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.
Applies to SmarterMail 13.x - 15.x
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. When your backup file is in place, delete the user from within the Web interface. Then, follow these steps to restore the user's entire mailbox:
- Log into SmarterMail as a System Administrator.
- Click the Manage icon.
- Click Restore in the navigation pane. A list of settings will be available in the content pane.
- From the Type drop down menu, select Attach User.
- In the Email Address 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 into SmarterMail as a System Administrator.
- Click the Manage icon.
- Click Restore in the navigation pane. A list of settings will be available in the content pane.
- From the Type drop down menu, select Attach Folder.
- In the Email Address 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.”
- 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 into SmarterMail as a System Administrator.
- Click the Manage icon.
- Click Restore in the navigation pane. A list of settings will be available in the content pane.
- From the Type drop down menu, select Rebuild Folder.
- In the Email Address 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.”
- 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.
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