Single click mailbox export

[mpfau]

As a user i want to be able to export all the emails in my mailbox at once so that i don't have to go through each folder and select the emails.

Acceptance criteria

• Action to start export of complete mailbox is available from the desktop client
• The user must choose a directory of the file system to store the exported data in.
• Export contains mails and attachments
• Folder structure is preserved
• Exported emails are stored in plain text (eml) format on the user's device
• Export is rate limited (maybe once a week)
• Export use regular entity request to download and decrypt emails.
• Amount of REST request should be reduced by making use of range request for LET and , loadMultiple for ET
• State of the export is tracked, so that the export continues if the client process stops.
• The status of the export is visible.
• If an export is active is should resume automatically next time the user logs into the client

Implementation hints

We already did some research on this topic and notes were taken in the Wiki how export is done by other providers. Information can be found under "Development > Tutanota > Compatibility"

Tasks

• Starting export & export tokens #7949
• Adjusted rate limits when export tokens are used #7950
• Progress indicator for export outside the settings #7951
• Export settings & export progress in settings #7952
• Requesting & refreshing export tokens #7953
• Downloading and storing exported emails #7954
• Add EntityRestClientLoadOptions to all load methods #8062
• Ensure only single app window is running the export #8063
• Efficient attachment downloading for mailbox export #8069
• Distribute mailbox export load across cluster #8129

[ryanpcmcquen]

What is the status on this?

[joshdcox]

Offline MBOX import/export would be a great feature addition that allows users to more easily migrate to Tutanota, back up their mail, and have comfort in their ability to leave with their mail even if they can't access Tutanota servers (due to events like this or this or this).

[bedhub]

Some thoughts what needs to be clarified for the implementation:

• check which export formats can be used and can also be used larger mailboxes.
• check which formats are supported by other mail providers.
• check how to export data for all users of an account.
• check how to preserver folder structure
• define rate limits for exporting whole mailbox (maybe once a week)

[vitoreiji]

@bedhub check out the export branch, please.

[eriteric]

Hello from the future 👋 just checking in on this

[crepererum]

Workaround: https://github.com/crepererum/tatutanatata

[realpixelcode]

Seems to be implemented in the latest version.

[ferntheplant]

Exporting even just a couple dozen emails takes ages. Also the "select all" checkbox only selects emails that have loaded into view...

[scollovati]

Tutanota could implement an IMAP bridge like the one that Proton has done. Furthermore, Proton made the underlying library open source:

• https://github.com/ProtonMail/gluon
• https://proton.me/blog/gluon-imap-library

[charlag]

Exporting even just a couple dozen emails takes ages. Also the "select all" checkbox only selects emails that have loaded into view...

there's a "load all" button for this.

This issue is not about selecting things or about IMAP bridges, this is about bulk export, please refer to "Discussions" for unrelated topics

[aescgar]

I'd like to suggest that, instead of only allowing a bulk export of all emails from the dawn of time that the user be given the option to select a start date, similar to how the Search function works. For example, the user should be able to export only emails from 2022-08-20 through the current time. Otherwise, doing monthly or yearly backups would having to re-download possibly tens of thousands of emails that have already been exported. This would be annoying for the user, take up more time, and unnecessarily stressful on both the Tuta server and the client device. Selecting individual emails is not sufficient for a large time-specific export for the same reasons it is not sufficient for a complete export.

I know this is only on the roadmap and not yet being implemented, but I thought this was an important criterion to set before the feature was produced.