I’m evaluating whether to move my mail server from an old Dovecot setup to Mailcow. Is there an easy way to do this that I’m missing? I see the documentation recommending a [sync method](https://mailcow.github.io/mailcow-dockerized-docs/post_installation/firststeps-sync_jobs_migration/), assuming the previous IMAP server is up and running and I have all the account passwords. - I’m quite familiar with Linux and Ubuntu — I’ve been running this mail server since 2002 or so — but all this Docker stuff is still rather new to me. - This migration will be happening locally. It seems complicated to try to keep the old Dovecot running while setting up Mailcow. Wouldn’t Mailcow expect most of its ports to be available when I do start it up for the first time? - I don’t have the passwords for all these accounts. (I mean, technically, they live salted in a password database somewhere I assume, but I don’t know how to get access to that or decrypt them on my system.) - It’d probably be faster if I could just get Dovecot to convert the Maildir type to whatever Mailcow expects and move the files locally, no? I came across [this discussion](https://github.com/mailcow/mailcow-dockerized/issues/516) which seems a bit over my head, since it’s probably skipping steps about which docker instances things are meant to be run within or something.

Local migration from Dovecot / Maildir

julianm

I’m evaluating whether to move my mail server from an old Dovecot setup to Mailcow. Is there an easy way to do this that I’m missing?

I see the documentation recommending a sync method, assuming the previous IMAP server is up and running and I have all the account passwords.

I’m quite familiar with Linux and Ubuntu — I’ve been running this mail server since 2002 or so — but all this Docker stuff is still rather new to me.
This migration will be happening locally. It seems complicated to try to keep the old Dovecot running while setting up Mailcow. Wouldn’t Mailcow expect most of its ports to be available when I do start it up for the first time?
I don’t have the passwords for all these accounts. (I mean, technically, they live salted in a password database somewhere I assume, but I don’t know how to get access to that or decrypt them on my system.)
It’d probably be faster if I could just get Dovecot to convert the Maildir type to whatever Mailcow expects and move the files locally, no?

I came across this discussion which seems a bit over my head, since it’s probably skipping steps about which docker instances things are meant to be run within or something.

julianm

To follow up for anyone who comes across it — it was relatively easy to copy over my Maildir-formatted folders. I just copied them into the appropriate location for Mailcow’s dovecot, made sure they were 5000:5000, and then for good measure did:
docker-compose exec dovecot-mailcow doveadm force-resync -u $username@$domain INBOX

After I was done, I did:
docker-compose exec dovecot-mailcow doveadm quota recalc -A

The encryption bit was a red herring, it functions fine with the old emails unencrypted.

In short, worked out fine for me.