Update Notices for MailStore Server

General Information

Before you start the installation, please check if your current license really allows to upgrade the software.
Before the installation, read the changelog for information about all changes in the respective versions.
Make sure you have a recent backup of your archive. Learn more about backing up and restoring MailStore Server here.
Make sure the server where MailStore Server is installed on meets the system requirements.
The installation process will uninstall older versions of the software automatically. All archives and the configuration data will be kept. There is no need to manually uninstall old versions previously.
Installations with version 23.4 or older must first be updated to version 24.4 and all archive stores must be updated to Firebird 4. You can then update to the latest version. Please also read the Update Notices for MailStore Server to version 25.1 or newer.
During the installation process the MailStore Server service is automatically stopped and restarted afterwards. Running archiving profiles will be cancelled and may show up as failed. Should stopping the service fail for any reason, please stop the service manually and run the installation again.
Carefully check the auto-detected settings during the installation process.
Updating the MailStore Client installations and/or the MailStore Outlook Add-In installations is only necessary if this is specifically stated in the version-specific notes.
Further information can be found in the articles MailStore Client Deployment and MailStore Outlook Add-in Deployment
The following version specific upgrade notices are cumulative. Therefore, also read the notices regarding all version numbers between yours and the one you are going to install.
For versions that are not explicitly listed here, the upgrade notices for preceding versions apply accordingly.

Upgrading to 25.1.0

Only installations with versions 24.2.0 to 24.4.0 can be updated directly.
Until all archive stores have been updated, you must not update to version 25.1.0.
It is obligatory to also note the Update Notices for MailStore Server to version 25.1 or newer.

Upgrading to 24.4.0

There are no notes for this version.

Upgrading to 24.3.0

Saved searches containing search criteria that can be interpreted as search for alternatives will return different search results than before the update.
Retention policies do not support searches for alternatives. In case existing retention policies contain search criteria that can be interpreted as searches for alternatives, those have to be changed for retention policies to being able to be processed again.

Upgrading to 24.2.2

There are no notes for this version.

Upgrading to 24.2.1

If you are upgrading from a MailStore version before 24.2.0, please also note the instructions for upgrading to version 24.2.0.

Upgrading Archive Stores
If you upgrade from MailStore 24.2.0, the archive stores need to be upgraded. To do this, proceed as follows:
- Log in as MailStore administrator (admin).
- Click on Administrative Tools > Storage and then Storage Locations.
- Either click on the yellow info box to upgrade all archive stores at once or right-click on an archive store and select Perform Upgrade to upgrade a single archive store.
- Carefully read the notices and click on OK to start the upgrade process or click on Cancel.

Until all archive stores have been upgraded, retention policies are not available.

Upgrading to 24.2.0

Upgrade of Master Database
The master database is upgraded to Firebird 4 during the first start of the MailStore Server service. This process might extend the time required for the first start of the service by several minutes.
Upgrading Archive Stores
For the update to Firebird 4 the databases of the archive stores must be upgraded. Proceed as follows to upgrade:
- Log in as MailStore administrator (admin).
- Click on Administrative Tools > Storage and then Storage Locations.
- Either click on the yellow info box to upgrade all archive stores at once or right-click on an archive store and select Perform Upgrade to upgrade a single archive store.
- Carefully read the notices and click on OK to start the upgrade process or click on Cancel.

Until all archive stores have been upgraded, retention policies are not available.

System Requirements
Internet Explorer support has been removed from MailStore in this version. For a current list of supported browsers, please refer to System Requirements.
Python API Wrapper
In order to be able to use the new API commands, an update of the Python API wrapper library is required.

Known Issues

As long as an internal, Firebird-based archive store has not been updated, no recovery records will be written for emails in this archive store. This bug was fixed with version 24.2.1.
Users who have been synchronized from an Active Directory and who have MailStore multi-factor authentication (MFA) activated cannot log in using Windows authentication. To work around the issue, disable multi-factor authentication for those users in MailStore or let them use their username and password to log in. This bug was fixed with version 24.2.2.

