In my initial post I questioned, as a newbie, how to access the email files I was given that were in dovecot format, and a few people were kind enough to explain things to me a bit. But some of the solutions were a bit over my head. And then I found a solution. I downloaded an app called "SysTools Maildir Converter" and was able to convert the whole email file into a .pst file, and input it in Outlook. Now all my emails are accessible, and I can reply to them like any other emails in Outlook. The only thing I don't exactly understand is that each folder I had with emails in it has a subfolder called "cur" and that is where all the emails reside. It is not an issue, just not sure exactly why that is so. (If someone has an idea why the emails are in "cur" subfolders rather than directly in the folders, and can explain it to me without getting super technical, that would be great. But it isn't a big deal, I'm just curious.) Zane
Great job finding a solution that works for you!
To answer your curiosity about the *"cur"* folder in your Dovecot email files:
Dovecot follows the *Maildir* format, which organizes emails into directories for better performance and reliability. Each mailbox (or folder) you see actually contains three subdirectories:
- *"new"* – Where newly arrived emails are stored before being read.
- *"cur"* – Once an email is opened (or marked as seen), it moves here.
- *"tmp"* – A temporary holding space while an email is being written.
So, the reason all your emails were inside the *"cur"* folder is simply that they had already been accessed (or marked as read) at some point. This structure helps email systems manage and process messages efficiently.
Hope that clears it up! Let me know if you have any other questions. 😊
It means also that the import tool is somehow crappy 😊
Robert aka Bitranox
*Von:* Zane B Stein via dovecot <dovecot@dovecot.org>
*Gesendet:* Donnerstag, 6. Februar 2025 um 14:11 MEZ
*An:* dovecot@dovecot.org
*Betreff:* solved my problem
In my initial post I questioned, as a newbie, how to access the email files I was given that were in dovecot format, and a few people were kind enough to explain things to me a bit. But some of the solutions were a bit over my head. And then I found a solution. I downloaded an app called "SysTools Maildir Converter" and was able to convert the whole email file into a .pst file, and input it in Outlook. Now all my emails are accessible, and I can reply to them like any other emails in Outlook. The only thing I don't exactly understand is that each folder I had with emails in it has a subfolder called "cur" and that is where all the emails reside. It is not an issue, just not sure exactly why that is so. (If someone has an idea why the emails are in "cur" subfolders rather than directly in the folders, and can explain it to me without getting super technical, that would be great. But it isn't a big deal, I'm just curious.) Zane
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participants (2)
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Robert Nowotny
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Zane B Stein