layout	default
title	Multi-Account Backup Guide - IMAP Backup Tool
description	Complete guide to backing up multiple email accounts with YAML configuration files. Automate backups for Gmail, Office 365, ProtonMail and more.
keywords	multi-account backup, yaml configuration, email backup automation, multiple accounts, batch backup

Multi-Account Backup Configuration

Backup multiple email accounts with a single command using YAML configuration files.

Auto-detection: Simply create a config.yaml file and run python3 imapbackup.py without any arguments. The script automatically detects and uses config.yaml or config.yml if present in the current directory.

Quick Start

1. Install PyYAML

pip install pyyaml

2. Create Configuration File

Copy the example configuration:

cp config.example.yaml config.yaml

3. Edit Your Configuration

global:
  basedir: ./backups
  ssl: true
  s3:
    enabled: true
    endpoint: https://s3.hetzner.cloud
    bucket: email-backups
    access_key: YOUR_KEY
    secret_key: YOUR_SECRET
    prefix: backups

accounts:
  - name: personal-gmail
    server: imap.gmail.com
    user: myemail@gmail.com
    pass: my_password

  - name: work-office365
    server: outlook.office365.com
    user: user@company.com
    pass: @/secrets/work_password

4. Run Backup

# Automatic detection (looks for config.yaml or config.yml)
python3 imapbackup.py

# Or explicitly specify config file
python3 imapbackup.py --config=config.yaml

# Docker (automatic detection)
docker run --rm -v $(pwd):/data user2k20/imapbackup

# Docker (explicit config)
docker run --rm -v $(pwd):/data user2k20/imapbackup --config=/data/config.yaml

Note: If you run the script without any arguments and a config.yaml or config.yml file exists in the current directory, it will automatically be used.

Configuration Structure

Global Settings

Global settings apply to all accounts unless overridden at the account level.

global:
  # Base directory for all backups (each account gets a subdirectory)
  basedir: ./backups

  # Use SSL for all connections
  ssl: true

  # Timeout in seconds
  timeout: 60

  # Disable spinner (useful for logs)
  nospinner: false

  # S3 configuration (optional)
  s3:
    enabled: true
    endpoint: https://s3.eu-central-1.hetzner.cloud
    bucket: email-backups
    access_key: YOUR_S3_ACCESS_KEY
    secret_key: YOUR_S3_SECRET_KEY
    prefix: backups  # Base prefix, account name will be appended

  # GPG encryption (optional)
  gpg:
    enabled: true
    recipient: backup@example.com
    import_key: https://example.com/keys/backup-public.asc

Account Settings

Each account can override global settings and has its own configuration.

accounts:
  - name: account-name        # Required: Unique account identifier
    server: imap.gmail.com    # Required: IMAP server hostname
    user: user@example.com    # Required: Email address
    pass: password            # Required: Password (see password options below)
    port: 993                 # Optional: Override default port
    ssl: true                 # Optional: Override global SSL setting
    timeout: 60               # Optional: Override global timeout
    folders: INBOX,Sent       # Optional: Only backup specific folders
    exclude_folders: Trash    # Optional: Exclude specific folders
    s3_prefix: custom/path    # Optional: Custom S3 prefix for this account
    gpg_recipient: other@example.com  # Optional: Account-specific GPG recipient

Password Options

Three ways to specify passwords securely:

1. Direct Password (Not Recommended for Production)

accounts:
  - name: test-account
    server: imap.example.com
    user: user@example.com
    pass: my_password

2. Password from File (Recommended)

Store password in a separate file with restricted permissions:

# Create password file
echo "my_secure_password" > ~/.mail_passwords/gmail
chmod 600 ~/.mail_passwords/gmail

accounts:
  - name: personal-gmail
    server: imap.gmail.com
    user: user@gmail.com
    pass: @/home/user/.mail_passwords/gmail

3. Password from Environment Variable

# Set environment variable
export GMAIL_PASSWORD="my_secure_password"

accounts:
  - name: personal-gmail
    server: imap.gmail.com
    user: user@gmail.com
    pass: env:GMAIL_PASSWORD

