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Hi everyone! I’m looking for advice on setting up a self-hosted mail server. I want to download all my emails from Gmail and store them locally on my own server, but I’ll still send emails via Gmail. I would also like to access my emails on my smartphone, similar to how I do now with Gmail.
I have a static IP and I’m considering using a virtual machine or Docker to host the mail server. My priorities are:
Downloading and keeping all my Gmail emails stored locally.
Setting it up so I can easily access these emails on my phone (no need to send emails from this server, just access).
Ensuring good security and reliability.
Is there a specific setup or tool you’d recommend? Would Docker or a virtual machine be better in this case? Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!
If I understand you clearly, you mean you want to be receiving emails on the same domain using two different receiving email servers? if so, what you need do is check and update the MX records for the domain DNS RECORDS.
- You can add the MX records of the receiving email address servers and just change the priority points. Grant google workspace(gmail), say 10 points PRIROTY and the second email receiving server , say 50 points priority.
If an email is sent to your domain, the mail exchange algorithm will first check if delivery email is in the first priority server, if not it moves to deliver the email in the email address on the second priority server.
SUGGESTION
What you're asking is actually feasible using dual delivery with your third-party email server and Google Workspace. Assuming that they have that service available on their end. This would let you keep using your email server as the primary sender and receiver of emails and let you receive emails with your Google Workspace account as well.
What you'll need to do is point your MX records to your third-party email service provider and set up a forwarding from their end that would be pointed to Google's MX records (Google Workspace MX record values) for your Google Workspace account to receive emails. Since the legacy server, as Google's article calls it (your third-party email server) was not provided, you may review this article for more information. Deliver email to multiple inboxes with dual delivery.
UPDATE
Here's what you can do to set up dual delivery:
- Reach out to your third-party email provider and ask if dual delivery is available on their services. Note: Not all email hosting providers have this feature.
If it's available, the only thing you'll need to do is seek assistance on how to set it up and they should know what to do. Based on my experience, you'll be adding Google's MX records to the place where you manage your email services so that it may be set up. Once done, you should be able to receive emails from both providers when it kicks in.
If the feature is not available, I would recommend that you change the place where your MX records are pointed to so that this can be achieved. Since Google Workspace has this feature, go to your DNS records and point your MX records to them, afterwards set up dual delivery through your Admin console pointing to the MX records of your third-party email provider. That way, you'll be able to receive emails from both providers.