Author Topic: IMAP from POP & backup (Read 2438 times)

andyoxon · « **on:** 29 February, 2012, 12:35:59 am »

Having some issues... Do I have to create a new account on Thunderbird to set-up IMAP? Simply changing existing Tb server name to "imap.googlemail.com" does not change server type from pop mail account. I have thousands of email in this pop account and so don't really want to download them again into a completely new IMAP accnt on Thunderbird.

Any ideas?

Kim · « **Reply #1 on:** 29 February, 2012, 01:04:00 am »

If you create a new IMAP account, your local folders remain intact. You can drag-and-drop messages between local storage and the IMAP accounts, but it will of course take ages to upload thousands of emails back to the IMAP server.

andyoxon · « **Reply #2 on:** 29 February, 2012, 01:12:33 am »

Thanks. With a new IMAP account, will Tb will download everything again from gmail online? If possible I'd like to just change the type of the existing POP to IMAP, but I don't think this is possible.

Kim · « **Reply #3 on:** 29 February, 2012, 01:17:13 am »

I'm not particularly familiar with gmail - I just have it forwarding everything to my own SMTP server, but The Way Things Are Done with IMAP is that messages are stored on the server and only 'downloaded' when you try to view them. Thunderbird will cache things locally in order to improve performance, but that should be reasonably transparent to the user. Expect it to take a while to synchronise the list of messages when you first access each IMAP folder, but it won't download the body of every message unless you explicitly tell it to (I think there's a setting in there somewhere).

tonycollinet · « **Reply #4 on:** 29 February, 2012, 06:29:32 am »

As far as I can see, you need to create a new account in thunderbird, there doesn't seem to be a way of changing a pop account to an imap one. Which is a bit daft.

PaulF · « **Reply #5 on:** 29 February, 2012, 06:35:57 am »

Don't forget that you'll also need to enable I map in your Google account settings.

andyoxon · « **Reply #6 on:** 29 February, 2012, 08:08:45 am »

Quote from: tonycollinet on 29 February, 2012, 06:29:32 am

As far as I can see, you need to create a new account in thunderbird, there doesn't seem to be a way of changing a pop account to an imap one. Which is a bit daft.

OK just found this... http://kb.mozillazine.org/Convert_a_POP_account_to_a_IMAP_account

Quote

Thunderbird doesn't support converting a POP account to a IMAP account. Its possible to hack the files in the profile to convert the account, but its tricky and time consuming and requires knowledge most users don't have. Its much quicker and safer to create a new account and move the messages to it, and then delete the old account.

yes, a bit daft. I think I'll have to set one up tonight and let it import all the emails from gmail (will it do this?). Fortunately I don't have much organisation in the Tb POP accnt ie time invested, but this also means I can't really drag and drop much...

Ham · « **Reply #7 on:** 29 February, 2012, 09:45:50 am »

I've done exactly this recently, and it all worked swimmingly easily. All you should need to do is (making sure your Gmail IMAP settings are ok) are to put in your username and password.

Do you have specific issues?

andyoxon · « **Reply #8 on:** 29 February, 2012, 10:30:06 am »

Quote from: Ham on 29 February, 2012, 09:45:50 am

I've done exactly this recently, and it all worked swimmingly easily. All you should need to do is (making sure your Gmail IMAP settings are ok) are to put in your username and password.

Do you have specific issues?

Thanks. No issues apart from the initial query about converting account. So, set IMAP in gmail, go to Tb & set up a new IMAP account for gmail (email & password), then, Tb imports ~1.5Gb emails from gmail...

Ham · « **Reply #9 on:** 29 February, 2012, 10:51:29 am »

It takes a while and Tb burns CPU........

andyoxon · « **Reply #10 on:** 29 February, 2012, 04:02:27 pm »

Should I be able to have a Thunderbird IMAP account (for the same Gmail accnt) of two different PCs...

Kim · « **Reply #11 on:** 29 February, 2012, 04:05:57 pm »

Absolutely. That's the *whole point* in IMAP. As the messages are stored on the server, you can have as many clients as you like and all your mail remains accessible.

andyoxon · « **Reply #12 on:** 29 February, 2012, 04:28:34 pm »

Quote from: Kim on 29 February, 2012, 04:05:57 pm

Absolutely. That's the *whole point* in IMAP. As the messages are stored on the server, you can have as many clients as you like and all your mail remains accessible.

OK, thanks - true enough, I was just initially 'looking forward' to being able to properly sort out emails using Thunderbird and having it update the gmail server.

edit.

Actually very easy - only took 4-5 mins to download emails to new IMAP. Now sorted using Tb. That's one of the slight drawbacks on Gmail online, lack of a good mail sorting facility.

andyoxon · « **Reply #13 on:** 28 April, 2012, 12:56:14 pm »

Just re-awakening this older thread to ask if there's anyway of back-up for IMAP, using e.g. Thunderbird, other than reverting temporarily to POP?

tonycollinet · « **Reply #14 on:** 28 April, 2012, 01:06:21 pm »

Yes - you can just move (or copy) mail from your imap account folders to local folders.

