Re: [Evolution] convert to Maildir or IMAP from evolution's "offline backup"

[Milan Crha <mcrha redhat com>]

On Thu, 2012-05-10 at 14:02 -0700, David Woodhouse wrote:
> On Thu, 2012-05-10 at 11:18 -0400, Adam Tauno Williams wrote:
> > On Wed, 2012-05-09 at 10:18 -0700, shawn wrote: 
> > > I accidentally deleted alot of email from my IMAP server.
> > > I made a copy of the offline copy that evolution makes
>
> That *is* Maildir.

        Hi,
well, it is and it is not. The ~/.local/share/evolution/mail/local/...
uses MailDir, but the IMAP (not IMAP+) account in evolution doesn't use
MailDir, neither mbox format, it has its own cache format, which stores
messages in parts. It has its advantage of downloading respective parts
on demand, like (large) attachments are downloaded only when their part
is accessed, but the disadvantage is that restoring such local cache
into messages is nontrivial from outside.

I would try to locate correct folder in
~/.local/share/evolution/mail/<imap-account-id>/
(in 3.4.0+ it's in ~/.cache/evolution/mail/<imap-account-id>/)
for your IMAP account with accidentally deleted messages. Rename that
folder to something else, then copy there the content of it from the
backup, then run evolution in offline:
   $ evolution --offline
and copy all the messages from the account to your local folder (at
least those which are accessible in offline IMAP cache). Then close
evolution, return back the original IMAP account local cache folder, run
evolution in online:
   $ evolution --online
wait till it synchronizes its content and then copy those copied
messages from local folder back to your IMAP server.
        Hope it helps,
        Milan