On occasion, System Administrators may run into an issue that would require them to restore a user's account, restore a user's email folder(s), restore lost individual emails or to move large numbers of messages among folders or servers. This can be necessary if emails are mistakenly deleted or if a mailbox becomes corrupt. While SmarterMail does not perform any backups of the file system, if an administrator has a backup procedure in place, user data may be restored from within the Web interface without stopping the SmarterMail service.
NOTE: Previous versions of SmarterMail required administrators to stop the SmarterMail service in order to restore user data. While this method may still be used for newer versions, SmarterTools recommends restoring user data from within the Web interface. For instructions on how to restore a user's mailbox in older versions of SmarterMail, please refer to the KB article Restore a Mailbox.
Restore a User's Account
Before restoring a user's account, ensure the backup file is in the correct location on the server. By default, the path to a user’s account is C:\SmarterMail\Domains\domain.com\Users\username. Delete the user from within the web interface. Place the user's backup Mail folder back in place. Then, follow these steps to restore the user's entire mailbox:
- Log in to SmarterMail as a System Administrator.
- Click on the Manage icon.
- In the Domains section, click the Actions (...) menu to display your options and select Attach User.
- A modal will open. In the Email field, enter the full email address of the user that will be restored.
- Click Restore.
Restore a User's Email Folder
Before restoring a user’s email folder, ensure the backup file is in the correct location on the server. By default, the path to a user’s email folder is C:\SmarterMail\Domains\domain.com\Users\username\mail. When your backup file is in place, follow these steps to restore the email folder to the user’s mailbox:
- Log in to SmarterMail as a System Administrator.
- Click on the Manage icon.
- In the Domains section, click the Actions (...) menu to display your options and select Attach Folder.
- A modal will open. In the Email field, enter the full email address of the user that will have their folder restored.
- In the Folder Path field, enter the path of the folder within the Web interface. For example, if you’re restoring a subfolder that was created under the Inbox, the folder path would be “Inbox\Example Folder.”
- If the folder you're restoring includes any sub-folders, make sure the Recursive toggle is turned on. This will ensure all sub-folders are restored as well.
- Click Restore.
Restore a User's Emails / Move a Large Number of Messages
Restoring a user's emails and moving mass amounts of email among folders or SmarterMail servers requires the same process. It’s recommended to first create a new folder within the Web interface. In this example, the new folder created will be called “Temp.” Copy the backup .grp and/or .eml files to the new Temp folder on the server. By default, the path to the user’s emails is C:\SmarterMail\Domains\domain.com\Users\username\mail. When the files are in place, follow these steps to restore the user’s emails:
- Log in to SmarterMail as a System Administrator.
- Click on the Manage icon.
- In the Domains section, click the Actions (...) menu to display your options and select Rebuild Folder.
- A modal will open. In the Email field, enter the full email address of the user that will have their emails restored.
- In the Folder Path field, enter the path of the new folder within the Web interface. For example, if you created the Temp folder under the Inbox, the folder path would be “Inbox\Temp.”
- If the folder you're restoring includes sub-folders, make sure the Recursive toggle is turned on. This will ensure all sub-folders are restored as well.
- Click Restore in the content pane toolbar.
- When the emails are restored to the user's Temp folder, select them all and move them to the intended folder.
NOTE: There could be a UID conflict issue if you restore .grp files into an existing folder with existing .grp files. However, this issue would not occur when restoring .eml files into an existing folder with existing email. For this reason, SmarterTools recommends the method detailed above of creating a new folder to copy existing email files into.