offlineIMAP3

Upstream status (master branch):

Upstream status (next branch):

Links:

• Official github code repository
  • for Python 2: offlineimap
  • for Python 3: offlineimap3
• Website: website
• Wiki: wiki
• Blog: blog

OfflineIMAP

"Get the emails where you need them."

Description

OfflineIMAP is software that downloads your email mailbox(es) as local Maildirs. OfflineIMAP will synchronize both sides via IMAP.

Why should I use OfflineIMAP?

IMAP's main downside is that you have to trust your email provider to not lose your email. While certainly unlikely, it's not impossible. With OfflineIMAP, you can download your Mailboxes and make you own backups of your Maildir.

This allows reading your email offline without the need for your mail reader (MUA) to support IMAP operations. Need an attachment from a message without internet connection? No problem, the message is still there.

Project status and future

OfflineIMAP, using Python 3, is based on OfflineIMAP for Python 2. Currently we are updating the source code. These changes should not affect the user (documentation, configuration files,... are the same) but some links or packages could refer to the Python 2 version. In that case, please open an issue.

License

GNU General Public License v2.

Downloads

You should first check if your distribution already packages OfflineIMAP for you. Downloads releases as tarball or zipball.

If you are running Linux/BSD, you can install offlineimap with:

• Debian and Ubuntu apt install offlineimap3
• openSUSE zypper install offlineimap
• Fedora dnf install offlineimap
• FreeBSD pkg search offlineimap3, and install the python versioned package, pkg install py311-offlineimap3
• Arch Linux: pacman -S offlineimap, or through AUR package offlineimap3-git
• Docker image: offlineimap/offlineimap:latest (note: image not published yet, just an example)

Feedbacks and contributions

The user discussions, development, announcements and all the exciting stuff take place on the mailing list. While not mandatory to send emails, you can subscribe here.

Bugs, issues and contributions can be requested to both the mailing list or the official Github project. Provide the following information:

• system/distribution (with version)
• offlineimap version (offlineimap -V)
• Python version
• server name or domain
• CLI options
• Configuration file (offlineimaprc)
• pythonfile (if any)
• Logs, error
• Steps to reproduce the error

The community

• OfflineIMAP's main site is the project page at Github.
• There is the OfflineIMAP community's website.
• And finally, the wiki.

Requirements & dependencies

• Python v3+
• rfc6555 (required)
• imaplib2 >= 3.5
• keyring
• gssapi (optional), for Kerberos authentication
• portalocker (optional), if you need to run offlineimap in Cygwin for Windows

Documentation

All current and updated documentation is on the community's website.

Read documentation locally

You might want to read the documentation locally. Get the sources of the website. For the other documentation, run the appropriate make target:

$ ./scripts/get-repository.sh website
$ cd docs
$ make html  # Requires rst2html
$ make man   # Requires a2x (http://asciidoc.org)
$ make api   # Requires sphinx