dovecot - Nov 2021 - Recovering deleted messages?

Hi all,

I've run postfix and dovecot for years, but they have been so trouble-free
that I've never really learned in-depth how they work. :)

But now I have a user who accidentally used a POP client, and it deleted all his
email.  He told me this only days later, and it's now been days later still,
and so of course he has sent and received email since.  I have backups of
course, but it is a feasible thing to 'merge' the deleted emails from
the backup into his current mailboxes?

I couldn't find any FAQ for such a scenario, so thought I'd ask here...

Thanks,

Sean

On Thu, 4 Nov 2021 19:01:03 -0400
"Sean McBride" <sean at rogue-research.com> wrote:
> I have a user who accidentally used a POP client
which one?

d

-- 
Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by 
smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who 
really believe it.

Mark Twain

On Thu, 4 Nov 2021 19:01:03 -0400
"Sean McBride" <sean at rogue-research.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I've run postfix and dovecot for years, but they have been so
> trouble-free that I've never really learned in-depth how they work. :)
> 
> But now I have a user who accidentally used a POP client, and it
> deleted all his email.  He told me this only days later, and it's now
> been days later still, and so of course he has sent and received
> email since.  I have backups of course, but it is a feasible thing to
> 'merge' the deleted emails from the backup into his current
mailboxes?
> 
> I couldn't find any FAQ for such a scenario, so thought I'd ask
> here...
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Sean
> 
> 
If the user who did this accidentally still has the POP client
installed, and said mail client supports multiple accounts - including
IMAP accounts, the simplest way IMO would be to have him set up a second
account as an IMAP account, turn off 'sync' for the POP3 account, then
just drag the messages from the POP3 account inbox over to the IMAP
account INBOX (then delete the POP3 account).

 - Shaun


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On 05/11/2021 07.01, Sean McBride wrote:
> But now I have a user who accidentally used a POP client, and it deleted
all his email.  He told me this only days later, and it's now been days
later still, and so of course he has sent and received email since.  I have
backups of course, but it is a feasible thing to 'merge' the deleted
emails from the backup into his current mailboxes?
Personally, I'd restore them to another, temporary account set up for the
purpose. Then I'd either use

- dovecot sync,
- imapsync, or
- manual drag and drop from one account to the other in Thunderbird

to put the mails back in place, depending on volume of mail involved and
personal whim. The Thunderbird route would be easiest for a user to do
themselves once set up. However as mail is downloaded from the server to the
desktop and then back up to the server, it would take a while if there were lots
of messages to deal with.

P.