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How can I host an IMAP connected to thirdparty POP?
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this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2025
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I would like to be able to change providers and have the emails available on multiple devices.
IMAP allows multiple devices but leaves the emails on the server. POP pulls them from the server but that means they aren't available to other devices anymore.
The solution (I think) is to pull using POP onto a shared server, then make the pulled emails available using IMAP.
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It wouldn't work the way you're imagining, at least not by default. You're thinking of using IMAP as an archive of sorts, but that's not how it organized data. The exchanged mails between the IMAP host and the MTA need a unique identifier to organize contents of the DB, and this would not be possible or automatic if your switched the upstream MTA.
Maybe you could run an interchange of sorts that pulls mail and acts as another interim MTA and pushes them to something to achieve what you're going for. I'd be shocked if you found anything that documents a solution like this because it's 100x easier to just organize multiple accounts and have local organized archives.
It sure is possible. I've copied maildirs over different software, different servers, local copies back to the server and so on. Also if you just rely on your own IMAP server the upstream doesn't matter as fetchmail (or whatever you choose to use) anyways communicates between hosts on their preferred protocols.
Obviously there's a tradeoff since now you're responsible for your backups and maintaining your server, but it can sit nicely on your private LAN with access only locally or via VPN without direct access to the internet. And you don't need MTA to run IMAP server in the first place.