[MlMt] Moving ISP/IMAP host

[Gavan Schneider]

On 3 Sep 2022, at 13:41, Bill Cole wrote:

> On 2022-09-02 at 21:23:37 UTC-0400 (Sat, 03 Sep 2022 11:23:37 +1000)
> Gavan Schneider via mailmate <mailmate at lists.freron.com>
> is rumored to have said:
> [...]
>> Plan:
>> Put all my “eggs” in what appears to be the much better basket
>>
>> Proposed process, and your thoughts and wisdom welcome here —
>> 1. Take IMAP accounts “off-line”in MlMt
>> 2. Switch DNS of the relevant domain name to the good provider
>> 4. Create the email accounts on this provider
>> 5. Change the IMAP account settings in MlMt
>> 6. Wait for the DNS change to propagate
>> 7. Bring accounts “on-line” in MlMt… and
>> 8. Allow the synchronisation process to happen, with lots of messages getting loaded on the ISP server (I hope)
>
> That will not be what happens. Instead, MM will toss all the local messages. You will have pristine email accounts, unsullied by email.
>
Exactly correct

>> 9. Clean-up in account maintenance mode on bad provider once I get access again (find any missing messages, etc.)
>>
>> I have the bandwidth to cover this and speed is good so it should all happen in reasonable time provided I am correct in my process.
>>
>> So, have I made any silly assumptions or omissions in the above?
>
> Not silly, as it is understandable and not entirely unreasonable: that MM's local copy of your mail is anything more than a 100% cache of the server view of the message store. Whenever the server disagrees with MM about what messages exist and what their states are, the server wins unconditionally.
>
Thank you. This was the “go to” message I needed.

> The tool you want is imapsync: https://imapsync.lamiral.info
>
Always interesting when I return to this tool. Have never used it. And I still cannot use it since I do not have access to the source IMAP account… my understanding is this is the place to go when moving from one provider to another.

> There's a MacPorts port that's relatively recent, and I suspect that Homebrew has a recipe for it. If you have command line access and can install your own tools, it runs on anything Unix-like and you may find it faster to run server-to-server rather than via your Mac.
>
Have been using Unix before it was *nix, and Homebrew keeps an entire subset of my file system updated :)

> Another MacOS tool that I like a lot for client-side message store wrangling is (not free) Emailchemy: https://weirdkid.com/emailchemy/.
>
Will check once I have this migration sorted

> Alternatively, you COULD use MM to export your entire message store in a form that it can re-import. Then you would switch the settings, let MM wipe out its cache, and import the messages.
>
This is where I ended up…

Revised process almost complete —
1. Relevant accounts taken off line in MailMate
2. MailMate message folders for these accounts taken out of the “/Users/gavan/Library/Application\ Support/MailMate/Messages/IMAP” folder (cue lots of missing content messages :)
3. DNS settings switched to new provider (propagated in a few hours), and email addresses recreated there (note I am moving the domain so the old address is the same as new address)
4. Mailmate IMAP settings edited (this was minimal since the two providers are using the same IMAP/SMTP/Port settings)
5. Addresses then brought on line and synchronised (leaving only the welcome message from the new provider) — and, new messages start to arrive
6. Folders of messages then dropped onto the respective subfolders in each MailMate email account
7. Adjust quota limits on provider for those accounts where the uploaded messages exceed the default quota, click “Retry”in MailMate and continue synchronisation
8. Wait for spinning wheels to stop (took a while)

Still to do —
9. Regain access to the original server to retrieve some additional email content and mail list settings not stored on my machine

Thank you Scott, Bill, and Ben for your inputs… ideas for now and future, all much appreciated.

Gavan Schneider
——
Gavan Schneider, Sodwalls, NSW, Australia
Explanations exist; they have existed for all time; there is always a well-known solution to every human problem — neat, plausible, and wrong.
— H. L. Mencken, 1920
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