Restore on Other Machine: Sync Issues

Feature request
1

There are some gotchas in this process where EM Client may be able to assist in.

Firstly, it’s a question of personal preference of storage of messages in folders. Ideally, all saved messages should be stored in local folders, failing that, the Archive folder option looks attractive. So far, so good, and we also know it, and any other standard folders are synced with the mail servers as soon as EM Client starts, and the messages on the server are removed if there be none on the current restore machine.
The only way to prevent this happening on a restore machine, is for EM Client to save a date token on last use of the program, so if it hasn’t been run for some (configurable) time, a popup on launch goes something like:

EM Client has not been run for some [specified] time. If there was a backup made from another source, it must be restored now, or else the mail servers will be syncing with older messages from the current database, and data will be lost.
Continue (Have a backup to restore from)
Continue (No backup to restore from)

This is useful in situations where the EM Client D/B is stored on local machines. Ideally, we’d all want to run the D/B through the cloud, by the looks of it, the way forward is not completely clear yet.
Edit: Also, a “replacing existing” option for Restore to avoid multitudes of duplicates populating the D/B. :smiley:
Thanks.

2

No, that is incorrect. For IMAP and Exchange the server is the primary storage, so whatever is restored in eM Client will be replaced by what is on the server during the first sync, not the other way around.

We do not support that. The database should be stored locally, and the accounts synced with a server.

3

Right, what was done was to wipe everything on the restore machine, and then restore, in order to avoid the duplication. (Manually removing duplicated messages back then was a lengthy process.)
Unfortunately, because the email servers are so fast, if this is performed when the internet connection is active (these days all the time so we forget about it), the server will then pick up the zero messages before the Restore occurs. So all messages gone on a speedy second sync.
IMOP, all this turning off internet and manually storing/moving messages should be automated by the client.
Sorry to hear the news on the cloud. :smiling_face_with_tear: