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IMAP Email Backup

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11–20 of 82 posts

Re: IMAP Email Backup

#12
post #9
post #8

First: I use neomutt + mbsync (formerly isync) + notmuch. The local searching was at first a nerd special interest project but has actually become very useful for searching, filtering and otherwise managing my mail. Second: the button on the article to submit to HN seems to be somewhat... off? I wouldn't mind one that would submit in the first instance and then link to the HN thread on subsequent clicks but having a…

I’m trying the same setup as you, but I cannot figure out how to use not much from within neomutt. I feel like I am missing something fairly straightforward because apparently not much is integrated into neomutt. Any pointers would be great!

I got it set up with Luke Smith's muttwizard [0]. The actual integration feels a bit clunky (the UI closes when entering a query, but then results are returned to the UI) but it does work quite well. I think the interesting corollary one finds is that a normal filter (I think it's called 'Limit' in mutt?) often does the job most of the time and one doesn't have to think about how the Inverted index is going to treat the query.

[0] https://github.com/LukeSmithxyz/mutt-wizard

Re: IMAP Email Backup

#13
Thunderbird is your desktop client that can archive, compress, and store all emails offline. I've even used Thunderbird for migrating all my email history, folders etc. between servers: simply add new account and drag and drop folders between accounts. Simple enough to be used by non technical people who do not want to:

>./imapgrab.py -d -v -f ~/user@email.com -s imap.mail.server -S -p 993 -u user@email.com -p password -m "_ALL_,-INBOX.Trash,-INBOX.Spam,-INBOX.Junk,-Trash,-Junk,-Spam"

Re: IMAP Email Backup

#15
The tool I used to use for this years ago is isync/mbsync, which worked really well. Nowadays I just use rsync on Maildirs because I don't have any IMAP mail on servers where I don't have shell access, so I'm a bit out of date what the modern state of these tools is. Interesting to hear of a variety of other options in this thread that I'd not come across back then.

Re: IMAP Email Backup

#16
post #3

Recommend IMAPSync: https://imapsync.lamiral.info/ Have used it at pretty massive scale and it handles a hell of a lot of different options.

This one... and I used it to migrate 20 years of email from a G Suite account to Gmail account.

https://medium.com/@buro9/one-account-all-of-google-4d292906...

Re: IMAP Email Backup

#17

The tool I used to use for this years ago is isync/mbsync, which worked really well. Nowadays I just use rsync on Maildirs because I don't have any IMAP mail on servers where I don't have shell access, so I'm a bit out of date what the modern state of these tools is. Interesting to hear of a variety of other options in this thread that I'd not come across back then.

> Nowadays I just use rsync on Maildirs because I don't have any IMAP mail on servers where I don't have shell access, so I'm a bit out of date what the modern state of these tools is. Interesting to hear of another option I'd not come across back then

If you use rsync through ssh, I would say that's a very good option, if anything because on your server, you only need ssh to be exposed to the internet rather than ssh + an imap server. Given how servers are constantly attacked, this is way safer.

Re: IMAP Email Backup

#18
post #13

Thunderbird is your desktop client that can archive, compress, and store all emails offline. I've even used Thunderbird for migrating all my email history, folders etc. between servers: simply add new account and drag and drop folders between accounts. Simple enough to be used by non technical people who do not want to: >./imapgrab.py -d -v -f ~/user@email.com -s imap.mail.server -S -p 993 -u user@email.com -p passwo…

I also use Thunderbird Portable to backup my G Suite. Great tool, been using for years without issue. I open once a week and just let it sync.

Re: IMAP Email Backup

#19
post #8

First: I use neomutt + mbsync (formerly isync) + notmuch. The local searching was at first a nerd special interest project but has actually become very useful for searching, filtering and otherwise managing my mail. Second: the button on the article to submit to HN seems to be somewhat... off? I wouldn't mind one that would submit in the first instance and then link to the HN thread on subsequent clicks but having a…

The issue with local search is that you anyways end up doing search on the server when on mobile or when you are not on your home computer. But yes, definitely useful. I personally do 0 inbox so I hardly have anything to search, heh.

Regarding the submit to HN button: if the article has already been posted, HN will itself just link you to it rather than make a new submission. So it is a bit of an intelligent hack where it piggybacks on HN's own code, hope that assuages you :)

Re: IMAP Email Backup

#20
Reminder: You likely don't need your email provider to store years and years of old emails. Download them locally, then remove them from the service provider.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-party_doctrine

Thanks to the third-party doctrine, messages stored on the provider can be disclosed to the government without a warrant. Your emails have contact history, location histories, attachments, plans, all sorts of stuff.

Don't leave it on the server, where it's available for the taking. Even a password breach will deliver the entirety of it to an attacker.

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