Upgrading to 23.4.0

System Requirements
Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2 support has been removed from MailStore in this version. For a current list of supported operating systems, please refer to System Requirements.
Python API Wrapper
In order to be able to use the new API commands, an update of the Python API wrapper library is required.

Upgrading to 23.3.0

Microsoft Exchange 2013 Support
Support for Microsoft Exchange 2013 has been removed from MailStore in this version.

Upgrading to 23.2.0

Outlook Add-in
Starting with version 23.2.0, MailStore Server supports multi-factor authentication for users with integrated authentication. To support multi-factor authentication an update of the Outlook Add-in is required.

The Outlook Add-In 23.2.0 is not backward compatible with older MailStore Server versions. When updating, MailStore Server should be updated first and then the Outlook Add-in.
Scheduled Tasks, Management API, IMAP Access

When multi-factor authentication is enabled for a user and that user wants to schedule client-side archiving profiles, access the Management API or access the IMAP server, an app password has to be used instead of the regular password.
Python API Wrapper
In order to be able to use the new API commands, an update of the Python API wrapper library is required.

Upgrading to 23.1.2

Important: Let's Encrypt has announced to change their production request flow permanently on April 24th 2023. After that date, previous versions of MailStore Server will not be able to successfully request certificates from Let's Encrypt.

Upgrading to 23.1.0

System Requirements
Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Small Business Server 2011 support has been removed from MailStore in this version. For a current list of supported operating systems, please refer to System Requirements.

Upgrading to 22.4.0

There are no notes for this version.

Upgrading to 22.3.0

Outlook Add-in
Starting with version 22.3.0, failed login attempts will slow down the login process. While this process is backwards compatible to older Outlook Add-ins, we strongly recommend updating the Outlook Add-in for the best user experience.

Upgrading to 22.2.x

System Requirements
Starting with version 22.2 MailStore Server, MailStore Client and MailStore Outlook Add-in require Microsoft .NET Framework version 4.8. Please refer to our System Requirements.
If the framework is installed by the MailStore setup, the system might reboot without further notice.
External Archive Stores
Starting with version 22.2, only versions 10 or newer are supported for PostgreSQL.

