Hello,
I want to move some domains to a new virtualmin server, I’m especially concerned with the email accounts.
In the past I did a backup and restore and the email accounts configured as IMAP all started syncing all mesages again, I would like to avoid that. Is there a way to avoid that?
Thanks.
| SYSTEM INFORMATION | |
|---|---|
| OS type and version | Debian 11 |
| Webmin version | 20.021 |
| Virtualmin version | 7.7 |
| Related packages | dovecot |
imap should resync to new location but its should be ok as it only shows what in the folders. what are you getting duplicates?
Use Transfer Server
Virtualmin, Server Configuration, Transfer Virtual Server.
No duplicates, but I want to avoid IMAP resync on all accounts, especially those with several GBs of data.
Not 100% but it may not effect things, no one complained last move I done virtualmin backup and restore to move from centos7 to rocky9.
Only one experience I had with a total resync was move a client away from another provider (he had a domain) and the resync was over within 30 seconds (from memory it was very short) and he had around 4 gigs of emails. I guess it depends on your bandwidth.
A notification to customers might be wise.
That’s the problem, bandwidth is no great over here and there are accounts with 20-40GB of mails.
If you are using IMAP, then you’ll always sorta, technically be resyncing. You need to first understand the nature of how IMAP works in comparison with POP.
IMAP downloads the basic message headers “From”, “To”, “Date” and “Subject” for each message from the server, then when you open a message is downloads the “Body” and “Attachments”. Once opened most email clients WILL “cache” the data, however if you move email servers it will detect this and most likely re-download the data the next time it’s accessed.
If you don’t have good bandwidth, it might be more practical to switch to POP (aka POP3).
POP downloads the messages from the server to the client that connects to it, and unless you’ve tweaked the settings to “keep a copy on the server”, the message once downloaded is NO LONGER available on the server.
The downside is, today people often access email from multiple devices throughout the day, hence where IMAP shines in that it keeps the data on the server, and therefore as messages are sent and received all devices remain in “sync” with each other.
There are ways to reduce the impact when migrating between servers. I’m an email specialist who has worked with servers with GB and TB worth of data per mailbox. If you’d like to hire me to consult on the topic and/or complete the task for you with minimal downtime, please drop me a line here or fill out my contact form at: https://tpnassist.com
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One way around this (that I personally use for most of my own email accounts) is to let every device except my desktop use IMAP, and use POP on my desktop. That allows me to read the mail while I’m on the road, but download it to my desktop when I get home.
The drawback is that replies that I send from the mobile device won’t be on my desktop unless I cc myself.
I never need to access mail that I’ve already read while I’m on the road, however. For one who does need to do that, my method won’t work.
Richard
Personally I used IMAP everywhere, as bandwidth is generally not an issue for me. I was providing some insights to the original author of this thread.
I don’t have any bandwidth problems, either. Desktop storage is just cheaper than server storage.
Richard
Its 2023, everyone should have good bandwidth 
Not everyone lives in developed countries with access to fast cheap internet.
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