Most of us probably don’t sit around thinking about IMAP email backups all that much. Messages come in, messages go out, and it all just sort of works in the background, right? But then you realize how much of your actual life is tied up in that inbox, even if it’s a bit of a mess sometimes.

It’s not just the obvious work stuff. There are conversations that go back years with friends and family. Maybe it’s where you get updates about a hobby project, or where you even save important receipts and documents. Your inbox ends up being this little archive of things that matter to you, big and small.

The Thing About IMAP that you should know.

IMAP is a protocol that handles email communication. It’s about convenience and efficiency of accessing emails that are often stored on email servers. This means checking the same inbox from your phone, computer, and wherever else you read email. But there’s also this potential downside that’s easy to miss: with IMAP, that main copy of everything, the whole history of your email life, is living on a server owned by your email provider, not actually on your device.That’s the reason IMAP email backup should be your top priority.

Email providersprobably invest a ton in being reliable.It’s rare for data loss to happen permanently from the email providers’ side. Although, there’s data theft and leakage (but that’s for another time).

But incidents that could lead up to situation where you can’t access your emails…they can happen at any time. Things beyond your control can go sideways –account issues with password or authentication, or in really rare cases, maybe a provider changes their policies in a way you didn’t expect. These events do impact accessibility of your information, and in many cases, could lead to loss of emails and information.

Backups as a Way to Take Back Control

If you really think about how random events happen and realize that they are not uncommon as you might have thought, you will immediately realize the value of backing up IMAP emails.

Luckily, backups are not complicated: it’s making a separate, independent copy of your entire email database, including your folders, contacts, everything, and storing it somewhere safe. If (or when) the unexpected strikes your main account, you will want to have safe and complete backups of your emails.

These backups or archives of IMAP emails can also help with:

The DIY Email Archive: Ever find yourself searching for that one old conversation? A backup lets you do that offline, and way more easily.
Keep the Important Stuff: Sometimes old emails matter for legal reasons, or just to cover your bases. Having them backed up gives you that peace of mind.
Switching Without the Headache: Decided you want a new email provider? Backups make migrating a breeze, your whole history can come along.
Data, But Make It Personal: For more advanced purposes, witha complete IMAP email backup, you could start digging into your own data for insights – how you communicate, project timelines.

The Smart Way to Keep IMAP Email Backups!

Now, could you go in and export email by email? Technically, yes. But that is not a practical approach. May be it was 10 years ago when emails contained text and the total number of emails was not too big. Today, exporting emails manually is not feasible.

You need tools built specifically for IMAP backups. They’re designed to make this as easy as it should be:

The Whole Structure Matters: Often it is easy to forget, but your email database is not the emails, but also how you organize those emails. A professional backup solution will preserve that.
Automate: Set it once, and then your backup just happens regularly without you needing to do anything.
Security: while emails on IMAP server are secure enough, having your own IMAP email backups on your device is a lot more secure. A good software tool can also let you encrypt those files and offer flexible storage choices to keep those files.

Many do realize the importance of efficient and resilient backups, but very few actually take the first step into setting up the system for that. The task gets overlooked, and yet it’s a genuinely smart thing to do. It’s one of those small steps that can prevent major hassles later. Not everyone needs to become an expert on all this, but if you use email for anything important, taking that little bit of extra control not only feels good but saves you from a major crisis in the future.

“Mail Backup X” from InventPure is a good choice for software that supports IMAP emails backup effectively. It has all those essential features that one needs to keep the process simple and yet flexible enough to meet the demands of more nuanced data needs.

Here are simple steps to show how it works for backing up emails from IMAP email account:

Step 1: Setting Up Your Backup Plan

Creating a Backup Profile: Create a profile to back up IMAP emails, which will be like a blueprint for saving your emails. Here’s how to create one:
- In your dashboard, look for the “Tasks” panel and click on “Set up a new backup profile”.Or, you can also do this: go straight to the “My Backup Profiles” section on the left side of the dashboard, and click “Set up a new backup profile”.

Login with you ID and password:
- Click on “Email Server” and then “IMAP Server” from the next screen. This is where you’ll provide the login details to access your emails.Enter your email address and password.
- For less common providers, it’s possible that you won’t be able to login because the server employs distinct settings that are not common. In that case, you’ll need additional info (server name, port, etc.): check your email provider’s help section if you don’t know these details.

After defining what you want to back up from IMAP email account (folders selection), you are ready to tweak the main settings of your profile. This is where you define the profile so that it runs according to your preferences. It contains settings like Profile Name, Storage, and more. Some of these are simple and self-explanatory (such as Profile Name). Others may require some thought.

Storage Location: define where to store the backup files. Either your hard drive, an external drive, or even cloud storage.
Security: You can choose to encrypt the files.
Backup mode: this is where you can set the triggers to activate the profile. It can be either when new emails are detected (automatic), or after specific time (recurring) or even manual.

After you click “Save,” you will see the tool backing up IMAP emails. The progress bar will be shown on the main screen and also under the “Activities” box. After that, the profile should appear in the “My Backup Profiles” area. Here you can check its status, start a manual backup, or adjust your settings anytime you wish. Don’t hesitate to take advantage of the free trial offered by Mail Backup X before you fully commit. It’s an effective way to ensure the software is right for you when it comes to IMAP email backups.