Directory Structure

Standard Structure

Each account gets its own subdirectory under the base directory:

basedir/
├── personal-gmail/
│   ├── INBOX.mbox
│   ├── Sent.mbox
│   └── Important.mbox
├── work-office365/
│   ├── INBOX.mbox
│   └── Sent.mbox
└── secure-proton/
    ├── INBOX.mbox
    └── Drafts.mbox

Date-Based Structure

Enable use_date_folders: true for automatic date organization:

basedir/
├── personal-gmail/
│   ├── 2025-10-10/
│   │   ├── INBOX.mbox
│   │   ├── Sent.mbox
│   │   └── Important.mbox
│   ├── 2025-10-11/
│   │   ├── INBOX.mbox
│   │   └── Sent.mbox
│   └── 2025-10-12/
│       └── INBOX.mbox
└── work-office365/
    └── 2025-10-10/
        ├── INBOX.mbox
        └── Sent.mbox

Benefits of date-based folders:

Easy to track backup history
Perfect for daily scheduled backups
Simple cleanup of old backups
Clear audit trail

Configure globally:

global:
  use_date_folders: true
  date_format: '%Y-%m-%d'  # Default: YYYY-MM-DD

Or per-account:

accounts:
  - name: archive-account
    server: imap.example.com
    user: user@example.com
    pass: password
    use_date_folders: true  # Only this account uses dates
    date_format: '%Y-%m-%d'  # Custom format for this account

Date Format Options

Customize the date format using Python strftime patterns:

Format	Example	Use Case
`%Y-%m-%d`	2025-10-10	Daily backups (default)
`%Y/%m/%d`	2025/10/10	Hierarchical daily
`%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M`	2025-10-10_14-30	Hourly backups
`%Y/%m`	2025/10	Monthly archives
`%Y-week-%U`	2025-week-41	Weekly backups
`%Y/%B/%d`	2025/October/10	Human-readable dates
`%Y-%m`	2025-10	Monthly snapshots
`%Y-Q%q`	2025-Q4	Quarterly backups

Example configurations:

# Daily backups
- name: daily-account
  server: imap.example.com
  user: daily@example.com
  pass: password
  use_date_folders: true
  date_format: '%Y-%m-%d'

# Monthly archives
- name: monthly-account
  server: imap.example.com
  user: monthly@example.com
  pass: password
  use_date_folders: true
  date_format: '%Y/%m'

# Hourly backups
- name: critical-account
  server: imap.example.com
  user: critical@example.com
  pass: password
  use_date_folders: true
  date_format: '%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M'

S3 Prefix Structure

Standard S3 Prefix

S3 prefixes are automatically generated using the account name:

{global_prefix}/{account_name}/filename.mbox.gpg

Examples:
backups/personal-gmail/INBOX.mbox.gpg
backups/work-office365/Sent.mbox.gpg
backups/secure-proton/INBOX.mbox.gpg

Date-Based S3 Prefix

When use_date_folders: true is enabled:

{global_prefix}/{account_name}/{YYYY-MM-DD}/filename.mbox.gpg

Examples:
backups/personal-gmail/2025-10-10/INBOX.mbox.gpg
backups/personal-gmail/2025-10-11/INBOX.mbox.gpg
backups/work-office365/2025-10-10/Sent.mbox.gpg

S3 Lifecycle Benefits:

Easy to set retention policies by date
Automatic expiration of old backups
Cost optimization with lifecycle rules
Perfect for compliance requirements

Custom S3 Prefix

Override the default prefix for specific accounts:

accounts:
  - name: personal-gmail
    server: imap.gmail.com
    user: user@gmail.com
    pass: my_password
    s3_prefix: gmail-archive  # Custom prefix instead of "backups/personal-gmail"

Account-Specific Overrides

Override S3 Settings

Use different S3 storage for specific accounts:

global:
  s3:
    enabled: true
    endpoint: https://s3.hetzner.cloud
    bucket: general-backups
    access_key: GENERAL_KEY
    secret_key: GENERAL_SECRET

accounts:
  - name: important-account
    server: imap.example.com
    user: user@example.com
    pass: password
    s3:
      bucket: secure-vault  # Override bucket
      prefix: critical      # Override prefix

