Re: [Evolution] POP to IMAP conversion

[Patrick O'Callaghan <poc usb ve>]

On Mon, 2019-05-06 at 13:37 -0400, Reid Vail via evolution-list wrote:
> Hello group   
>
> My wife has an Evolution mailbox configured as POP3.  I want to convert
> this implementation over to IMAP.  Can I backup her mail via the
> Evolution backup tool (1G+), wipe out that mailbox, recreate it under
> the same mailbox name and address as IMAP, and import the mail from the
> backup?  
> Will that work?

No. The backup tool will restore the same mail structure it backed up.
It's just a compressed archive.

"Converting" to IMAP is a misnomer. IMAP and POP are mail access
protocols, so what you need to do is fetch mail using IMAP rather than
POP.

Here are some outline instructions off the top of my head. Test
carefully before deleting anything, and if you're unsure of anything
than use the backup tool as a safeguard before making changes.

It would be helpful to know what mail provider this is, but in any case
the first issue is to find out if they support IMAP. Assuming they do,
go to Edit->Preferences->Mail Accounts and disable mail fetching for
the POP account. Then create a new mail account in Evolution using the
same name and account details as for the POP version, but obviously
changing the access method to IMAP.

Now you want to convert the old POP mail to IMAP. There are two cases:

   1. Mail which is still on the server, either because it has not yet
      been fetched or because the POP configuration included "leave on
      server", should (in theory) be immediately visible in the IMAP
      account with no conversion required. Of course YMMV because server
      implementations may have their own quirks.
   2. Mail which had previously been fetched and is stored locally can be
      simply dragged to the new account structure. Optionally, you may
      want to create a new structure on the IMAP server and upload the
      mail to it, which can be done in a similar way.

If the POP account had filters, e.g. for sorting into local folders,
they will need to be recreated to use IMAP folders. You should also
consider whether you want to enable off-line access for some folders,
because otherwise the mail will stay on the IMAP server.

Once that's all done, you can delete the POP account configuration in
Evo.

Hope I haven't forgotten anything obvious (or obscure). Feel free to
ask if you have any doubts.

poc