Special folders

Mail
1

I’m struggling to understand “Special folders” in the imap section of my account. What is the intent of this section and how should it be used? What happens when I check or uncheck “Automatically detect special folder names”. What does this control? What happens when I make changes to the listed folders in this section?

I’ve seen various recommendations on this forum to make changes in this “Special folders” section, but I need to understand from a higher level why it is here and what it accomplishes in the world of imap email processing.

2

I found this information but it leaves much to be desired:
" By checking Automatically detect special folder names the folder names for incoming emails will be detected automatically. You can also enter your custom settings into the following fields: Sent, Draft, Trash, Junk."
I can’t tell which folders are being described here. Client folders or Server folders. It is very vague. I need a whole lot more detail to use this feature.

3

This option is used when the server folder naming convention is unusual and not automatically detected by eM Client.

For example the Sent folder on the server may be in the format of INBOX.sent, and eM Client is unable to detect it automatically. Therefore changing the special folder name for that folder will allow it to be correctly mapped in eM Client.

If these IMAP folders (Sent, Drafts, Junk, Trash and Archive) already sync correctly with eM Client, then there is no need to change them. Just leave the setting at automatically detect.

4

That was very helpful, Gary. I thank you.

5

Would appreciate some additional clarification…

My server (AOL/Yahoo) shows a folder name “Spam”. (At least that is what I see on the direct web interface, no other client).

EM Client folder name mapping is set to automatic and shows “Junk E-mail” for the same folder.

So if I manually enter folder names, what does “Junk” mean on the left-hand column? I assume it means “enter the name of the Junk folder, whatever it is called on the server”, in this case “Spam”? Or does it mean the server folder “Spam” will change to “Junk” if I enter “Junk E-mail”?

6

You can’t change that. The special folder on the server for spam is synced to eM Client as the Junk E-mail folder.

7

Thanks for your reply.

So I unchecked “Automatically detect” folder names and entered “Spam” for the “Junk” folder as AOL/Yahoo seems to call it “Spam”.

When I go to the view folders/messages, it shows as “Bulk” (not “Spam” or “Junk”).

So where did that come from?

Thanks!
Joe