Disable S3 for Specific Account

accounts:
  - name: local-only-account
    server: imap.example.com
    user: user@example.com
    pass: password
    s3_enabled: false  # Disable S3 for this account only

Override GPG Settings

Use different GPG keys for specific accounts:

global:
  gpg:
    enabled: true
    recipient: backup@example.com
    import_key: https://example.com/keys/public.asc

accounts:
  - name: secure-account
    server: imap.example.com
    user: user@example.com
    pass: password
    gpg:
      recipient: secure-backup@example.com
      import_key: /path/to/secure-public.asc

Folder Filtering

Backup Only Specific Folders

accounts:
  - name: personal-gmail
    server: imap.gmail.com
    user: user@gmail.com
    pass: password
    folders: INBOX,Sent,Important,Work

Exclude Specific Folders

accounts:
  - name: work-account
    server: outlook.office365.com
    user: user@company.com
    pass: password
    exclude_folders: Junk Email,Deleted Items,Archive

Note: You cannot use both folders and exclude_folders for the same account.

Complete Example

# Complete multi-account backup configuration
global:
  basedir: /backups
  ssl: true
  timeout: 120
  nospinner: false

  s3:
    enabled: true
    endpoint: https://s3.eu-central-1.hetzner.cloud
    bucket: email-backups
    access_key: HETZNER_KEY
    secret_key: HETZNER_SECRET
    prefix: backups

  gpg:
    enabled: true
    recipient: backup@example.com
    import_key: env:GPG_PUBLIC_KEY

accounts:
  # Personal Gmail account
  - name: personal-gmail
    server: imap.gmail.com
    port: 993
    user: myemail@gmail.com
    pass: env:GMAIL_PASSWORD
    folders: INBOX,Sent,Important,Projects

  # Work Office 365 account
  - name: work-office365
    server: outlook.office365.com
    user: user@company.com
    pass: @/root/.work_password
    exclude_folders: Junk Email,Deleted Items,Archive

  # ProtonMail account (via Bridge)
  - name: secure-proton
    server: 127.0.0.1
    port: 1143
    user: secure@proton.me
    pass: env:PROTON_PASSWORD
    ssl: false  # ProtonMail Bridge uses local connection
    s3:
      bucket: protonmail-secure
      prefix: encrypted
    gpg:
      recipient: secure-backup@example.com
      import_key: /etc/gpg-keys/secure-public.asc

  # Self-hosted mail server
  - name: personal-selfhosted
    server: mail.example.com
    user: admin@example.com
    pass: @/root/.mail_password
    folders: INBOX,Sent,Drafts
    s3_prefix: selfhosted/admin

Running Backups

Basic Backup

# Automatic config detection
python3 imapbackup.py

# Or explicitly specify config file
python3 imapbackup.py --config=config.yaml

# Custom config file location
python3 imapbackup.py --config=/path/to/my-config.yaml

Listing Available Backups

You can list all available backups (both local and S3) for your accounts:

# List all backups for all accounts
python3 imapbackup.py --config=config.yaml --list

# List backups for specific account(s)
python3 imapbackup.py --config=config.yaml --list --account=personal-gmail

# List backups for multiple accounts
python3 imapbackup.py --config=config.yaml --list --account=personal-gmail,work-office365

Output example:

Available backups
======================================================================

Account: personal-gmail
----------------------------------------------------------------------
  Local backups:
    Date: 2025-10-10 (15 mbox files)
    Date: 2025-10-09 (15 mbox files)
    Date: 2025-10-08 (14 mbox files)
  S3 backups:
    Date: 2025-10-10 (15 mbox files) in s3://email-backups/backups/personal-gmail/2025-10-10/
    Date: 2025-10-09 (15 mbox files) in s3://email-backups/backups/personal-gmail/2025-10-09/

Account: work-office365
----------------------------------------------------------------------
  Local backups: None found
  S3 backups:
    Date: 2025-10-10 (8 mbox files) in s3://email-backups/backups/work-office365/2025-10-10/

