Off-server email archival

Maintenance
#1

Has anybody set up a solution for removing (very) old emails from the server and moving them to some other cheaper storage? The thought is to host this at home rather than on SSD storage in AWS (where I have MIAB). Also, I’d import a bunch of old Outlook PST files so I don’t have to worry about their safe storage.

The most promising solution I’ve found so far is Piler, which would need to be BCC’d on each email MIAB gets using postfix config.
https://www.mailpiler.org/wiki/current:installation

Maybe there’s some other solution I’m not thinking of?

#2

I use Evolution as mail client and move old mail to local folder.
This may also work with Thunderbird or Outlook.
In Evolution there is an option to automatically archive old mail from one folder to another possibly locally.

#3

Yep, I’ve done that in Thunderbird in the past.

1 Like
#4

I think most desktop clients support creating an additional account login using POP3 which usually has a configurable option to delete messages on the server that will include messages older than as a configuration option. Alternatively, you could just have a POP3 download as backup and your regular IMAP login can delete the messages similarly.

I have email accounts that are gone forever and I still retain the messages I downloaded this way. It’s a lazy backup method, but it works.

#5

Do yourself a favor and get a free copy of mailstore: https://www.mailstore.com/ It’s an excellent product.

No, I’m not a paid shill. I’ve been using it for years after I heard Steve Gibson recommend it on Security Now. ALL my email is stored there, and then I copy over to my NAS. I usually keep ~6 months online, then backup and delete everything earlier. I’ve always found what I needed with the mail store search feature.

#6

Note that MailStore is owned by OpenText, a publicly traded global conglomerate.

#7

OK, noted. Other than being owned by a presumably big, evil “publicly traded global conglomerate”, what’s your point? How is mailstore compromising my security? What data are they extricating from my USB drive with the mailstore executable? Do they have a history of planting viruses on computers? Seriously??

#8

Some users of MiaB are specifically trying to not have their data stored in such places.

You could just not bother with the whole thing and use Google or Microsoft.

#9

mail store is a1 file executable on my 16gb USB drive. I don’t know what you mean by storing it in “such places”. I stay away from Google whenever I can. I prefer keeping my data under my control which is why I use MIAB!

#10

They offer a server option.

Your first post made no mention of any specific product and provided only a link to their home page.

#11

Their product costs 229 Euros!

Perhaps you should have linked the actual page with their ‘free’ product?

#12

Perhaps I should have…. Seems like you found the free version without a problem, though. But thanks for the direct link!

#13

I mentioned the free version.

#14

Thanks for the input all! MailStore looks good, but the Home version seems more like a desktop product than the server solution I was looking for.

I tried setting up Piler and it looked good, but I was a bit hesitant to commit to running that forever. In the end, I decided to simply set up another MIAB instance at home with my NAS as the data storage. That way I can just configure both servers in the email client and drag & drop emails between the accounts to do the archiving.

Then there was some network trickery for providing access to a family member outside the home, but that’s really a separate concern.

#15

I have a NAS at home which can be configured as a mailserver - in fact it’s not that unlike MIAB - postfix, dovecot, roundcube …

I’ve configured that account on my computer, and every once in a while I move the archived messages from the MIAB server to the NAS, using Thunderbird.

Linux also has various programs, like mbsync, which can mirror an IMAP account to the local disk. I used that to do backups of my old Gmails.

#16

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