Installation
Install access to the EPEL repository via yum.
sudo yum install epel-release
Install the necessary prerequisites to run Imapsync.
sudo yum install perl-App-cpanminus \
perl-Dist-CheckConflicts \
perl-HTML-Parser \
perl-libwww-perl \
perl-Module-Implementation \
perl-Module-ScanDeps \
perl-Package-Stash \
perl-Package-Stash-XS \
perl-PAR-Packer \
perl-Regexp-Common \
perl-Sys-MemInfo \
perl-Test-Fatal \
perl-Test-Mock-Guard \
perl-Test-Requires \
perl-Test-NoWarnings \
perl-Test-Deep \
perl-Test-Warn \
perl-Try-Tiny
Download the latest Imapsync code from its official Git repository.
git clone https://github.com/imapsync/imapsync.git
Navigate to the newly cloned repository and install it with the following commands on your system.
cd imapsync
mkdir -p dist
sudo make install
You can check the version of Imapsync using the following command.
imapsync -v
Syncing Emails
The syntax for syncing emails from server1 to server2 using only the required options is shown below.
imapsync --host1 server1.imap.tld --user1 mailbox@email.tld --password1 password1 --host2 server2.imap.tld --user2 mailbox@email.tld --password2 password2
Passwords
To avoid entering plain text mailbox passwords, you can store them in files and use the --passfile1 and --passfile2 arguments to automatically load them from the files containing the passwords.
imapsync --host1 server1.imap.tld --user1 mailbox@email.tld --passfile2 /home/user/pass1 --host2 server2.imap.tld --user2 mailbox@email.tld --passfile2 /home/user/pass2
The connection to the IMAP server
Several options are available to connect Imapsync to your mail server, including the type of connection used. By default, Imapsync will try to use SSL or TLS on port 993 to connect. The following are examples for the connection on the server to migrate (replace 1 with 2 for the second server).
--nossl1for an unencrypted connection via port143(not recommended)--ssl1for an encrypted connection with SSL via port993--tls1to connect with TLS via port993
There are also options to define the type of authentication. This is specified with the --authmech1 and --authmech2 arguments, whose possible values are as follows (in upper case).
PLAINLOGINCRAM-MD5
Folders
Folder synchronization can cause problems, especially if the default folders, ("Inbox", "Spam", "Archive", "Sent"), are not named the same on both mail servers. Imapsync offers several options for this:
--automapto use automatic default folder recognition.--nomixfoldersto avoid merging folders with a similar name according to case sensitivity.--prefix1to remove a prefix from the folders to migrate.--prefix2to add a prefix to migrated folders.--skipemptyfoldersto not recreate empty folders on the destination server.
Migration options
To speed up email migration, you can use the --usecache argument to temporarily store the folders on the server where you installed Imapsync.
You can also delete messages from the first server with the --delete1 argument.
Finally, before starting your migration, do not hesitate to use the --dry argument to check the result of a command, without executing it.