The --list command shows:

Local backups: Scans the local filesystem for backup directories
S3 backups: Queries S3 storage for backed-up files (if S3 is enabled)
Date folders: Shows available dates for date-based backups
File counts: Number of mbox files in each backup

Selective Account Operations

When you have multiple accounts configured but only want to work with specific ones, use the --account flag:

Backup Specific Accounts

# Backup only personal-gmail
python3 imapbackup.py --config=config.yaml --account=personal-gmail

# Backup multiple specific accounts
python3 imapbackup.py --config=config.yaml --account=personal-gmail,work-office365

Restore Specific Accounts

# Restore only one account
python3 imapbackup.py --config=config.yaml --restore --account=personal-gmail

# Restore multiple accounts
python3 imapbackup.py --config=config.yaml --restore --account=personal-gmail,work-office365

Selective Date Restore

When using date-based backup folders, you can restore from a specific date using the --date flag:

Restore from a Specific Date

# Restore personal-gmail from October 9th backup
python3 imapbackup.py --config=config.yaml --restore --account=personal-gmail --date=2025-10-09

# Restore all accounts from October 8th backup
python3 imapbackup.py --config=config.yaml --restore --date=2025-10-08

# Restore specific accounts from specific date
python3 imapbackup.py --config=config.yaml --restore --account=personal-gmail,work-office365 --date=2025-10-09

How it works:

The --date flag overrides the current date for folder path resolution
Local path becomes: ./backups/account_name/2025-10-09/
S3 prefix becomes: backups/account_name/2025-10-09/
The script will download from S3 (if configured) and restore from that specific date

Use cases:

Disaster recovery: Restore from a backup before corruption occurred
Point-in-time restore: Recover emails as they were on a specific date
Testing: Restore to a test environment from a historical backup
Compliance: Restore from archived monthly/weekly backups

Common Scenarios

Scenario 1: User has 10 accounts but wants to restore only one

# Step 1: List available backups for the specific account
python3 imapbackup.py --config=config.yaml --list --account=archive-gmail

# Output shows:
#   Date: 2025-10-10 (15 mbox files)
#   Date: 2025-10-09 (15 mbox files)
#   Date: 2025-10-08 (14 mbox files)

# Step 2: Restore from yesterday's backup
python3 imapbackup.py --config=config.yaml --restore --account=archive-gmail --date=2025-10-09

Scenario 2: Selective backup of critical accounts

# Daily: Backup only critical accounts
python3 imapbackup.py --config=config.yaml --account=critical-account,work-office365

# Weekly: Backup all accounts (no --account flag)
python3 imapbackup.py --config=config.yaml

Scenario 3: Disaster recovery from last week

# Step 1: Check what backups are available
python3 imapbackup.py --config=config.yaml --list

# Step 2: Restore all accounts from last Friday
python3 imapbackup.py --config=config.yaml --restore --date=2025-10-05

Scenario 4: Monthly archive restore

# Config uses monthly date format: date_format: '%Y/%m'
# This creates backups like: ./backups/monthly-archive/2025/09/

# Restore September's backup
python3 imapbackup.py --config=config.yaml --restore --account=monthly-archive --date=2025/09

Restore Mode

Restore all accounts defined in your config file to their respective IMAP servers:

# Restore with auto-detected config
python3 imapbackup.py --restore

# Or explicitly specify config file
python3 imapbackup.py --config=config.yaml --restore

How restore works:

Reads the config file to get all account settings
For each account:
- Connects to the IMAP server
- Downloads from S3 if enabled (and decrypts if GPG is enabled)
- Compares local mbox files with server folders
- Uploads only messages that don't already exist on the server
Skips duplicate messages automatically

Use cases:

Email server migration: Backup from old server, restore to new server
Disaster recovery: Restore from S3 backups to a new mail server
Account migration: Move emails between different email providers
Testing: Restore backups to a test IMAP server

Docker

# Automatic config detection (mounts current directory as /data)
docker run --rm \
  -v $(pwd):/data \
  -e GPG_PUBLIC_KEY="$(cat ~/keys/public.asc)" \
  user2k20/imapbackup

