diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 8007b53b7..7cc43f8a6 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 - added a JSON RPC API, accessible through a WebSocket server, the CFFI bindings and the Node.js bindings #3463
 
 ### Changes
+- jsonrpc: auto restart io on setConfig for the following keys `sentbox_watch`, `mvbox_move` and `only_fetch_mvbox` #3542
 - refactorings #3545 #3551
 - use [pathlib](https://docs.python.org/3/library/pathlib.html) in provider update script #3543
 - `dc_get_chat_media()` can return media globally #3528
diff --git a/deltachat-jsonrpc/src/api/mod.rs b/deltachat-jsonrpc/src/api/mod.rs
index 95474c0ec..fabe091f0 100644
--- a/deltachat-jsonrpc/src/api/mod.rs
+++ b/deltachat-jsonrpc/src/api/mod.rs
@@ -671,11 +671,19 @@ async fn set_config(
     value: Option<&str>,
 ) -> Result<(), anyhow::Error> {
     if key.starts_with("ui.") {
-        ctx.set_ui_config(key, value).await
+        ctx.set_ui_config(key, value).await?;
     } else {
         ctx.set_config(Config::from_str(key).context("unknown key")?, value)
-            .await
+            .await?;
+
+        match key {
+            "sentbox_watch" | "mvbox_move" | "only_fetch_mvbox" => {
+                ctx.restart_io_if_running().await;
+            }
+            _ => {}
+        }
     }
+    Ok(())
 }
 
 async fn get_config(
diff --git a/src/context.rs b/src/context.rs
index c7f83d301..0d2168a79 100644
--- a/src/context.rs
+++ b/src/context.rs
@@ -239,6 +239,17 @@ impl Context {
         }
     }
 
+    /// Restarts the IO scheduler if it was running before
+    /// when it is not running this is an no-op
+    pub async fn restart_io_if_running(&self) {
+        info!(self, "restarting IO");
+        let is_running = { self.inner.scheduler.read().await.is_some() };
+        if is_running {
+            self.stop_io().await;
+            self.start_io().await;
+        }
+    }
+
     /// Returns a reference to the underlying SQL instance.
     ///
     /// Warning: this is only here for testing, not part of the public API.