> What if I just want an offline record of my emails for the day that google decides to delete me from the internet?

Well this is what just a normal email client does - it downloads latest emails via IMAP.

What if I don't want an email client? I just want a headless program that downloads my emails. They can be kept on a NAS that is backed up offsite and keeps the emails searchable. I want this to happen even if I don't happen to open an email client on a desktop at my home for months.

That's why imap-backup is useful.

> I just want a headless program that downloads my emails.

Lol that’s an email client! Not all email clients have a manual UI.

I also have my client make a copy in local folders, and then Backblaze scoops both up. It's a little redundant, but it's not that much space use and it gives me something to compare if I ever have reason to worry an email was tampered with on the server and downloaded over the original. More concern toward a hack than government/host meddling.

isync (aka mbsync) works great for this.

Mailpile.is

Maybe OP refers to the situation where you lose all data since the last takeout, but if you had a daily imap backup running you could mitigate this loss for your emails.

Thank you for clarifying.