IMAP/maildir conversion

[bigjohn]

How to convert back??
This is a support nightmare. I am a small reseller at a hosting company and they forced maildir on us with Cpanel 11. I have handled 20 tickets from my customers about email issues just since this. To top it off, our spam-assassin "learn" script was broken.

How do I revert from maildir to mbox??

[Vinayak]

If you are a reseller, you can't revert it back, ask your provider to fix things properly.

[bigjohn]

If you are a reseller, you can't revert it back, ask your provider to fix things properly.

How can THEY revert? There has to be a process.
I can't tell every one of my customers "well, you have to click on your inbox and re-subscribe... don't worry about some of those folders with wierd names... and if that does not work let me know". I do this as a "part time" thing, and I've spend nearly 12 hours supporting this mess -- something that I did not do -- and I don't see anyone at Cpanel offereing to support my customers or pay me for my time...

[Vinayak]

Are you sure your provider will be willing to revert back, moreover I think mbox is no longer supported by cPanel any more (my info could be wrong).

The best you can do is to talk to your provider, show him this thread, its only your provider who can fix it.

Or move to some other more knowledgeable & reliable host, who is willing to transfer all your account and fix them up with the latest cPanel environment.

[bigjohn]

Are you sure your provider will be willing to revert back, moreover I think mbox is no longer supported by cPanel any more (my info could be wrong).

The best you can do is to talk to your provider, show him this thread, its only your provider who can fix it.

Or move to some other more knowledgeable & reliable host, who is willing to transfer all your account and fix them up with the latest cPanel environment.

The cpanel is working fine. That's not the issue.
The issue is that tools / support processes, and customer side access issues (mail not working!) are popping up. Things that have been working for 4 years are now broken. Even when configured "perfectly", these issues exist. This change breaks things. This is not like moving from a Ford to a Dodge. It's like moving from a Lexus with automatic transmission to a Pickup truck with a manual. The learning curve on the customer side is HUGE. I don't have the time to explain to all my customers how to make their email work again... and I don't see anyone from Cpanel looking to help. They just want to force this change.

[myusername]

... and I've spend nearly 12 hours supporting this mess -- something that I did not do -- and I don't see anyone at Cpanel offereing to support my customers or pay me for my time...

You should probably exit the hosting industry if you spent 12 hours supporting 20 customers over a simple maildir issue. If this issue gives you a headache, you are in the wrong line of work. I can think of a lot of bigger problems that could happen on a shared server!!!

How hard is it to re-subscribe? Not very. The only other difference (besides a better email system) is they need to configure the root folder path to INBOX. and that is it. If that is a sharp learning curve then wow, I feel your pain.

Done this for thousands of sites and had less tickets over it than you did. I guess I was lucky.

[bigjohn]

Well, outside of slamming me personally, <sarcasm>thanks for all your wonderful help and assistance. You've added a tremendous amount of value to this discussion thread.</sarcasm>

[bigjohn]

bigjohn don't take this as sarcasm, but you should note that mbox to maildir conversion is a very old issue, as you can see that this thread itself started on 10-07-2005, so if your provider wakeup today to find this change and he is unable to fix things properly or to guide you to the right direction, do you think it's cPanel's fault.

Moreover as you have few clients, you yourself can go into their respective cPanel accounts to resubscribe and fix the issue and it will take little time of yours.

Have you talked to your provider about this issue?

If yes what was his answer?

I run a very specialised company. Very few of my customers are "self sufficient" in computer related stuff. Outside of visiting all their offices and reconfiguring both the webmail and Thunderbird configurations for them, there is no "easy" fix that I see.

And why should Cpanel force this type of change? Bad customer service. Imagine GM saying "ok, all cars now are only Manual Transmission - learn it over or screw yourself..."?

[Vinayak]

bigjohn don't take this as sarcasm, but you should note that mbox to maildir conversion is a very old issue, as you can see that this thread itself started on 10-07-2005, so if your provider wakeup today to find this change and he is unable to fix things properly or to guide you to the right direction, do you think it's cPanel's fault.

Moreover as you have few clients, you yourself can go into their respective cPanel accounts to resubscribe and fix the issue and it will take little time of yours.

Have you talked to your provider about this issue?

If yes what was his answer?

[bigjohn]

bigjohn don't take this as sarcasm, but you should note that mbox to maildir conversion is a very old issue, as you can see that this thread itself started on 10-07-2005, so if your provider wakeup today to find this change and he is unable to fix things properly or to guide you to the right direction, do you think it's cPanel's fault.

Moreover as you have few clients, you yourself can go into their respective cPanel accounts to resubscribe and fix the issue and it will take little time of yours.

Have you talked to your provider about this issue?

If yes what was his answer?

I run a very specialised company. Very few of my customers are "self sufficient" in computer related stuff. Outside of visiting all their offices and reconfiguring both the webmail and Thunderbird configurations for them, there is no "easy" fix that I see.

And why should Cpanel force this type of change? Bad customer service. Imagine GM saying "ok, all cars now are only Manual Transmission - learn it over or screw yourself..."?

I've been vocally arguing against this conversion for a year. And they assured me that "oh, we know how to do it so it's transparent to everyone now.." My arse.

[Vinayak]

So now you have two choice:

Either accept it and work towards the solution,

or

Let it be your arse (eventually its your arse).

[bigjohn]

So now you have two choice:

Either accept it and work towards the solution,

or

Let it be your arse (eventually its your arse).

I'll choose option 1 - how do I roll back to Mbox without loosing any mail?

[thedavid]

I'll choose option 1 - how do I roll back to Mbox without loosing any mail?

You don't. You don't have root access on the box.

The only way around this, if the root access holder doesn't want to move back to an obsoleted, unsupported mail format is to find a host that will keep you on a mbox setup server.

I think there's ways to revert with the upgrade script, but do you really want to spend the time switching back, and having the customers fix the stuff you've already fixed before again?

[bigjohn]

You don't. You don't have root access on the box.

The only way around this, if the root access holder doesn't want to move back to an obsoleted, unsupported mail format is to find a host that will keep you on a mbox setup server.

I think there's ways to revert with the upgrade script, but do you really want to spend the time switching back, and having the customers fix the stuff you've already fixed before again?

Yes, yes I do. This conversion has broken all the "automation" processes that I've built for myself over the past years as well, especially including my SA-Learn scripts. My spam has gone from 2-3 per day to 30+ since this conversion since it's not letting me train spam, and it's not using my custom filters.

So, please point me to the appropriate steps so that I can forward them to the server admin.

[thedavid]

I wouldn't recommend it - but if the root user runs /scripts/convert2maildir (what they probably did to convert it in the first place) there's a menu driven system to do this.