Import Messages from .EML Files

SmarterMail > Installation and Configuration
This article applies to recent versions of SmarterMail. View articles for SmarterMail 15.x and earlier.

SmarterMail stores email messages in .GRP files that are created each day. These GRP files are different than .EML files, which are used when an email is sent or received.

On occasion, the system administrator may need import raw .EML files to SmarterMail. This can be helpful when restoring a backup of a user's email that is in raw .EML format. If you want to keep imported emails separate from other emails, create a folder via the SmarterMail Web Interface in the intended users mailbox.

Follow these steps to import messages into SmarterMail from .EML files:

  1. Stop the SmarterMail service.
  2. Delete the mailbox.cfg file in the folder that the *.EML files will be imported into.
  3. Copy the *.EML files into that folder.
  4. Start the SmarterMail service.

The emails will be converted into .GRP files once the user accesses their mailbox, either via webmail or using an email client, for the first time after the EML files are copied over.

NOTE: If you delete the mailbox.cfg file out of a folder that already had GRP files, all timestamps will be reset to midnight for the emails that are already contained in those GRP files. That date will remain the same.

 
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Article ID: 2712, , Modified: 7/25/2024 at 9:17 AM

Feedback

When will SmarterMail convert the *.EML files to *.GRP file. I did the steps above, but don't see the conversion happening. Or will that be done at midnight (NOTE in red) ?
Robert Voigt (1/3/2014 at 4:22 PM)
Thanks. The KB was edited to note when the EML files are coverted to GRP files. (It happens after the user accesses their account for the first time after the EML files are copied over).
Derek Curtis (1/7/2014 at 2:17 PM)
How would one make SmarterMail preserve the original received date in the email header of the .eml file, instead of making them the date when they were imported? Email conversations cannot be imported this way - information on which email follows which, and when were they sent is lost.
Roland Papp (10/23/2014 at 1:04 AM)
Roland Papp is correct. I used ReliefJet Essentials to extract EMLs and their folder-structure from a large PST file.
To use the above instructions for importing, you have to completely replicate (Manually) the folder structure in SmarterMail, stop the service, delete the mailbox.cfg file in EACH folder, copy-in the EML structure-data, restart the service, then login as the user.
Even with all that-- the email dates picked up by SM are the date of import.
William Lolli (8/24/2016 at 10:19 PM)

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