Upgrading to 13.x

Update of MailStore Client and Outlook Add-in
Irrespective of MailStore Client's auto-update mechanism, a reinstallation of MailStore Client and the MailStore Outlook Add-in is required to make use of the following improvements:
- Unified validation of TLS certificates.
- Unified evaluation of group policies.
- Distinct error messages for certain certificate errors.
- Outlook Add-in: Due to the required changes of the login process to support modern authentication with Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, the Outlook Add-in must be updated to version 13 to be able to connect to MailStore Server 13.x. Connecting to an older version of MailStore Server is no longer supported after the update.
Unencrypted Connections
Support for unencrypted connections to MailStore Server has been fully removed. This affects MailStore Outlook Add-in, and the Legacy Web Access. After updating the Outlook Add-in, it automatically tries to connect to the default HTTPS port (8462) if either the default HTTP port (8461) or no port was set as part of the server name previously. In all other cases, the initial connections may fail and requires the server name to be adjusted by the user, or by an administrator via group policies.
HTTP-to-HTTPS Redirect
The HTTP-to-HTTPS redirect option, which must be considered insecure without the use of properly configured HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS), has been removed. Users are required to use the correct HTTPS URL to access MailStore Web Access.
Windows Authentication
The authentication method selection has been removed from the newly design login dialog. Therefore, traditional Windows Authentication available in on-prem Active Directory controlled environments, can only be enabled through group policies. Further information on group policies can be found in MailStore Client Deployment and MailStore Outlook Add-in Deployment.
Microsoft 365 Support
A new directory service synchronization profile Microsoft 365 (Modern Authentication) as well as new profiles for archiving and exporting emails from or to Microsoft 365 have been introduced. These support modern authentication (OAuth 2.0 & OpenID Connect) and customers of Microsoft 365 are advised to regularly check for Microsoft's announcement on the timeline for removing HTTP Basic Auth from Microsoft Exchange Web Services (EWS) and to plan the migration to the new profiles in advance.
Once Microsoft disables support for HTTP Basic Auth in Exchange Web Services on Microsoft 365, the existing directory service synchronization profile Microsoft 365 (Basic Auth) (formerly named Office 365) and the Microsoft Exchange archiving and export profiles will stop working.
Google Workspace Support
The Google Workspace directory service synchronization profile has been extended with support for modern authentication (OAuth 2.0 & OpenID Connect). Customers of Google Workspace are advised to regularly check for Google's announcement on the timeline for removing support for less secure apps, and should plan the migration to the new setting in advance.
Once Google disables support for Less Secure Apps in Google Workspace, the existing directory service synchronization profile Google Workspace will no longer allow users to login to MailStore as long as the authentication method is still set to IMAP.
IMAP Access to Archive
When using either the new Microsoft 365 (Modern Authentication) or Google Workspace directory service synchronization profile, user that have been added by these profiles, can not access their archive via the integrated IMAP server as MailStore Server is not able to verify those passwords itself.
Startup Scripts
The MailStore Server Service Configuration now provides functionality to configure connections to remote SMB/CIFS network shares without having to store credential in a plain text batch file. Therefore, startup scripts are no longer recommended to be used for that purpose. Unless there actually is a startup script found in MailStore Server's program directory, the corresponding menu item Startup Script will not be shown in the MailStore Server Service Configuration.
Mobile Web Access
The dedicated Mobile Web Access has been removed due to no longer supported third-party components (e.g. jQuery Mobile) and in favor of MailStore Web Access, which has been received major enhancements in terms of performance and usability.
Legacy Web Access
As parts of Legacy Web Access are representing the server-side of the Outlook Add-in, the Legacy Web Access is still present, but no longer advertised on the login screen of the Web Access.
Group Policies
The following group policy settings are no longer supported in MailStore 13
- MailStore Client: Accept Thumbprint
  If a server name has been defined by a group policy, the certificate used by MailStore Server must be trusted by the client computer and it must not be revoked or expired.
- MailStore Outlook Add-in: Accept Thumbprint
  If a server name has been defined by a group policy, the certificate used by MailStore Server must be trusted by the client computer and it must not be revoked or expired.
- MailStore Outlook Add-in: Enable TLS/SSL encryption
  As MailStore Server no longer supports unencrypted inbound connections and the default behavior of MailStore Outlook Add-in as been modified accordingly, this option is ignored.

Upgrading to 12.1

System Requirements
Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Small Business Server 2008 support has been removed from MailStore in this version. For a current list of supported operating systems, please refer to System Requirements.

Upgrading to 12

Expired Certificates
Irrespective of whether the certificate's trust can be verified, no connection is established by MailStore Client to server's whose certificate has expired or was revoked. In such a case, the certificate must be replaced by means of the MailStore Server service configuration tool first.
Using Certificates
If in the past, different certificates were used for the services provided by MailStore Server, the same certificate configuration as for new installations will be shown during the installation. The certificate configured in that step will afterwards be used for all provided services and can be change in the MailStore Server service configuration tool.

Upgrading to 11

Upgrading Archive Stores
Depending on the archive size this can take an excessive amount of time. On average 50.000 messages are processed per minute during the upgrade.

Until the archive stores have been upgraded, not all functionality of the software is available. To facilitate
- retention policies,
- the search functionality,
- the improved recovery records,
the databases of the archive stores must be upgraded.

Proceed as follows to upgrade
- Log in as MailStore administrator (admin).
- Click on Administrative Tools > Storage and then Storage Locations.
- Either click on the yellow info box to upgrade all archive stores at once or right-click on an archive store and select Perform Upgrade to upgrade a single archive store.
- Carefully read the notices and click on OK to start the upgrade process or click on Cancel.
Retention Policies
If not all attached archive stores are available (State: Archive here, Normal), or their status is Write-Protected, no automatic processing of retention policies takes place. Therefore verify if an archive store is set to Disabled or Write-Protected after the upgrade and change it to one of the above states or detach it completely.
Access via Integrated IMAP Server
To access the archive via the integrated IMAP server, an encrypted connection is now mandatory. If necessary, adjust the configuration of your email clients accordingly and enable TLS or STARTTLS.
Management API Commands Get-/SetComplianceConfiguration
The property globalRetentionTimeYears has been removed from the commands. Own scripts using these commands have to be adjusted accordingly. To manage retention policies, two new commands are available: GetRetentionPolicies and SetRetentionPolicies.

