# imapsync

11 Hacker News commenters recommended imapsync and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Free tool that copies mail between IMAP accounts, recommended for migrations and backups. One critic notes it is slower and lacks bidirectional sync.

## Why people recommend it

- Backs up mail in standard format (3 comments): "With an approach like this you can regularly sync and get your messages in a standard format." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46431213)) "there's something satisfying knowing all your mail is 1000s of little files on your own NAS" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47127636)) "use imapsync to pull emails, then backup the resulting folder" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49546953))
- Easy syncing for account migration (2 comments): "Imapsync is your best friend for this, as far as syncing the new account with the old one." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47297816)) "made the migration very easy" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49567546))
- Long-lived project still well regarded (2 comments): "This is the way projects used to be, and surprisingly excellent ones still are." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46875463)) "I remember using it fondly in the past." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46876870))

## What people warn about

- Slower than alternatives (1 comments): "imapsync is slower and doesn't support bidirectional sync" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46876961))
- No bidirectional sync (1 comments): "imapsync is slower and doesn't support bidirectional sync" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46876961))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [mbsync](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mbsync.md): 5 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "imapsync", https://hackerapproved.com/p/imapsync/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).