How to Save an Email as a Draft in Roundcube/Proservice Mailbox via n8n

[David_Takidze]

Hi everyone,

I’m working on an n8n automation for a client who uses Proservice email hosting.
The mailbox can be accessed via Roundcube webmail and also in Outlook (configured through Proservice’s mail server).

Right now:

• I can successfully read incoming emails in n8n using POP3 (pop.test.ge port 143).
• I can also send emails using SMTP (smtp.test.ge port 25).

The challenge:
I need to take an incoming email, process it in n8n, and then move it into the Drafts folder in the same mailbox so the user can open it later in Outlook or Roundcube and finish sending it.

Problem:

• POP3 doesn’t support uploading or moving emails.
• n8n’s Outlook (Microsoft Graph) nodes won’t work because the mailbox is not a Microsoft 365 / Exchange account — it’s hosted by Proservice.
• I believe IMAP (with APPEND to “Drafts” folder) could solve this, but I don’t have IMAP credentials from Proservice.

My questions:

1. Has anyone done an IMAP APPEND to save a draft email in n8n (maybe in a Code node)?
2. Does Proservice support IMAP for their hosted mailboxes, and if so, what’s the host/port for @test.ge accounts?
3. Is there any workaround to create a Draft in a POP3-only setup?

Any suggestions or code examples would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

[Jim_Le]

Hey @David_Takidze welcome to the community!

You’re right that you’ll need IMAP and to answer your second question, you’ll have to ask Proservice directly if they support this type of access. POP3 is typically your read-only access so you won’t be able to create drafts using it.

Once you have IMAP credentials, definitely check out this imap community node GitHub - umanamente/n8n-nodes-imap: This is an n8n community node that adds support for IMAP email servers. to create drafts.

[David_Takidze]

How can I use this node? Does it require running n8n locally? I tried using it, but I can’t find it in the Nodes tab.

[Jim_Le]

Yes, you’ll need self-hosted n8n to use this node. If you’re on n8n cloud then unfortunately, this approach won’t work.

To Install: Settings > Community Nodes > install n8n-nodes-imap
To use: In the nodes panel, search for “IMAP” and the “IMAP” node should now be available (see screenshot)