Biggsy · « **Reply #15 on:** 28 April, 2012, 01:07:20 pm »

If you have copies of your emails stored on your computer (probably you do), locate the "ImapMail" folder via Windows and backup the contents.

I have mine set to a custom location. Someone else will tell you the default location.....

andyoxon · « **Reply #16 on:** 28 April, 2012, 03:46:28 pm »

Thanks tc/biggsy

OK so I've found that Thunderbird files are here:
C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\xxxxxxxx.default\ImapMail

In the profile folder there is ImapMail and also Mail (which contains "Local Folders").

So I tested dragging an imap folder to local mail, and it does end up in "Local Folders", there also appears to be a copy of all the folders in ImapMail too.

My guess is that the ImapFolder is dynamic and if one deleted mail in ThB then it would no longer exist in the ImapFolder. So I assume that if one drags to "Local Folders" then this saves a snapshot of the emails at this time - but one has to remember to do this periodically... I wonder if there a way to automate a backup.

Biggsy · « **Reply #17 on:** 28 April, 2012, 03:55:33 pm »

It's not a bad idea to periodically backup the whole Thunderbird folder. With Windows, you can do it with one click (or a double-click) via a batch file. That's what I do. I'll post an example in a mo...

rr · « **Reply #18 on:** 28 April, 2012, 03:58:22 pm »

Thee is a program called MozBackup that will do this

Biggsy · « **Reply #19 on:** 28 April, 2012, 04:16:52 pm »

Create a new text file somewhere, and name it something like "Backup.bat". Create a shortcut to it and copy it to the desktop, start menu or taskbar. Edit the file with Notepad, and write something like the following into it:

Code: [Select]

echo off
set choice=
set /p choice=Are you ready to backup email and whatever (y or n)? 
if '%choice%'=='y' goto getonwithit
goto end

:getonwithit
echo on

D:    [or whatever drive you want]
cd \
md ANDYBAK
md ANDYBAK\EMAIL
md ANDYBAK\WHATEVER
cd \ANDYBAK

verify on
echo on

xcopy [C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\xxxxxxxx.default\*.* EMAIL /d /e /y
xcopy [any other stuff you want] WHATEVER /d /e /y

rem ********** FINISHED **********
pause
:end

fuaran · « **Reply #20 on:** 28 April, 2012, 07:56:46 pm »

Quote from: andyoxon on 28 April, 2012, 03:46:28 pm

So I tested dragging an imap folder to local mail, and it does end up in "Local Folders", there also appears to be a copy of all the folders in ImapMail too.

My guess is that the ImapFolder is dynamic and if one deleted mail in ThB then it would no longer exist in the ImapFolder. So I assume that if one drags to "Local Folders" then this saves a snapshot of the emails at this time - but one has to remember to do this periodically... I wonder if there a way to automate a backup.

You could create a message filter, so all emails arriving in the IMAP account are automatically copied to a local folder. This would happen whenever you check your email.

Bledlow · « **Reply #21 on:** 28 April, 2012, 08:14:53 pm »

Quote from: andyoxon on 29 February, 2012, 04:02:27 pm

Should I be able to have a Thunderbird IMAP account (for the same Gmail accnt) of two different PCs...

Mrs B has, on this PC & her laptop.

tonycollinet · « **Reply #22 on:** 29 April, 2012, 11:03:33 am »

Hopefully this will help.

IMAP Mail is stored on the mail server at your ISP. The IMAP account folders are simply showing you the mail as it is stored on the server. (The advantage of this arrangement, is that you can use multiple computers to access the same mail account (like you can with web mail)- unlike POP mail where is is downloaded to the local machine).

In Thunderbird, you can create "local folders" which are stored on your hard disk (as you have seen in the "C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\xxxxxxxx.default" folder - although I think you can change this)

I'm pretty certain the IMAP folder will either be a cache of the server, and may not hold everything on the server.

If you wan't to back up the IMAP mail, you can move (if you have limited space on the server) or copy the IMAP Folders (within thunderbird, not file explorer) to the local folders. You can then back these up, by copying the whole thunderbird profiles folder on you C drive.

Note though, that if you MOVE email from the IMAP folders to local folders, they will no longer be available from other machines.

Biggsy · « **Reply #23 on:** 29 April, 2012, 11:15:09 am »

Quote from: tonycollinet on 29 April, 2012, 11:03:33 am

I'm pretty certain the IMAP folder will either be a cache of the server, and may not hold everything on the server.

Yes, that's the default mode, I think.

A backup could be needed after you delete something on the server by accident or if the email provider goes down.

sas · « **Reply #24 on:** 29 April, 2012, 11:37:13 am »

Most clients let you sync everything for offline use. In Thunderbird go to "Account Settings", "Synchronisation & Storage".

There's also a small pair-of-computers icon in the bottom left corner which lets you switch between online and offline mode, click on it and it asks "Do you want to download messages for offline use before going offline?" I'm not sure whether this is in addition to the previous sync options, or whether you need it to trigger synchronisation of all new messages.