Upgrading to 10.2

Web Access
The new responsive Web Access is exclusively available via the HTTPS port. User who are still using the unencrypted HTTP port to access Web Access, will see a corresponding notice about this circumstance. Thus it is recommended to use a trustworthy certificate signed by an official or internal certificate authority. See Using Your Own SSL Certificate for details.

Known Issues

The backend of the new responsive Web Access expects MailStore Server to be reachable on IP address 127.0.0.1 (localhost) and the default TCP port 8460. If you configured MailStore to listen on a specific IP address for MailStore Client connections in the MailStore Server Service Configuration, please reset it to (All IP Addresses) and Port 8460. This problem was fixed with version 10.2.3.

Upgrading to 10.1

Archiving Emails
If not all attached archive stores are available (State: Archive here, Normal, or Write-Protected), no archiving takes place. Running archiving profiles are terminated with an appropriate message. Under certain circumstances this prevents the creation of duplicate emails while archiving. Therefore verify if an archive store is set to disabled after the upgrade and change it to one of the above states or detach it completely.
Status Reports
If a longer period should be covered by status reports, it must be ensured that the profile and job results are kept for at least that period. The default value of previous installations is one week and should be adjusted to the new default value of 90 days.

Upgrading to Version 10

Encryption Notices
Due to enhanced encryption mechanisms, MailStore archives that have been upgraded to version 10 are tied to the Windows-Installation on which MailStore Server has been installed. Under certain conditions some actions (e.g. restoring the default admin, attaching foreign archive stores, etc.) in MailStore require the input of a recovery key. By default this is the product key of the installation.
Please make sure to store the product key entered during installation in a safe location.
In environments with higher security requirements it is recommended to change the default recovery key and, depending on the backup target, exclude the unencrypted search indexes from backups. Corresponding information can be found in the MailStore Server Service Configuration article.
Upgrade of Master Database
To facilitate encryption of the master database it is upgraded to Firebird 3 during the first start of the MailStore Server service and encrypted afterwards. This process might extend the time required for the first start of the service by several minutes.
Upgrading Archive Stores
To facilitate encryption the databases of the archive store must be upgraded. Proceed as follows to upgrade:
- Log in as MailStore administrator (admin).
- Click on Administrative Tools > Storage and then Storage Locations.
- Either click on the yellow info box to upgrade all archive stores at once or right-click on an archive store and select Perform Upgrade to upgrade a single archive store.
- Carefully read the notices and click on OK to start the upgrade process or click on Cancel.
Archives of Other Users
These are no longer visible for MailStore administrators if the Archive Access (formerly knows as E-mail Preview) is blocked. Administrative functions such as deleting or renaming user archives are accessible through Administrative Tools > Users and Archives > Archives.
Export E-mails
The previous change may also have an impact on export profiles owned by a MailStore administrator, in case the export scope contains archives of other users. As these are no longer visible to MailStore administrators if the Archive Access (formerly knows as E-mail Preview) is blocked, they are not taken into account by export profiles.
Auditing
All activities that are exclusively executable by MailStore administrators are displayed as Enabled (locked) at Compliance > Auditing. Irrespective of the Disabled status, all activities of MailStore administrators, excluding MessageRetrieveContent, are written into the audit log.
Default Password
If you have not changed the default MailStore administrators (admin) password yet, you will be asked to set a new password during the first logon after the update. The same occurs when the password has been reset to admin after restoring the default admin.

Upgrading to Version 9.7

Search Indexes
Due to changes in the area of indexing email attachment contents, the search index settings should be opened and confirmed after the update, so that MailStore can identify potentially missing or unsupported IFilters.
Archiving from Gmail
This version contains a new Gmail profile, that provides additional functionality such as support for deleting emails from the Gmail mailbox and OAuth2 authentication. Please notice, that it does not support any other folders than "All Mail" and "Sent Items". This new behavior anticipates scenarios which have been recognized as confusing by users in the past and that where caused by the interaction of Gmail labels, IMAP folders and MailStore's single instance store. Existing Google Mail profiles can still be modified and executed, but no new ones can be created. It is recommended to replace old "Google Mail" profiles by this new Gmail profile.