# Explicit config file
docker run --rm \
  -v $(pwd)/backups:/backups \
  -v $(pwd)/config.yaml:/config.yaml \
  -e GPG_PUBLIC_KEY="$(cat ~/keys/public.asc)" \
  user2k20/imapbackup \
  --config=/config.yaml

Docker Compose

version: '3'
services:
  email-backup:
    image: user2k20/imapbackup:latest
    volumes:
      - ./backups:/backups
      - ./config.yaml:/config.yaml
    environment:
      - GPG_PUBLIC_KEY=${GPG_PUBLIC_KEY}
    command: --config=/config.yaml

Kubernetes CronJob

apiVersion: batch/v1
kind: CronJob
metadata:
  name: email-backup
spec:
  schedule: "0 2 * * *"  # Daily at 2 AM
  jobTemplate:
    spec:
      template:
        spec:
          containers:
          - name: backup
            image: user2k20/imapbackup:latest
            args:
              - --config=/config/config.yaml
            volumeMounts:
              - name: config
                mountPath: /config
                readOnly: true
              - name: backups
                mountPath: /backups
            env:
              - name: GPG_PUBLIC_KEY
                valueFrom:
                  secretKeyRef:
                    name: gpg-keys
                    key: public-key
              - name: GMAIL_PASSWORD
                valueFrom:
                  secretKeyRef:
                    name: email-passwords
                    key: gmail
          volumes:
            - name: config
              configMap:
                name: backup-config
            - name: backups
              persistentVolumeClaim:
                claimName: backup-storage
          restartPolicy: OnFailure

Automated Backups with Cron

Daily Backup at 2 AM

# Edit crontab
crontab -e

# Add entry
0 2 * * * cd /path/to/imapbackup && python3 imapbackup.py --config=config.yaml >> /var/log/email-backup.log 2>&1

Weekly Backup (Sundays at 3 AM)

0 3 * * 0 cd /path/to/imapbackup && python3 imapbackup.py --config=config.yaml >> /var/log/email-backup.log 2>&1

Troubleshooting

PyYAML Not Found

# Install PyYAML
pip install pyyaml

# Or use Docker (includes PyYAML)
docker run user2k20/imapbackup --config=/data/config.yaml

Password File Not Found

# Check file path
ls -la /path/to/password/file

# Verify path in config matches actual file location
# Use absolute paths or relative to script location

Environment Variable Not Set

# Verify environment variable
echo $GMAIL_PASSWORD

# Export before running
export GMAIL_PASSWORD="my_password"
python3 imapbackup.py --config=config.yaml

Account Subdirectory Not Created

Check that basedir in global settings exists and is writable:

# Create base directory
mkdir -p /path/to/backups
chmod 755 /path/to/backups

# Subdirectories are created automatically

Security Best Practices

1. Protect Configuration File

# Set restrictive permissions
chmod 600 config.yaml

2. Use Password Files

# Store passwords separately
mkdir -p ~/.mail_passwords
chmod 700 ~/.mail_passwords

# Create password files
echo "password1" > ~/.mail_passwords/gmail
echo "password2" > ~/.mail_passwords/work
chmod 600 ~/.mail_passwords/*

3. Use Environment Variables

# Set in secure environment
export GMAIL_PASSWORD="secret"
export WORK_PASSWORD="secret2"

# Run backup
python3 imapbackup.py --config=config.yaml

# Clear variables after
unset GMAIL_PASSWORD WORK_PASSWORD

4. Enable GPG Encryption

Always encrypt backups when uploading to S3:

global:
  gpg:
    enabled: true
    recipient: backup@example.com
    import_key: env:GPG_PUBLIC_KEY

Date Format Reference

For complete date format options, see Python strftime reference.

Common format codes:

%Y - 4-digit year (2025)
%m - Month as number (01-12)
%d - Day of month (01-31)
%H - Hour 24-hour (00-23)
%M - Minute (00-59)
%B - Full month name (October)
%b - Abbreviated month (Oct)
%U - Week number (00-53)
%A - Full weekday name (Monday)

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