How to migrate Kmail2 mail, accounts etc?

[ubersoft]

Hi all! I recently bought a new laptop and want to migrate my Kmail2 settings and email from the old laptop to the new one. I'm a bit confounded because when I set up Kmail2 on my old laptop it migrated all my email into a database, so I thought "I'll backup the akonadi database with the akonaditray app and import it into the new one."

Well the akonaditray backup was about 600k, which seems small, and when I tried importing it into the new setup there was an error... but the akonadi tray app didn't give me an error code or anything, it just told me to report it as a bug. Not entirely helpful.

Anyway, any of you folks have any experience with migrating mail in the new database-based email environment?

[Batty]

Re: How to migrate Kmail2 mail, accounts etc?

Have a look
Here


Section 3.1
Plenty of stuff to backup!

Dave

[ubersoft]

Re: How to migrate Kmail2 mail, accounts etc?

Thank you! Exactly what I needed.

[claydoh]

Re: How to migrate Kmail2 mail, accounts etc?

With migration of kmail1 to kmail2 having so many troubles and niggles and overall unpleasantness for many, I am working on documenting various issues and some possible help/fixes in the kubuntu wiki.

The akonadi tray was recently added to the seed just be make helping start/restart akonadi easier, as well as making finding and getting to the settings easier to find

Still, though testing is still needed in migration, backing up stuff is paramount, and we (the kubuntu team that is) may recommend the fresh configuration and importing of previous data over the migration.

[ubersoft]

Re: How to migrate Kmail2 mail, accounts etc?

Claydoh, I may be misunderstanding what you mean, but what I'm getting is that you're saying "Kmail 2 data can't really be migrated, you're better just importing your original Kmail 1 data and starting all over again."

That really won't work. I've used Kmail 2 since alpha 2, which means there's been a fair amount of new email (since July I think) that I want to keep. If Kmail2 has no reliable way to migrate/back up its data, it absolutely should not be included in an official release as the primary email client. It wasn't really an issue for Kmail 1 because all the email was stored in files in your home directory which could be backed up manually. Does it still do that? I thought it was all stored in an akonadi database somewhere, now...

[claydoh]

Re: How to migrate Kmail2 mail, accounts etc?

Oops I kinda misssed you were doing a kmal2-to kmail2 migration, that teaches me to zoom in on my screen a bit on my phone when reading a webpage look at th bottom of this for my tips.


What I am saying is that there are a number of issues in migrating from the kmail1 in natty to the new kmail2 in oneiric, can't say about those going from the natty version of kmail2 to the akonadi/kmail2 in oneiric.there have been updates and patches from updated software upstream, So they are different than what you are using atm.

_________________________________________________

What I am also saying is that kmail1 users wil likely see problems and I am working on documenting what are the common issues and what might help in over coming them.,as well as documenting how to backup and import your stuff into a fresh kmail2 setup as this may be the best method, and maybe the easiest and quickest easy as well.
_________________________________________________
If you have a nice desktop setup you have all tweakd to your liking, you can simply copy your entire home folder, that will take care of it all.
Now for kmail2, look to your

kmail2rc in ~/.kde/share/config
your ~/.kde/share/apps/kmail2 folder (maybe- nothing major in there, really)

your ~/.kde/share/apps/kmail folder (if it exists) may be needed as well - not sure yet on this

your ~/.config/akonadi folder - this contains some basic akonadi_resource infos that may need to matchup to the akonadi_resource entries in your kmail2rc file

your ~/.local/share/akonadi, which you already know is your akonadi server and db stuff, whic iirc does have some mail info in it.

Finally, your ~/.local/share/local-mail folder - this is where your local mail folders are.

but from baty's link , that is all covered anyway

[kubicle]

Re: How to migrate Kmail2 mail, accounts etc?

claydoh already explained most of it, I'll add a few notes:

I thought it was all stored in an akonadi database somewhere, now...

Akonadi is really a pim caching server that provides access to pim data for several (akonadi enabled) applications, the actual pim data (contacts, mail, events etc.) is stored the same as before (in mbox-files, maildirs, vcf-files, remote servers etc....depending on your configuration).

Finally, your ~/.local/share/local-mail folder - this is where your local mail folders are.

~/.local/share/local-mail is the default for locally stored mail (it's possible to define a different directory, though), but also check ~/.local/share/.local-mail.directory (maildir format stores subdirectories and their contents in such hidden directories)

Locally stored contacts should be in vcf files under ~/.local/share/contacts

I'd recommend backing-up (or moving to the new-machine) the whole ~/.local/share directory to catch all data (even though there are things stored there that are not pim related), but you can choose for yourself what you wish to back up.

I have no personal experience on moving akonadi/pim data to a different machine (so I can't say if there are any pitfalls on the way), my data is stored remotely so I just sync it on a new machine. But combining Batty's link (direct link to the Migration part http://userbase.kde.org/KMail/FAQs_H...Tips#Migration and claydoh's instructions should do the trick).

[ubersoft]

Re: How to migrate Kmail2 mail, accounts etc?

Using the link Batty provided, I was able to successfully import my actual mail. However, it didn't import all my settings, filters, etc. Which is a little strange, but I think that's because the directions on that page were mostly for Kmail 1, not Kmail 2. Anyway, it's better than nothing -- I can rebuild what I don't have.

Thanks again for your help!

[LinuxRocks]

Re: How to migrate Kmail2 mail, accounts etc?

What I have done in the past is apt-get install an imap server on your local machine and connect to it (Set up an imap server in kmail), then copy/move all your local mail to the imap server. That will store your mail data in .maildir in your /home. Then backup maildir directories. Re install or set up your new mail client or scp the data to another machines, and reconnect to the new set up to imap and copy/move e-mail back over. You can then simply apt-get remove your imap server so you don't have extra applications running or extra space used.

Imap server _should_ install and be workable with the defaults for your needs. Just connect to localhost. There are simple and easy documentation available on the web and Ubuntu forums on how to set it up if you need help.

I have been doing this since 2.x days due to the mishaps of trying to migrate kmail settings to other machines/installs in the past.

Its foolproof, safe, stable, and works 100% of the time without loosing anything but a little extra time.

Oh, and you can export your contact list to ldif format and import it back in after re-installing. I do this anyway from time to time as a safeguard for my contacts . You can do the same for calendar items too!

Hope this helps!

Joe