Known Issues

Indexing the content of Open Document Format email attachments requires a working installation of OpenOffice or LibreOffice, though Microsoft Office 2010 Filter Pack officially provides support for these file types. Additional information can be found in the Search Indexes article.

Upgrading to Version 9.6

Update of MailStore Client and Outlook Add-in
Independent of MailStore Client's auto-update mechanism, a reinstallation of MailStore Client and the MailStore Outlook Add-in is required to make use of the following improvements:
- Client: Pin to taskbar now possible on Windows 7 and newer.
- Support for different SSL certificate thumbprint formats in group policies.
- Group policies allow configuration of client and Outlook Add-in language.
MailStore Proxy
Starting with version 9.6, MailStore Proxy requires .NET Framework 4.5.1. Hence the system requirements of MailStore proxy have also changed in regards to the operating system.

Upgrading to Version 9.3

Supported SSL certificates
Using SSL certificates which utilize MD5-hash based signature algorithms (e.g. md5rsa) is technically no longer possible since version 9.3. For years (approx. 2010) MD5-hash based signature algorithms have no longer been used for signing certificates. However, should the error message Authentication failed because the remote party has closed the transport stream. occur after installing the upgrade, please follow the instructions in the corresponding Knowledgebase article.

Upgrading to Version 9.x

System Requirements
Please ensure that your system configuration matches the updated system requirements. MailStore Server, MailStore Client and MailStore Outlook Add-in now require .NET Framework 4.5.1 and Internet Explorer 8 or higher. Thus Windows Vista SP2 or newer is required.
Server-side Execution of E-mail-Server Profiles and Internal Backup
Archiving from and exporting to email servers as well as the internal backup function is now carried out by the MailStore Server service itself. Thus it is necessary that the MailStore Server computer has the required permissions to access email servers and network shares where applicable (see Using Network Attached Storage (NAS)).
In either case, verify carefully that all automated tasks are still working properly after updating.
Scheduling of Profiles
For executing archiving and export profiles of type E-mail Servers, an internal scheduler is now used. This scheduler is used for all newly created profiles as soon as automatic execution is enabled in the profile settings.

Existing profiles of type E-mail Servers are set to manual execution after upgrading to MailStore Server 9. Their execution remains triggered based in the corresponding by task in the Windows Task Scheduler. To completely turn these profiles into independent server-side profiles, remove the corresponding task from the Windows Task Scheduler first and then enable automatic execution in the profile setting in MailStore Server. Further information can be found in Working with Archiving Profiles and Automating the Archiving Process
Group Policies
New ADM and ADMX templates are used for the configuration of MailStore Client and MailStore Outlook Add-in. Group Policies created with the new templates are not compatible with older versions of MailStore Client and MailStore Outlook Add-In, nor does MailStore Client 9 and MailStore Outlook Add-in 9 support Group Policies that have been created based on previous versions of the ADM and ADMX templates. Please replace any existing Group Policies when upgrading to MailStore Server 9. Further information can be found in MailStore Client Deployment and MailStore Outlook Add-in Deployment.
Automatic Creation of New Archive Stores
A new default threshold of 5 million emails has been introduced for the automatic creation of new archive stores in MailStore Server 9. For existing installations it is recommended to adjust this value after upgrading to MailStore Server 9 as described in Storage Locations.
PDF Support of Full Text Search
PDF support has been removed from MailStore Server's own indexer. Therefore it is required to either install a recent version of Adobe Reader or an appropriate IFilter driver (i.e. Adobe PDF iFilter on the MailStore Server computer.
MailStore Server Administration API
The API has been completely rewritten. As it does not provide and kind of backward compatibility with previous versions, it is required to carefully verify and, if necessary, to modify scripts that make use of the Administration API.
AVM KEN! Support Removed
After the vendor's support for AVM KEN! has already stopped in September 2010, the support by MailStore ends with MailStore Server 9. Existing AVM KEN! profiles are automatically removed from MailStore - archived emails remain in the archive.

