If you want maildirs to use hierarchical directories, such as: This means that all mailboxes are stored in a single directory and prefixed with a dot. The mail location is specified with:īy default Dovecot uses Maildir++ directory layout. Maildir exists almost always in ~/Maildir directory. You can also reach me on Twitter email me directly.See MailboxFormat/Maildir for a complete description of how Dovecot has implemented Maildir support.
Please feel free to post corrections, questions or comments below.
If you’d just like to experiment with the RoundCube interface to access your existing GMail account, follow these instructions once you install iRedMail: Access GMail with RoundCube. Once you move away from GMail, you are responsible for the reliability of your data. But, you might also want to browse some of the above backup solutions to create secondary redundancy. You can use Amazon EC2 snapshots to backup your mail. Here’s information about moving between mbox and Maildir storage formats.
Here’s Google’s Matt Cutts’ tutorial to use GetMail to migrate GMail accounts or back it up: How to back up your Gmail on Linux in four easy steps.Ĥ) GizModo’s Back Up Your GMail the Easy Way or Cheap Way also describes some similar options including using Backupify, Thunderbird and FetchMail. It works on multiple platforms.ģ) GetMail is another downloadable solution for backing up remote email accounts. You can follow me at You may also be interested in my AWS tutorial for WordPress.ġ) MacWorld’s How to Back Up Your GMail outlines several different approaches to making a backup of your GMail including using your own mail client and commercial services such as Backupify.Ģ) GMVault provides a downloadable solution for syncing your GMail to your local computer and encrypting it. If you found this tutorial helpful, please consider sharing it on Twitter. I’m a technology consultant and writer living in Seattle. Here are three resources for backing up your GMail: It can backup your GMail to a browsable local store and restore it to any IMAP server. Use Dovecot’s dsync migration described here and here.ģ. Use imapsync described here and an example in the iRedMail forums.Ģ. Be aware that the label feature in GMail and its additional All Mail, Starred and Important Folders make it more difficult to import your GMail without getting duplicate copies of messages.ġ.
Here are three approaches for migrating your GMail to your new iRedMail Dovecot IMAP server. Neither of these approaches address privacy.
Or, use one of these other backup services described below for redundancy. Or, vice-versa, use iRedMail as your primary server but forward copies to a backup GMail account. This is probably the path that steps you furthest away from PRISM.Ģ) Begin using iRedMail as your new email server but use RoundCube plug-ins to access all of your GMail accounts from your iRedMail server to ease the transition.ģ) Continue using GMail, but forward your GMail messages to iRedMail as an always-available backup to Google services. Rely on Amazon AWS snapshot backups or one of the listed IMAP backup solutions for redundancy. There are several different ways to think about using iRedMail with regard to GMail:ġ) Export your GMail to iRedMail and don’t look back.