When moving to my new mail server I wanted to keep all existing messages. I had IMAP access to the old mailbox so I made this small program to export all messages into a set of raw .eml files.

Features

• supports SSL connection
• exports any IMAP folder, not just INBOX
• supports custom file name pattern that may include message sender, charset, date, flags, recipient and others
  • to see full list of variables connect to the server, click on the green plus button and select Set output file name pattern
  • if file with the same name existed new file will be suffixed with (2), (3), etc. similar to the way Explorer acts when renaming multiple files
• can skip messages prior to a certain date – useful when creating regular backups
  • if Save settings on exit is checked this date can be automatically set to now after completing each export
• can show/export individual message(s) by their number
  • to do this connect to the server, click on the green plus button and select Show message by its index
• can remember connection and other settings on exit
  • if you wish to save all but Password fields check Save settings on exit, close the program, open ImapExport.ini, and clear the part after = symbol of Password=... line and then open ImapExport again – from now on Password will be remembered blank
  • last connected IMAP folder is remembered but if you wish to always select INBOX (or another folder that’s first in your mailbox) do the same as above but for DefaultFolder=... line
• press Esc to close the program

Download

ImapExport (with sources), version from 8^th March 2012. Tested on Windows XP, compatibility with modern Windows is unknown.

If you have problems or suggestions feel free to drop a comment below.

Updated 8.03.2013:

• added patterns for exported file names as per request by Alain B.;
• added ability to skip messages prior to certain date as per same request;
• added Save settings on exit checkbox;
• fixed various minor issues (masked Password field, etc.).

Source code

ImapExport is written in Delphi 7 using Indy 10 (aka Internet Direct) components. Note: Indy 9 that comes with Delphi 7 has some bugs in IMAP support so it’s not recommended to use it; Indy 10 sources are available from the official website and are easily integrated into Delphi.

phpBB import script

Shortly after the creation of this program I used it to import a lengthy discussion into a phpBB forum. First I have made a separate folder on my GMail account holding the entire conversation, then exported it into a hundred of .eml files and then ran a Ruby script that I’d written to convert them into a SQL dump (.sql file) that I have then imported into the forum’s database.

The Ruby script is available here: eml2phpBB.rb. You will need a Ruby interpreter to run it.

This script has several options-variables that are located in its beginning:

• emlMask – path plus file mask to read .eml files from
• phpBbSqlFile – name of the produced .sql file
• $sqlTopicID – ID of the forum thread to put the new messages into
• $sqlForumID – ID of the forum where the above thread is located
• $sqlPosterIDs – connect message author with their forum profile ID; these will require modification of the script’s code