1 Topic by pbf343

  • pbf343
  • Member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2013-05-30
  • Posts: 247

Topic: email client vs ? lost email storage

==== Required information ====
- iRedMail version (check /etc/iredmail-release):
- Linux/BSD distribution name and version:
- Store mail accounts in which backend (LDAP/MySQL/PGSQL):
- Web server (Apache or Nginx):
- Manage mail accounts with iRedAdmin-Pro?
- [IMPORTANT] Related original log or error message is required if you're experiencing an issue.
====

IredAdmin-Pro on CentOS 6 with MySQL

Client using an Outlook 2010 software package.  Apparently had computer issues and computer got "rolled" back to base install.  She had configured the Outlook 2010 client to have multiple folders, etcetera when organizing email in box.  Roll back all is gone.  Looking at the mail file system, non of the folders she reports to be missing appear to be present under the Maildir cur directory.  I'm thinking that Outlook 2010 is NOT IMAP compliant and possibly created them on disk system which the person did not back up.  Is this the case?   Anyway to confirm.

Another question looking at file system. Some files named something to the effect of:
.nfs00000000030202590030508a
are on the system.  What are these and/or should they be backed up or removed or what?


In the file system, what files should be backed up and/or NOT restored from an old point on an active system. Examples: 

tms
Subscriptions
.Drafts
dovecot.index
dovecot.cache
dovecot.index.log
dovecot-keywords
etcetera

----

Spider Email Archiver: On-Premises, lightweight email archiving software developed by iRedMail team. Supports Amazon S3 compatible storage and custom branding.

2 Reply by ZhangHuangbin

  • ZhangHuangbin
  • ZhangHuangbin
  • iRedMail Developers
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2009-05-06
  • Posts: 31,088

Re: email client vs ? lost email storage

Does this end user configure Outlook to access mailbox via POP3? With POP3, MUA usually downloads mail messages and remove them on server.

pbf343 wrote:

Another question looking at file system. Some files named something to the effect of:
.nfs00000000030202590030508a
are on the system.  What are these and/or should they be backed up or removed or what?

No idea what this file is used for. iRedMail doesn't have this.

pbf343 wrote:

In the file system, what files should be backed up and/or NOT restored from an old point on an active system. Examples: 
tms
Subscriptions
.Drafts
dovecot.index
dovecot.cache
dovecot.index.log
dovecot-keywords
etcetera

*) iRedMail uses Maildir format mailbox, the top-level folder is INBOX, it has 3 sub-folders: cur, tmp, new.
*) All other folders are hidden under top-level folder, for example, Draft folder is ".Draft" (there's a dot in folder name).
*) Files with 'dovecot.' in file name are generated by Dovecot used for index or other purposes, "Subscriptions" contains subscribed folders on MUAs. If you don't restore "dovecot.*", Dovecot will generate new IMAP/POP3 UIDs for old emails (treated as NEW messages), and MUAs will download them again.

3 Reply by pbf343

  • pbf343
  • Member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2013-05-30
  • Posts: 247

Re: email client vs ? lost email storage

ZhangHuangbin wrote:

Does this end user configure Outlook to access mailbox via POP3? With POP3, MUA usually downloads mail messages and remove them on server.

pbf343 wrote:

Another question looking at file system. Some files named something to the effect of:
.nfs00000000030202590030508a

OK thanks.  There appear to be three of them. Not sure if they're some artifact of Outlook 2010. 



are on the system.  What are these and/or should they be backed up or removed or what?

No idea what this file is used for. iRedMail doesn't have this.

pbf343 wrote:

In the file system, what files should be backed up and/or NOT restored from an old point on an active system. Examples: 
tms
Subscriptions
.Drafts
dovecot.index
dovecot.cache
dovecot.index.log
dovecot-keywords
etcetera

*) iRedMail uses Maildir format mailbox, the top-level folder is INBOX, it has 3 sub-folders: cur, tmp, new.
*) All other folders are hidden under top-level folder, for example, Draft folder is ".Draft" (there's a dot in folder name).
*) Files with 'dovecot.' in file name are generated by Dovecot used for index or other purposes, "Subscriptions" contains subscribed folders on MUAs. If you don't restore "dovecot.*", Dovecot will generate new IMAP/POP3 UIDs for old emails (treated as NEW messages), and MUAs will download them again.

So the user had some folders on your local computer e-mail client Outlook 2010.  They do not appear on the server file storage that I can tell.  Are those folders, and containing emails, stored locally on the users disk in the PST folder?  Can they be recovered?   Any change that the email in those folders is just "tagged" as being part of the folder and possible on the actual Inbox cur folder?

4 Reply by ZhangHuangbin

  • ZhangHuangbin
  • ZhangHuangbin
  • iRedMail Developers
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2009-05-06
  • Posts: 31,088

Re: email client vs ? lost email storage

pbf343 wrote:

Are those folders, and containing emails, stored locally on the users disk in the PST folder?

Could be, you need to verify it.

pbf343 wrote:

Can they be recovered?

Do a google search. smile

pbf343 wrote:

Any change that the email in those folders is just "tagged" as being part of the folder and possible on the actual Inbox cur folder?

You can try to access the mailbox on file system to check.