Known Issues

Missing Email Headers when Printing from MailStore Web Access (resolved in version 9.6)
Due to the technical implementation of the HTML view, emails printed from within MailStore Web Access do not contain information about sender, recipient and subject. Until a fix is available, the workaround is to open the emails in an email client such as Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird for printing.

Upgrading to Version 8.x

System Requirements
Please ensure that your system configuration matches the updated system requirements. MailStore Client and MailStore Outlook Add-in now require .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 and Internet Explorer 8 or higher.

Upgrading to Version 7.0

Management Shell / Batch Scripts
The server-side part of the Management Shell command set, which included commands such as user-add or filegroup-create, has completely been replaced by the more powerful MailStore Server Administration API. If you have written custom scripts (e.g. batch scripts) for user management or store management, please update them so that it uses the new command set. More information about the MailStore Server Management Shell

Upgrading to Version 6.0

Upgrading File Groups
The file group format has changed to ensure high performance and stability in the future. To upgrade existing file groups to the new format, proceed as follows:
- Log in as MailStore administrator (admin).
- Click on Administrative Tools > Storage and then Storage Locations.
- Either click on the yellow info box to upgrade all file groups at once or right-click on a file group and select Perform Upgrade to upgrade a single file group.
- Carefully read the notices and click on OK to start the upgrade process or click on Cancel.
- While the upgrade process is running, you will see a window showing information about the upgrade progress. You can click on Cancel at any time to interrupt the upgrade process in order to continue it later.
Automatic Creation of New File Groups
If you are using a scheduled task to create new file groups regularly, we recommend to remove that scheduled task and proceed as described in chapter Creating File Groups Automatically of the MailStore Server manual. Please notice the recommended limit of 500.000 messages per file group; that is the default value for all new installations of MailStore Server 6.
Active Directory Integration
After upgrading to MailStore Server 6 it is required to reconfigure the Active Directory integration with the new Directory Service interface. Please follow the instructions in chapter Active Directory Integration of the MailStore Server manual.
Important notice: From MailStore Server 6 on, accessing the Active Directory is done under the security scope of the MailStore Server service (instead of MailStore Client). Therefor, please pay attention to Authentication under Specifying Connection Settings.
Generic LDAP Integration
After upgrading to MailStore Server 6 it is required to reconfigure the generic LDAP integration with the new Directory Service interface. Please follow the steps in chapter Generic LDAP Integration of the MailStore Server manual.
Firewall Settings
If you have set up firewall rules manually to allow access to MailStore Server, MailStore Web Access, MailStore Outlook Add-in or the MailStore integrated IMAP server, we recommend to remove the firewall rules before installing MailStore Server 6. If desired, MailStore Server 6 can set up and update firewall rules on its own, after changes have been made in the MailStore Server Service Configuration (formerly known as MailStore Server Base Configuration).
No More Separate Downloads
There is only one MailStore Server setup file, that includes all appropriate setup files for MailStore Client, MailStore Outlook Add-in and MailStore Proxy. MailStore Server setup creates a link on your desktop that opens an Explorer window with the setup files. If the desktop link does not exist you can find the setup files in the Setup-<version> sub-folder of your MailStore Server installation directory.

Upgrading to Version 5.0

MailStore Outlook Add-In
MailStore Outlook Add-in requires access to MailStore Web Access. Should the situation arise that your firewall block the MailStore Web Access ports (default: 8461 for HTTP and 8462 for HTTPS), please reconfigure you firewall accordingly.

Upgrading to Version 4.5

Database Backups
Database backup tasks or profiles which were created with an earlier version of MailStore Server need to be re-created with this version. Use the new backup functionality in Administrative Tools which provides you with several new features.
Search Indexes
If you have created search indexes with a MailStore Server version equal or earlier than 3.0.2, you will be prompted to rebuild them after your first administrator logon to MailStore Server. Depending on the number of users and file groups, this process might take several minutes or hours. You can continue to use MailStore Server during this process, however the search functionality might be limited until the process is finished.