I prefer to store (archive) my mail locally. After moving my mail between mail clients a couple of time to many I decided to set up a local IMAP server. This will give me a mail client independent local storage that is in a standard format and future proof.

Update 2018-03-29: When you update a existing setup to Dovecot 2.3.1 or later it will break with the error message “Fatal: service(stats) Group doesn’t exist: dovecot …”. On macOS the primary group for the “dovecot” user is “mail” so you need to set “default_internal_group = mail” in your “local.conf” file.

Update 2021-11-25: A reader alerted me to an issue with macOS 12 Monterey. You need to set default_vsz_limit = 0 to get dovecot to start. See the end of the local.conf file below for more.

I run dovecot on my mail server so that’s what I want to run locally as well. Easiest way to install dovecot is via Homebrew. (Homebrew is a package manager for macOS.)

brew install dovecot

Homebrew will give you instruction for the LaunchDaemons script needed to start and stop dovecot. Next step is to copy over some default configuration files.

On Apple Silicon Macs:

cp -pr /opt/homebrew/Cellar/dovecot/2.3.21/share/doc/dovecot/example-config/ /opt/homebrew/etc/dovecot/

On Intel Macs:

cp -pr /usr/local/Cellar/dovecot/2.3.21/share/doc/dovecot/example-config/ /usr/local/etc/dovecot/

I opted for adding a “local.conf” file with all my own settings, “dovecot.conf” will include that file if it exist.

Here follow my settings for a local only IMAP server with a static password that can be used with an arbitrary username.

File: /opt/homebrew/etc/dovecot/local.conf (Apple Silicon)
File: /usr/local/etc/dovecot/local.conf (Intel)

Make sure to replace all instances of CHANGE_THIS with your own information.

# A comma separated list of IPs or hosts where to listen in for connections.
# "*" listens in all IPv4 interfaces, "::" listens in all IPv6 interfaces.
# If you want to specify non-default ports or anything more complex,
# edit conf.d/master.conf.
listen = 127.0.0.1

# Protocols we want to be serving.
protocols = imap


# Static passdb.

# This can be used for situations where Dovecot doesn't need to verify the
# username or the password, or if there is a single password for all users:
passdb {
  driver = static
  args = password=CHANGE_THIS_to_whatever_password_you_like
}

# Location for users' mailboxes. The default is empty, which means that Dovecot
# tries to find the mailboxes automatically. This won't work if the user
# doesn't yet have any mail, so you should explicitly tell Dovecot the full
# location.
#
# If you're using mbox, giving a path to the INBOX file (eg. /var/mail/%u)
# isn't enough. You'll also need to tell Dovecot where the other mailboxes are
# kept. This is called the "root mail directory", and it must be the first
# path given in the mail_location setting.
#
# There are a few special variables you can use, eg.:
#
#   %u - username
#   %n - user part in user@domain, same as %u if there's no domain
#   %d - domain part in user@domain, empty if there's no domain
#   %h - home directory
#
# See doc/wiki/Variables.txt for full list. Some examples:
#
#   mail_location = maildir:~/Maildir
#   mail_location = mbox:~/mail:INBOX=/var/mail/%u
#   mail_location = mbox:/var/mail/%d/%1n/%n:INDEX=/var/indexes/%d/%1n/%n
#
# <doc/wiki/MailLocation.txt>
#
mail_location = maildir:/CHANGE_THIS_to_the_path_where_you_want_to_store_the_mail/%n


# System user and group used to access mails. If you use multiple, userdb
# can override these by returning uid or gid fields. You can use either numbers
# or names. <doc/wiki/UserIds.txt>
mail_uid = CHANGE_THIS_to_your_short_user_name_or_uid
mail_gid = admin

# SSL/TLS support: yes, no, required. <doc/wiki/SSL.txt>
ssl = no

# Login user is internally used by login processes. This is the most untrusted
# user in Dovecot system. It shouldn't have access to anything at all.
default_login_user = _dovenull

# Internal user is used by unprivileged processes. It should be separate from
# login user, so that login processes can't disturb other processes.
default_internal_user = _dovecot
# Internal group is expected to be the primary group of the default_internal_user.
default_internal_group = mail

# Setting limits.
default_process_limit = 10
default_client_limit = 50

# Workaround for an issue introduced by macOS 12 Monterey
# Hopefully a proper fix will be incorporated by the dovecot team, remove
# this when it is. See https://markmail.org/message/fsrvolewgdbrtzsg
default_vsz_limit = 0

There are two changes needed to the default conf files as well.

File: /opt/homebrew/etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-auth.conf (Apple Silicon)
File: /usr/local/etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-auth.conf (Intel)

Comment out the line that includes the default auth settings like this:

#!include auth-system.conf.ext

File: /opt/homebrew/etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-ssl.conf (Apple Silicon)
File: /usr/local/etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-ssl.conf (Intel)

Comment out the lines that tries to read the non existent SSL cert and key:

#ssl_cert = </etc/ssl/certs/dovecot.pem
#ssl_key = </etc/ssl/private/dovecot.pem

Now the server should start without any errors:

sudo brew services start dovecot

If you need to stop it run:

sudo brew services stop dovecot

Now all that remains is to configure your mail client. Set up an new IMAP account with:

1. Incoming mail server: localhost or 127.0.0.1
2. Account ID: Whatever username you like
3. Password: The password you set in local.conf
4. Do to require SSL/TLS.

All other fields can have dummy information. No need for SMTP settings since we only use this account for local storage.

You can set up as many accounts as you like but most likely only one is needed.