Hey folks, I’m in a bit of a pickle here. I made this cool email parser that works with CPanel’s pipe feature to add stuff to a MySQL table. Now my client wants to import tons of old emails from about 50 Gmail accounts. Some have over 20k messages!
I’ve been testing with one account, and I can only get about 7k emails out of 25k before it stops. No errors, just stops. I think I’m hitting Gmail’s IMAP bandwidth limit (750MB/hour).
Anyone know how to check if that’s the issue? And more importantly, got any ideas on how to get around it? I thought about doing it in chunks, but that’d take forever. My best idea so far is to use Gmail’s migration tool to move everything to a CPanel email address and use the pipe feature there.
Have you considered using Google’s OAuth 2.0 for authentication instead of IMAP? It’s more robust and might help sidestep those pesky bandwidth limits. Another approach could be to use Google’s Email Migration API, which is specifically designed for bulk transfers and might handle the volume better.
If you’re set on using IMAP, you could implement a backoff strategy. When you hit the limit, pause for an hour, then resume. You’d need to keep track of where you left off, but it could work around the hourly limit.
Lastly, if time isn’t a major constraint, you could spread the import over several days, processing a certain number of emails per day to stay under the limit. It’s slower but might be the most reliable method.
I’ve dealt with similar issues before, and here’s what worked for me:
Try implementing a throttling mechanism in your PHP script. Set it to process, say, 500 emails per hour, then pause for a bit before continuing. This way, you’re less likely to hit Gmail’s limits.
Another trick is to use Google’s Email Migration API instead of IMAP. It’s designed for bulk transfers and handles large volumes much better. Plus, it’s more reliable when dealing with multiple accounts.
If you’re set on using IMAP, consider running multiple processes simultaneously, each handling a different Gmail account. This distributes the load and might help you stay under the radar.
Lastly, if time isn’t a major constraint, you could spread the import over a week or two. It’s slower, but it’s a surefire way to avoid hitting those pesky limits.
Hope this helps! Let us know what ends up working for you.
hey, maybe try using google’s api instead of imap? might help bypass those pesky limits. another approach is to break the import into chunks over a few days so you don’t hit the limit all at once. my 2 cents.