Re: Sync IMAP Mailboxes/Folders via ssh?

[Marton B. <ba...@gm...>]

[Clients]: I use NeoMutt; yes, operating on local maildir on my {desk/lap}tops.

[On phone/tablet]: I use the official Gmail/M365 apps. I don't move emails while on the phone, just read and, rarely, respond to them. I can also delete from Inbox, that doesn't do harm in the workflow. I don't have a tablet but I guess those could work the same way. I sort Inbox and Sent Mail on my {desk/lap}tops only, and this is propagated up to Gmail/M365 via isync.

[Why]: This seemed easiest. I think of my email as files in my ecosystem, that is local copy on the machine I'm currently on, backed up and synced to my other machines as files via my rsync-ssh server and mirrored from there by further backup ssh servers for additional safety. I find this more reassuring than trusting big corporations with all my messages. I essentially use Gmail/M365 as vehicles to collect Inbox and additional backing up my sorted folders. These latter also allow me to view these archived mails over the phone.

[Out of sync]: Yes, that's true, but working on local maildir I'm out of sync anyway so this doesn't really bother me. I isync my mails many times a day; Inbox, Sent, Spam, Deleted mail in both directions; saved folders only up to Gmail/M365. Local maildirs and Gmail/M365 get in sync with each other at those instances.

If Gmail and M365 go bust right now I only lose the newest few mails in Inbox since I last ran isync. If they decide to delete my emails they can only do harm to my Inbox which doesn't normally has too many emails. If some mails cannot be stored in Gmail or M365 (like in Peter's question) that's no problem as not all sorted maildir folders are synced up. In fact I'm deleting all emails from Google that are more than 4 years old as I'm not paying for extra storage in there. I have the old ones in my maildirs and that's enough. And, as an additional plus, an easy bash script moving everything from "Junk Email" to "Inbox" in my local maildir sorted Microsoft's stupid decision of not letting us turn off their useless spam filter. :-)

Best wishes,
Marton


On Thu, Jul 17, 2025 at 01:29:14AM +0200, H wrote:
> On July 16, 2025 5:09:57 PM GMT+02:00, Marton Balazs <ba...@gm...> wrote:
> >I use three different machines and sync all my email between them by
> >rsync
> >over SSH, so as files rather than via isync. When I boot up a machine I
> >rsync down all files, including hundreds of thousands of email, from my
> >home server. Some of these emails I only have as maildir files, they
> >are
> >not even on any IMAP server. I make sure dot files are synced too, and
> >deletions of files also propagate. Once the rsync logs are ok I then
> >launch
> >isync to Google and M365 for those mail folders that are on there as
> >well.
> >Before closing down the machine I rsync everything, including all
> >email, to
> >the home ssh server. Next day I sit at another machine and do the same.
> >This has worked reliably for me for several years, the important thing
> >is
> >to make sure everything is rsynced with no errors before isync is
> >launched
> >to my email providers. This is not exactly answering your question
> >though...
> >
> >Best wishes
> >Marton
> >
> >On Wed, 16 Jul 2025, 08:41 Peter P., <pet...@fa...> wrote:
> >
> >> Hi list,
> >>
> >> (this might be slightly-OT)
> >>
> >> my employer is forcing me to host all emails, that are older than X
> >> years, somewhere else than on his IMAP server. I am using multiple
> >> clients and isync. I am now thinking of moving certain imap folders
> >from
> >> the employer's server to some network storage, which would only be
> >> accessible through ssh/scp/rsync but not through the imap protocol.
> >>
> >> Can isync sync emails through such connections as well?
> >> Is the "Tunnel" commenad the way to go?
> >>
> >> Thanks for all ideas and advice!
> >> Peter
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> isync-devel mailing list
> >> isy...@li...
> >> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/isync-devel
> >>
> 
> Interesting approach. Which mail client(s) do you then use on the different machines? Am I correct that the mail client(s) accesses the local mail storage on the desktop rather than your mail server?
> 
> How do you handle the mail accounts on phones/tablets?
> 
> Why did you choose approach? It would seem to me that the mail clients on e.g. a phone and the desktop you are currently using will be out of sync?
> 
> 
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