How can I host an IMAP connected to thirdparty POP? (programming.dev)

submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by onlinepersona@programming.dev to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world

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Basically, I'd like to have my own domain e.g onlinepersona@mydomain.com but not go through the hassle of hosting my own email service: I'd like to use another service that handled SPF, DMARC, and whatever else for me, grab the emails from their service using POP, and make it available to my email client on android and Linux using IMAP. SMTP will be through the third party.

This way, if the third party starts doing some bullshit like trying to lock me in, donating to a dickhead, or whatever else I disagree with, I can cancel my subscription, move to another third party, and keep all mails on my server.

How can I achieve this? Which search terms should I be using? "Self host email server" brings up stuff that's the equivalent of self-hosting gmail, AOL, posteo, kollabnow, or whatever, but that's not what I want. "Selfhost POP relay" doesn't have much better results, always bringing up SMTP relay...

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[-] IsoKiero@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 years ago

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.

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.

this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2025

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