I am going on with domain transfers, and I now stumbled over another problem when transferring IMAP accounts. I still have one domain for testing, but before I could test it using imapsync, I realised that on both sides there are the same mailboxes, because I want to copy the data 1:1. Email addresses shall remain what they were. While on the source server the mail server is imap.oldserver.domain, on Virtualmin it is mail.oldserver.domain (even though it’s the new server, the name of the mail server is almost identical). Hence imapsync will most likely fail, because it searches for mail.oldserver.domain at the old servers location, because DNS resolves it to that old server. I got the info that it would be possible with some kind of internal IP addresses which point to the particular mailbox, but I don’t know where to find that within Virtualmin. Or is there another way to solve this issue? Imapsync seems to be the right choice, but it won’t work because I can’t have both mail servers accessible by name.
I’ve got an idea and wonder if it’s ok to do it like that:
I create a temporary user in one of the already working domains and use imapsync in order to move the mails to that temporary user’s mailbox. Once the domain from which the imap mailbox had been copied is successfully transferred to the new server, I can then use imapsync to transfer the temporary user’s to the actual owner’s mailbox which is now on the new server. I guess I’ll try it out. It’s a bit awkward, but better than missing anything by using other means.
I have been moving several accounts from one mail server to another (Same email address, outside provider email hosting moved to an Webmin/Virtualmin hosting environment.
I have done this using Outlook classic;
if needed create a new profile.
Create a pop mailbox for the accounts you need to backup.
Login, sync..
Make sure you have all mails.
Make sure you KEEP the mail on the server, just to be sure nothing is lost if something goes wrong in the transfer (you can set this in the account settings)
Make sure you got it in a offline account file (.PST)
On the new server, make sure everything is working as it should.
make a new profile.
create a new IMAP account to connect to the new server.
Attach the save .PST file to this profile, you should be able to see the folders and messages of the backup account.
now just drag and drop from the PST inbox all the mails (select all and drag to the IMAP folder)
Hold the control [ctrl]-key if you want to copy and not move the messages.
That should do the trick, all the mails now should be in the new server.
you could copy the .PST file before you move, so you can check it’s content to be sure everything is moved correctly.
I’ve done this myself personally, just a few days ago and it really works.
Do make sure you have all the folders attached to the inbox so you really have all the mail files.
Any questions?
just ask and I will try and explain any confusion.
