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.
Updated May 2025 (checked all links)
Originally posted the answer when the question was 'just' 7 years old, it is now ~10 years old. At the time, I was looking for a solution to migrate off of Google Workspaces as they were about to charge their free legacy users.
This question had a few answered, most were spot on. But I felt at least one was missing, and there was probably room for more. So below is the original list, refreshed as of Oct 2024.
NOTE: Most of the answers are not necessarily backup/restore, as my personal focus was syncing two IMAP accounts. I'll add a [sync only] note next to projects I know are sync-only options without a download solution. Keep in mind, that spinning a local IMAP server - shouldn't be complex, but I'm not covering in this post.
Timeline of answers:
Back in 2014 Mehmet mentioned imapsync[sync only]
This is probably still the most focused solution maintained out there, even now in 2024, 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
A docker container image for the WebUI is available, it was last updated 2021 years ago, which matches the WebUI code changes in the GitHub repo. This was done by Lucas Silva, not by the original author.
Interestingly relevant to this question, Gilles Lamiral maintains a list of like-minded applications on his web-site. Check it out.
Back in 2017 Quarind mentioned imap-backup
This is a ruby based solution which is still being maintained.
Back in 2021 Patrick Decat mentioned OfflineIMAP
offlineimap3 is the "more" maintained, Python3-based fork of the original, Python2-based
offlineimap. Both have their last updated entry in the Changelog.md at 2021.
offlineimap3 is available in major distros.
According to this open Issue in offlineimap3, although a new release hasn't been issued for a few years, the project is still maintained and has some fairly recent PRs merged in. The thread also mentions a fork:
My searches 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:
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
I'll try and keep this list updated, as I see this still attracts interest from time to time. Personally, I had good experiences with Got Your Back and imapsync.
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. "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.