Email backup (and restore) – what is best practice?

[#1]

When I moved from POP3 to IMAP, I fully embraced the “keep everything on the mail server(s) – then it is always available from all of your devices” approach. I also thought that as the people providing the service were computer focused tec companies, their backup and restore systems were probably more robust than mine and I was unlikely to lose my emails.
Having read some posts “where have all my emails gone” where Plusnet do not seem to be able to restore them. And also comments, in other threads, that users should really make their own backup arrangements, I’m beginning to think that I may have been naive.

So, my question is … What is best practice for email backup and restore?

As background:

My preferred Windows email client is Outlook 365 (running on my PC / Laptop (not as a web interface)). This is so that I can use my Microsoft account for address book and calendar which I share with my other half.

I use 4 email servers:

Microsoft Hotmail account – mainly for address book and calendar, only occasional use for email

xxx@username.plus.com – these have been our main email addresses for many years.

xxx@domainname.uk – hosted on mythic beasts – starting to migrate to this as our main email to give independence from Plusnet if needed in the future.

xxx@gmail.com – I only really use this as I have to for the Android phone and interaction with some google maps stuff.

My devices are Desktop, Laptop, Android phone.

Other half’s devices are iPad, iPhone, desktop.

My desktop is backed up to a Windows Home Server most days (so I think that backs up the emails in Outlook but I’m not sure how I would restore them if they all disappeared from the server)

Thanks for any advice.

Ian

Moderator's note by Mike (Mav): Post released from Spam Filter.

[#2]

@IMM Having re-read this now it has been released, I feel I don't have the knowledge to answer it properly - sorry. However, I'll tag a couple of users who might be able to help.

@MisterW  , @Townman ?

[#3]

@jab1 Thanks for looking and calling the subject to the attention of others.

[#4]

There are a lot of differing approaches. Mine is maybe a bit niche, but it works for me.

I run my own mail server - I have a dozen or so domains and a few dozen mail users. All users use IMAP, so the server is the authoritative source of e-mails, new and old. My outside email addresses (gmail etc.) are either redirected or are regularly fetched to bring them in-house so my server is the only place I need to check for e-mails.

The whole collection of mailboxes are routinely backed up to another machine (in a separate building - I don't trust wherever "the cloud" is).

We have e-mails going back ~20 years. Some of the mailboxes are quite large (>20GB) but deleted and spam e-mails are deleted after 30 days, which thins emails out quite a lot. The server receives a few thousand e-mails a day, but I suspect only a few hundred are kept.

[#5]

@corringham Thanks, so your approach is to "keep everything on the email server" and "Make sure that is securely backed up at frequent intervals"
That has been my approach but Plusnet operate the email server and, based on a few threads here, I'm no longer convinced that they have a robust backup system - certainly not one that can restore users' emails that have disappeared. (regardless of whether that is due to a Plusnet problem or user error.)

So I'm now thinking that I need to do something about backing up my emails myself - though not sure of the best approach given that I would still like to retain access from all devices. (If I just archived them using Outlook 365 on my desktop, they would not be accessible from my laptop or phone.)

Any suggestions?

Ian

[#6]

@IMM , yes I keep everything on the server - but it is MY server, not some 3rd party's, and it sits in my "server room" at home (actually it is really the boiler room). It is backed up to another computer in my garden office.

Running your own server does require a bit of effort to get it set up - but isn't difficult, and is simple to keep updated etc. You do need an externally visible IP address - i.e. a static IP from your ISP or a L2TP tunnel (I use AAISP's). 

An alternative is to move to an e-mail provider that can give a reliable and robust service - either free such as Outlook or GMail, or paid for (paying does give some level of expected service that may or may not be better than free services). 

[#7]

@corringham Do you have contingency plans for your users should you no longer be around ?

[#8]

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@Champnet wrote:

@corringham Do you have contingency plans for your users should you no longer be around ?

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That is a good question.

Currently, the printed instructions are to periodically press the "do the updates" button on the control panel (security updates are applied automatically, version updates have to be initiated manually).  Even without that, it would probably be OK for a year or so.

I spend around an hour about three times a year looking after it. It has UPS so is pretty resilient.

I do make sure all users do have a separate e-mail address (gmail or similar), and I guess they would migrate to that once I give up being sysadmin.

[#9]

Impressive......