# Setting up chatmail on an existing postfix/dovecot mailserver **URL:** \ **Category:** Show and Tell\ **Created:** [January 23, 2025, 3:32am UTC](https://support.delta.chat/t/setting-up-chatmail-on-an-existing-postfix-dovecot-mailserver/3525 "2025-01-23T03:32:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![FransVeldman](https://support.delta.chat/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/ea5d25/32.png) [@FransVeldman](https://support.delta.chat/u/FransVeldman)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2025, 3:32am UTC](https://support.delta.chat/t/setting-up-chatmail-on-an-existing-postfix-dovecot-mailserver/3525/1 "2025-01-23T03:32:27Z")
Hi, I just discovered Delta Chat and configured to use my regular email account. But the messages get mixed up with my inbox. It seems that I need to change something on my email server. All the info I can find so far is for setting up a NEW email server specifically for Delta Chat. Apart from the challenges to get two separate email servers working, one of the cute things of Delta Chat is that you can use your existing email account (with PGP keys etc). So, I’m looking for info how to add the Delta Chat functionality to an existing multidomain postfix/dovecot infrastructure. I can’t find info about that. I found a bunch of scripts to deploy chatmail onto a postfix/dovecot server, but it is unclear whether it will mess up the existing configuration, which would be a pain to restore (even with backups, as some mails might get lost/duplicated/etc). I can reverse engineer these scripts… but I have a feeling that I’m reinventing the wheel. I can’t be the only one who already has a fully functional postfix/dovecot server infrastructure with all the bells and whistles like spam filters, dkim, mailadmin, webmail, pgp etc. and just want to add delta chat to it, so existing email addresses can be reused. Any ideas, hints, experiences? Thanks, Frans ---
**Author:** ![link2xt](https://support.delta.chat/user_avatar/support.delta.chat/link2xt/32/1971_2.png) [@link2xt](https://support.delta.chat/u/link2xt)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2025, 4:19am UTC](https://support.delta.chat/t/setting-up-chatmail-on-an-existing-postfix-dovecot-mailserver/3525/2 "2025-01-23T04:19:21Z")
If you only want to use the server yourself, then the most interesting thing might be setting up a push notification service if you need Apple or Google FCM notifications: > [@How to install own chatmail and notification proxy?](https://support.delta.chat/t/how-to-install-own-chatmail-and-notification-proxy/3190): > > Hi there wave So I was planning to upgrade my server which is currently running dovecot+postfix on Arch Linux to chatmail so that iOS devices get instant notifications. However, after reading docs, FAQs and the forum, I’ve came to the conclusion that I need to deploy the chatmail server. But now I have some doubts regarding this… Can I try to install chatmail on Arch Linux or will it fail? I would check and execute the code to see what it does but I’m afraid it could break my current setup… If you don’t mainly use mobile devices or you have an Android phone that does not kill the application in the background, you might not need it. The other interesting part is this small Dovecot patch which removes half a second delay on message delivery: > > > This commit removes hardcoded 500 ms debounce > from storage that delays all stor…age notification subscribers such as IDLE and NOTIFY commands. > > 500 ms debounce constant NOTIFY\_DELAY\_MSECS > was added in 2009 \[1\]. Before that Dovecot > was only delivering notifications > when a second-resolution timer > is changed by at least 1, so IDLE notifications > were delayed by half a second on average. > > \[1\] https://github.com/dovecot/core/commit/56fb5d09955b6097f77b341717fd9b70e9f13e7 ---
**Author:** ![Ivan](https://support.delta.chat/user_avatar/support.delta.chat/ivan/32/1822_2.png) [@Ivan](https://support.delta.chat/u/Ivan)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2025, 7:05am UTC](https://support.delta.chat/t/setting-up-chatmail-on-an-existing-postfix-dovecot-mailserver/3525/3 "2025-01-23T07:05:35Z")
I installed my own server on Arch Linux without external mail access (meaning it couldn’t receive or send from/to outside) but unfortunately had to take it down because my relatives/friend ended up using WhatsApp more than DeltaChat so I decided to stop pushing it because of the effort it took me for nothing. Yeah, I know, a very sad story… ☹ In any case, I still have the config available so if you want to give it a try don’t hesitate to ask me if you have any doubts. Maybe I can tell you how I made it work and at the same time we document the process here 🙌 . ---
**Author:** ![r10s](https://support.delta.chat/user_avatar/support.delta.chat/r10s/32/1513_2.png) [@r10s](https://support.delta.chat/u/r10s)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2026, 3:20pm UTC](https://support.delta.chat/t/setting-up-chatmail-on-an-existing-postfix-dovecot-mailserver/3525/4 "2026-10-06T15:20:22Z")