IMAP: how to move a message from one folder to another

Question

(using the IMAP commands, not with the assistance of any other mail package)

Achitophel

While there is no IMAP "move" command in the current spec, there is a proposal for an extension: tools.ietf.org/html/draft-gulbrandsen-imap-move-01 (Arnt Gulbrandsen, March 2012). Sadly, the link will probably be dead by the time you want to click it, due to the rather aggressive draft expiry policy of the IETF. – Drusy

RFC6851 MOVE Extension: tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6851. Of course if your server doesn't support it COPY, 'STORE \DELETED flag' and EXPUNGE is the only option (as in answers below) – Vixen

@triplee: tools.ietf.org links don't expire. Drafts expire, but tools.ietf.org continues to give a reasonable answer. – Intrude

@Intrude hey, thanks for the tip ... and for the spec! – Drusy

Answer 1

I'm not sure how well-versed you are in imap-speak, but basically after login, "SELECT" the source mailbox, "COPY" the messages, and "EXPUNGE" the messages (or "DELETE" the old mailbox if it is empty now :-).

a login a s
b select source
c copy 1 othermbox
d store 1 +flags (\Deleted)
e expunge

would be an example of messages to send. (Note: imap messages require a uniqe prefix before each command, thus the "a b c" in front)

See RFC 2060 for details.

Vizzone

Note that expunge will remove all messages flagged \Deleted, which may not be what you want. – Rocher

Answer 2

There are multiple ways to do that. The best one is the UID MOVE command defined in RFC 6851 from early 2013:

C: a UID MOVE 42:69 foo
S: * OK [COPYUID 432432 42:69 1202:1229]
S: * 22 EXPUNGE
S: (more expunges)
S: a OK Done

Presence of this extension is indicated by the MOVE capability.

If it isn't available, but UIDPLUS (RFC 4315) is, the second best option is to use the combination of UID STORE, UID COPY and UID EXPUNGE:

C: a01 UID COPY 42:69 foo
S: a01 OK [COPYUID 432432 42:69 1202:1229] Copied
C: a02 UID STORE 42:69 +FLAGS.SILENT (\Deleted)
S: a02 OK Stored
C: a03 UID EXPUNGE 42:69
S: * 10 EXPUNGE
S: * 10 EXPUNGE
S: * 10 EXPUNGE
S: a03 Expunged

If the UIDPLUS is missing, there is nothing reasonable that you can do -- the EXPUNGE command permanently removes all messages which are marked for deletion, including those which you have not touched. The best this is to just use the UID COPY and UID STORE in that case.

Rockingham

My server doesn't have support for UID MOVE :/ – Ramer

Your second best chance is right in the second code listing, then. – Litotes

Answer 3

If you have the uid of the email which is going to be moved.

import imaplib

obj = imaplib.IMAP4_SSL('imap.gmail.com', 993)
obj.login('username', 'password')
obj.select(src_folder_name)
apply_lbl_msg = obj.uid('COPY', msg_uid, desti_folder_name)
if apply_lbl_msg[0] == 'OK':
    mov, data = obj.uid('STORE', msg_uid , '+FLAGS', '(\Deleted)')
    obj.expunge()

Where msg_uid is the uid of the mail.

Nystatin

-1: "using the IMAP commands, not with the assistance of any other mail package" – Smallage

+1 This was by far the best link I found on using python for this task. – Ramer

@Nystatin can you help me here #67384013 – Dowdy

#67384013 – Dowdy

Answer 4

I guess you COPY the message to the new folder and then delete (EXPUNGE) it in the old one.

RFC3501

HINT There's no DELETE command that does what you mean, you have to flag the message as deleted and then EXPUNGE the mailbox. Have a look at the RFC. Be careful with DELETE, as it deletes whole mailboxes, not single mails.

Belly