Export your mailbox

There are two ways to take a copy of your mail. Account > Export produces an mbox export of your mailbox. Any IMAP tool can also copy folders to your own disk. Use the export for a full archive or a move to another service, and use an IMAP copy when you want a local mirror that you keep up to date.

Export as mbox

1. Log in at itpromail.com/login/ and open Account > Export.
2. Start the export and follow the on-screen steps. Large mailboxes take longer.
3. Download the mbox output and store it somewhere encrypted.

mbox stores messages in a single text file, with each message introduced by a line that begins with From . Most mail clients can import mbox files. As a rough check, grep -c '^From ' archive.mbox prints an approximate message count. It is approximate because a message body can contain a line that starts the same way.

Copy with an IMAP tool

mbsync (isync) can copy IMAP folders to a local Maildir, with one directory per folder. The configuration below only pulls mail, so nothing on the server changes. Store your app password in a file readable only by you, for example ~/.config/mbsync/itpromail.pass, and save the rest as ~/.mbsyncrc.

IMAPAccount itpromail
Host imap.itpromail.com
Port 993
User you@example.org
PassCmd "cat ~/.config/mbsync/itpromail.pass"
SSLType IMAPS

IMAPStore itpromail-remote
Account itpromail

MaildirStore itpromail-local
Path ~/Mail/itpromail/
Inbox ~/Mail/itpromail/Inbox
SubFolders Verbatim

Channel itpromail
Far :itpromail-remote:
Near :itpromail-local:
Patterns *
Create Near
SyncState *
Sync Pull

Run mbsync itpromail. The first run downloads everything, so expect it to take a while. Later runs fetch only what has changed.

Verify the copy

Compare folder message counts in webmail with the local copy, for example with ls ~/Mail/itpromail/Inbox/cur | wc -l. Open a few messages with attachments, and if you use PGP, confirm that an encrypted message opens with your private key.

What an export does not replace

• PGP keys. Encrypted messages stay encrypted in the export. Back up your PGP private keys and their passphrases separately, because you cannot read those messages without them. Your keys are managed in Account > Encryption.
• Trash. Messages in Trash are removed after 14 days. Export them before then if you need them.
• Account closure. A closed account is read-only for 30 days before permanent deletion. Export within that window.