The purpose of imapsync is to migrate IMAP accounts or to backup IMAP accounts. IMAP is one of the three current standard protocols to access mailboxes, the two other are POP3 and HTTP with webmails, webmails are often tied to an IMAP server.
imapsync software is a command line tool that allows incremental and recursive IMAP transfers from one mailbox to another, both anywhere on the internet or in your local network. "Incremental" means you can stop the transfer at any time and restart it later efficiently. "Recursive" means the complete folders hierarchy can be copied. "Command line" means it's not a graphical tool, on Windows you have to run imapsync from a batch file.
imapsync can't migrate Contacts and Calendars. Most email systems don't set or get Contacts or Calendars via the IMAP protocol. No way via IMAP, no way via imapsync but it can be done with other tools or via export/import of csv or ics files.
imapsync is not suitable for maintaining a synchronization between two active imap accounts while the user is working on both sides. Use offlineimap (written by John Goerzen) or mbsync (written by Michael R. Elkins) for bidirectionnal (2 ways) synchronizations.
Alternatives to imapsync are listed in the Similar softwares section.
Gilles LAMIRAL
Email: gilles.lamiral@laposte.net
Good feedback is always welcome, bad feedback is often welcome.
Buy complete and latest imapsync for 50 EUR. There is no trial version but I offer 30-day money back guarantee.
For 50 EUR you will get:
For 100 EUR you can get imapsync full professional support, provided by the imapsync designer and developper (Gilles LAMIRAL) who has been supporting imap migrations since 2001.
At the end of the payment Paypal will proposed you to go back to the site, this link brings you to imapsync download.
You will also receive an email from gilles.lamiral@laposte.net a few minutes later
(can fall in Spam folder sometimes).
In order to get an accurate invoice, please make sure the delivery postal address you enter in Paypal
suits your accounting department's, since revised editing is not easy and prohibited by law.
The gpg signed invoice will be sent within a few days by email.
If you can't pay with a credit card via Paypal then it is possible to pay via a bank transfer.
It will surely add extra work editing the invoice, back and forth getting good coordinates,
so I will mandatory charge both software+support for payment via bank transfer, that is 100 EUR.
Drop me an email to test imapsync and to be sure it will do what you need it to do, before any payment.
The bank account references are:
NAME: MR LAMIRAL GILLES
IBAN: FR76 1360 6000 9900 0332 2748 564
Code BIC/Swift: AGRIFRPP836
For those of you who buy support, contact me (Gilles LAMIRAL) by email or phone:
The support is done in English, mostly by email or possibly phone/skype/google+/jabber. Office hours start at 10:00, end at 16:00 UTC, extra time is possible in case of emergency. The support aims at helping you to get your imap migration job done, quickly if possible. Support includes things like no time to read the documentation, how to deal with special imap server softwares (Gmail, Exchange), choosing and explaining options, explaining error messages, solving authentication issues, dealing with speed, quotas, special context, running in parallel, etc.
Where all those numbers come from? To know whether a newer imapsync exists or not, imapsync does a http GET to the file VERSION. Via the User-agent parameter it also sends:
You can remove this behavior by adding option --noreleasecheck on the command line (or by setting $releasecheck = 0 in the source code). Check CVE-2013-4279.
A basic (and really working) example in a DOS window is the following:
.\imapsync.exe --host1 test1.lamiral.info --user1 test1 --password1 "secret1" ^
--host2 test2.lamiral.info --user2 test2 --password2 "secret2"
But it's better to edit a batch file and run it by a double-click. Take this batch file example imapsync_example.bat and adapt with your own parameters.
A basic (and really working) example in a shell terminal is the following:
imapsync --host1 test1.lamiral.info --user1 test1 --password1 "secret1" \
--host2 test2.lamiral.info --user2 test2 --password2 "secret2"
But it's better to edit a shell script and run it in a terminal. Take this Bourne shell script example imapsync_example.sh and adapt with your own parameters.
In order to migrate many mailboxes, you should use a loop over a csv
file containing only the data credentials.
An example of this file is file.txt,
it can be used with the two following command scripts.
On Windows, see sync_loop_windows.bat
batch example.
On Unix, see sync_loop_unix.sh
example.
Read the INSTALL file and look at the INSTALL.d/* directory
to know how to install imapsync on your system.
Windows users should read directly README_Windows.txt.
The README file has many tips to understand imapsync and succeed in your migration or backup.
The OPTIONS file lists main options to change default imapsync behavior and adapt it to your context.
The FAQ and FAQ.d/* files present Frequently Asked Questions (and not so frequently asked ones) and their answers.
The ChangeLog to read what changed in details since 2001.
The TODO file lists what may be coded or done in the future.
All the people I thank are in the CREDITS file.
What you're allowed to do with imapsync is listed in the LICENSE file (well worth it).
The English public mailing-list may be the best way to get free and gratis support (not as quick as the professional support).
You can write to the mailing-list even if you're not subscribed to it.
In that case you will receive a confirmation message each time you post (to avoid spam).
To write on the mailing-list, the address is:
imapsync@linux-france.org (English language list, hosted in France)
To subscribe, send a message to:
imapsync-subscribe@listes.linux-france.org
To unsubscribe, send a message to:
imapsync-unsubscribe@listes.linux-france.org
To contact the person in charge for the list:
imapsync-request@listes.linux-france.org
The list archives are available at
http://linux-france.org/prj/imapsync_list/
So consider that the list is public, anyone can see your post.
Use a pseudonym or do not post to
this list if you want to stay private.
Thank you for your participation to the English imapsync mailing-list!
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