📧 Mail-Archiver - Email Archiving System

A comprehensive solution for archiving, searching, and exporting emails

✨ Key Features

📌 General

Automated archiving of incoming and outgoing emails
Support for multiple accounts
Storage of email content and attachments
Scheduled synchronization at configurable intervals
Mobile and desktop optimized, multilingual responsive UI
Dark mode

🔍 Advanced Search

Search across all archived emails
Filter by date range, sender, recipient, and more
Preview emails with attachment list

👥 Multi User

Create multiple user accounts
Assignment of different mail accounts to users

📊 Dashboard & Statistics

Account-specific statistics and overview
Storage usage monitoring
Top senders analysis

🧩 Supported Email Providers

IMAP: Traditional IMAP accounts with full synchronization capabilities
M365: Microsoft 365 mail accounts via Microsoft Graph API (setup guide)
IMPORT: Import-only accounts for migrating existing email archives without active synchronization

📤 Export Functions

Export entire mail accounts as mbox files or zipped EML archives
Export selected individual emails or email batches
Download attachments with original filenames preserved

📥 Import Functions

MBox Import
EML Import (ZIP files with folder structure support)

🔁 Restore Function

Restore a selection of emails or an entire mailbox to a destination mailbox

🗑️ Retention Policies

Configure automatic deletion of archived emails from the mailserver after a specified number of days
Set retention period per email account (e.g., delete emails after 30, 90, or 365 days)
Emails are only deleted from the server after they have been successfully archived
Helps manage storage space on the mailserver while maintaining a complete archive

🚨 Important note for retention policies

Requires IMAP Expunge support from the mail server to permanently delete emails

For Gmail accounts, Auto-Expunge must be disabled in Gmail settings under the "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" tab!

🖼️ Screenshots

Dashboard

Email Details

🚀 Quick Start

Prerequisites

Docker
Docker Compose
email account credentials

🛠️ Installation

Install the prerequisites on your system
Create a docker-compose.yml file

services:
  mailarchive-app:
    image: s1t5/mailarchiver:latest
    restart: always
    environment:
      # Database Connection
      - ConnectionStrings__DefaultConnection=Host=postgres;Database=MailArchiver;Username=mailuser;Password=masterkey;

      # Authentication Settings
      - Authentication__Enabled=true
      - Authentication__Username=admin
      - Authentication__Password=secure123!
      - Authentication__SessionTimeoutMinutes=60
      - Authentication__CookieName=MailArchiverAuth

      # MailSync Settings
      - MailSync__IntervalMinutes=15
      - MailSync__TimeoutMinutes=60
      - MailSync__ConnectionTimeoutSeconds=180
      - MailSync__CommandTimeoutSeconds=300
      - MailSync__AlwaysForceFullSync=false
      - MailSync__IgnoreSelfSignedCert=false

      # BatchRestore Settings
      - BatchRestore__AsyncThreshold=50
      - BatchRestore__MaxSyncEmails=150
      - BatchRestore__MaxAsyncEmails=50000
      - BatchRestore__SessionTimeoutMinutes=30
      - BatchRestore__DefaultBatchSize=50

      # BatchOperation Settings
      - BatchOperation__BatchSize=50
      - BatchOperation__PauseBetweenEmailsMs=50
      - BatchOperation__PauseBetweenBatchesMs=250

      # Selection Settings
      - Selection__MaxSelectableEmails=250

      # Npgsql Settings
      - Npgsql__CommandTimeout=900

      # Upload Settings for MBox files
      - Upload__MaxFileSizeGB=10
      - Upload__KeepAliveTimeoutHours=4
      - Upload__RequestHeadersTimeoutHours=2
    ports:
      - "5000:5000"
    networks:
      - postgres
    volumes:
      - ./data-protection-keys:/app/DataProtection-Keys
    depends_on:
      postgres:
        condition: service_healthy


  postgres:
    image: postgres:17-alpine
    restart: always
    environment:
      POSTGRES_DB: MailArchiver
      POSTGRES_USER: mailuser
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: masterkey
    volumes:
      - ./postgres-data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    networks:
      - postgres
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -U mailuser -d MailArchiver"]
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 5
      start_period: 10s

networks:
  postgres:

Edit the database configuration in the docker-compose.yml and set a secure password in the POSTGRES_PASSWORD variable and the ConnectionString.
If you want to use authentication (which i'd strongly recommend) definie a Authentication__Username and Authentication__Password which is used for the admin user.
Configure a reverse proxy of your choice with https and authentification to secure access to the application.

⚠️ Attention

The application itself does not provide encrypted access via https! It must be set up via a reverse proxy! Moreover the application is not build for public internet access!

Initial start of the containers:

docker compose up -d

Restart containers:

docker compose restart

Access the application
Login with your defined credentials and add your first email account:

Navigate to "Email Accounts" section
Click "New Account"
Enter your server details and credentials
Save and start archiving!
If you want, create other users and assign accounts.

🔐 Security Note

Use strong passwords and change default credentials
Consider implementing HTTPS with a reverse proxy in production
Regular backups of the PostgreSQL database recommended

📝 How To - Mailbox migration

It is also possible to migrate a mailbox to another target mailbox, for example when changing mail provider. The following steps are planned for this

add the source account under the accounts
synchronisation of the source account
adding the target account
synchronisation of the possibly still empty target account
select ‘Copy All Emails to Another Mailbox’ in the details under the accounts for the source account
select the target account and the target folder in this account and start the migration. If there is a large amount of emails to be moved, this is carried out as a background task. The status and progress of this can be viewed in the Jobs tab.
after the successful transfer, set the source account to ‘Disabled’ under the accounts so that it is no longer archived in future.

📋 Technical Details

Architecture

ASP.NET Core 8 MVC application
PostgreSQL database for email storage
MailKit library for IMAP communication
Background service for email synchronization
Bootstrap 5 and Chart.js for frontend

🤝 Contributing

Contributions welcome! Please open an Issue or Pull Request.

💖 Support the Project

If you find this project useful and would like to support its continued development, you can buy me a coffee! Your support helps me dedicate more time and resources to improving the application and adding new features. While financial support is not required, it is greatly appreciated and helps ensure the project's ongoing maintenance and enhancement.

📄 License: GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE Version 3 (see LICENSE file)

s1t5/mail-archiver