookout (for Outlook) and have never managed to find something as fast, simple and reliable.

I use mblaze, I find it especially useful for large mailing lists like the linux kernel.

Re: Ask HN: Do you backup your Emails?

#37

Post by ghjfrdghibt » Sat, Dec 21, 2024, 3:05 PM UTC

I've never viewed emails as important enough to keep in general, though I pay for my email sevice. Anything important I'll back up individually. But mostly I delete straight away.

Re: Ask HN: Do you backup your Emails?

#38

Post by crossroadsguy » Sat, Dec 21, 2024, 3:30 PM UTC

My mail provider does some kind of periodic backup which they do out of their own goodness of heart even though they don’t have to (that what they say).

I save important official docs from my mail — I even sometimes export eml files to those archive/backup folders. So all those get backed up.

The emails themselves? Not really — even though the mail folder (Thunderbird’s; not Mail.app’s — can’t trust an Apple made utility app to be part of even a half hearted backup process) is actually part my backup routine as part of one of those 3 backup tools running on my system (and 2 sync tools). But I seriously doubt I am going to find an email from a backup snapshot ever. But if I must I have that.

But I would want to — have wanted to. Maybe a dedicated tool that downloads every single mail and keeps it synced with the server in an email file format that’s most efficient for backup and querying that backup later. Or maybe tweak around Thunderbird that makes that happen.

Edit: Oh, I forgot to mention — I immediately delete those official mails (like statements, bills) immediately after saving those PDFs if I have to. I think I delete 99% of email I receive (okay maybe 80-90% - not sure; you get the idea). Only personal emails are what I never delete. So I never have too much email to begin with. I do the same with photos and videos and screenshots taken - if it can be detected, it will be deleted.

Re: Ask HN: Do you backup your Emails?

#39

Post by yobibyte » Sat, Dec 21, 2024, 3:37 PM UTC

I am using neomutt + mbsync that gets rsynced to my backup server once a week.

Re: Ask HN: Do you backup your Emails?

#40

Post by subsection1h » Sat, Dec 21, 2024, 3:40 PM UTC

crossroadsguy wrote: post #38

My mail provider does some kind of periodic backup which they do out of their own goodness of heart even though they don’t have to (that what they say). I save important official docs from my mail — I even sometimes export eml files to those archive/backup folders. So all those get backed up. The emails themselves? Not really — even though the mail folder (Thunderbird’s; not Mail.app’s — can’t trust an Apple made uti…

If you use Thunderbird and want to store your emails "in an email file format that's most efficient for backup and querying that backup later", have you considered switching from mbox (Thunderbird's default mail format) to maildir (each email stored in its own file)?

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/maildir-thunderbird

https://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird/Maildir

Note: Thunderbird lacks full support for maildir. This is the reason why I switched from Thunderbird to mu4e (an Emacs-based mail client) years ago. Though, some Thunderbird users say they've been using Thunderbird with maildir for years without issues.