IMAP Integrations
When to use IMAP
IMAP is a good fit when you want to archive specific mailboxes rather than all mail on a server. Common use cases: shared mailboxes, service accounts, or mail servers that don't support BCC forwarding rules.
For full coverage of all users, SMTP BCC relay is usually the better option.
Adding IMAP mailboxes
Go to Admin > Integrations and click IMAP Mailboxes. You can add one or more mailboxes in the same form:
- Server — your mail server hostname (e.g.
imap.example.com) - Port — usually 993 for IMAP with SSL
- Username — the full email address
- Password — the account password, or an app-specific password if 2FA is enabled
- Protocol — IMAP-SSL (most common), IMAP-TLS, or plain IMAP
- Assign to — pick a user or group to link these emails to
Each mailbox must be assigned to a user or group. This determines who the archived messages belong to in the system. If you type the email address in the "Assign to" field, the system will try to match it to an existing user automatically.
Click Save when you're done. Easy Mail Archive will start fetching new messages from each mailbox right away.
How it works
Once connected, Easy Mail Archive periodically checks each mailbox for new messages. It only downloads messages it hasn't seen before, so the same email won't be archived twice.
Archived messages are processed the same way as emails received via SMTP BCC — they're stored, encrypted and searchable.
App-specific passwords
Some mail providers don't allow regular passwords for IMAP access, especially with two-factor authentication turned on:
- Gmail — generate an App Password under your Google Account security settings
- Microsoft 365 — use an App Password, or ask your admin about IMAP access policies
- Mailcow — regular mailbox passwords work
Deleting an IMAP source
You can delete an IMAP source from the Integrations page. This stops the connection but doesn't remove any emails that were already archived.