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Which Linux tools help to backup and restore a IMAP mail account including all mail and subfolders?
I expect disconnects for large IMAP accounts because of
The software should be able to reconnect and continue the job after any interruption. For repeating backups it might be very handy to use incremental backups and to run the backup script in a cron job.
A 7 year old question, which I've searched for now, and there are a few answers, most of are spot on. But I feel at least one is missing, and there is probably room for more:
Timeline of answers:
Back in 2014 Mehmet mentioned imapsync
This is probably still the most focused solution maintained out there, as this is an active stream of revenue for the author Gilles Lamiral. The source is available, currently the latest code is on GitHub
Although not available as a distro package (like some of the other options), it does have an official docker-hub hosted image at gilleslamiral/imapsync. For more info see: https://imapsync.lamiral.info/INSTALL.d/Dockerfile
It seems someone also created a docker-image for the WebUI.
Back in 2017 Quarind mentioned imap-backup
This is a ruby based solution, it looks like it's still being maintained.
Back in 2021 Patrick Decat mentioned OfflineIMAP
offlineimap is Python2 based and not really maintained.
offlineimap3 is a Python3 based fork that is actively maintained
Available in most distros
My research led me to these additional options:
mbsync command)
The packages below are available on Debian 11 (bullseye), but I don't know much about them yet:
Specifically for Gmail / Google Workspace mailboxes*:
* Not an IMAP solution, but might be related to somebody's search, so I feel it's worth mentioning
As I learn more I'll update this, as I'm actively looking for a solution myself.
Try to use open source project imap-backup: https://github.com/joeyates/imap-backup
$ imap-backup setup
The setup system is a menu-driven command line application.
It creates ~/.imap-backup directory and configuration file. E.g.:
{
"accounts":
[
{
"username": "[email protected]",
"password": "secret",
"local_path": "/path/to/backup/root",
"folders":
[
{"name": "[Gmail]/All Mail"},
{"name": "my_folder"}
]
}
]
}
It connects to GMail by default, but you can also specify a server:
{
"accounts":
[
{
"username": "[email protected]",
"password": "secret",
"server": "my.imap.example.com",
"local_path": "/path/to/backup/root",
"folders":
[
{"name": "[Gmail]/All Mail"},
{"name": "my_folder"}
]
}
]
}
OfflineIMAP is a GPLv2 software to dispose your mailbox(es) as a local Maildir(s).
For example, this allows reading the mails while offline without the need for your mail reader (MUA) to support disconnected operations.
OfflineIMAP will synchronize both sides via IMAP.
https://github.com/OfflineIMAP/offlineimap
It also supports restoring to an IMAP server: http://www.offlineimap.org/doc/backups-restore.html
You can use imapsync for this. You can get the source from fedorahosted.org imapsync page. Zimbra Guide to imapsync has good documentation about this subject.
More to do with backing up than your questions but I've just found and started testing mailpiler. Not sure I like the fact of giving access to "all" email so working out how to send "older" email on regular basis to file there.
At the moment we use Awesome Auto Archive thunderbird extensions to "move" emails to another filing account.
mailpiler seems to be a commercial web service where you can send all your mails to. Besides obvious security concerns this is not what was asked for in this question.
Dec 27, 2018 at 21:58
"cp -pr" should do the job. The "r" option in "pr" should take care of both subfolders and any hidden files/directories.
rsync might be a good option. But I think OP is interested in a solution that connects remotely through IMAP.