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Robin Rodricks
Asked: 2010-11-12 08:55:08 +0800 CST

Transfer email accounts with all mail from server to server, using IMAP

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IMAP allows you to access the folder heirarchy and all emails on a given account.

There was a serverfault (pun intended) with our primary email servers and so we have to shift all email accounts to the new system. I'm using Shared hosting so not really possible to run command line.

Is it possible to connect to all accounts, get messages via IMAP in bulk, and then use IMAP with the new email server to upload all those messages back? Provided the email accounts are created..

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3 Answers

  1. There's a utility called imapsync which will do exactly what you've described.

    • 5

  2. I found IMAP Migration Tool written in PHP is a better and easier to use alternative.

    Whereas the ImapSync app has to be paid for, $15.

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  3. Best Answer

    Larch is an alternative to imapsync that works just as swimmingly. With a working Ruby environment, installation is as simple as:

    gem install larch

    To migrate dozens of mailboxes from one server to another, you might create a script that looks something like:

    #!/bin/bash

# pullmail.sh

function pullmail {
    larch \
        --all \
        --from imaps://source.example.com \
        --from-pass "$2" \
        --from-user "$1" \
        --max-retries 20 \
        --to imaps://dest.example.com \
        --to-pass "$2" \
        --to-user "$1"
}

PS4='\t+ '
set -x

pullmail alice password1
pullmail bob password2
[…and so on…]

    Then you might run it with: ./pullmail.sh 2>&1 >> pullmail-$(date +%Y%m%d%H%M).log &. Once complete, you can review the log to address any email that might have had trouble syncing. With luck, all the mail in every folder and in every account will have been copied from the old server to the new.

    Also, Larch is smart enough to keep track of what mail it has already synced, so it is safe to re-run the sync again and again until you are satisfied.

    You’ll want to consult the documentation to fully understand what is going on. There is also a support forum in case you run into any issues.

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