Some mail servers show IMAP folders as sub-folders under INBOX. In Thunderbird I could make the folders display at the same hierarchical level as the Inbox by specify “INBOX” as the IMAP folder in the advanced server settings. However, when I add “INBOX” as the parent folder in “Receive Options - Advanced Settings”, Evolution hides the Inbox folder. Without it, all the other folders are collapsed under Inbox. How can I get Evolution to show a flat folder hierarchy, including the Inbox?
Which underlying problem would a “flat folder hierarchy including the Inbox” solve, assuming that this isn’t about esthetics?
That was the design of the first IMAP implementation (Cyrus) at
Carnegie-Mellon University, but IIRC most modern IMAP servers don’t do
that. I’m not sure that Evolution has a specific option to deal with
it, but you could use Search Folders as a workaround. Not ideal I know.
poc
@andre
Thanks for the quick response. It isn’t worth calling it a “problem”. As you suspect, it is about esthetics, and also the minor inconvenience of having an extra level to expand.
Since Thunderbird automatically provided the view I wanted when I configured “INBOX” as “Personal namespace” (sorry about the mistake in nomenclature), I just assumed that there was some configuration option I missed in Evolution.
Not only Thunderbird, but also Outlook, Samsung Mail and Apple Mail handle this the way I expected, once provided with an “IMAP Path Prefix”.
Hi,
use “INBOX/” instead. With that, I see only Inbox and its subfolders.
The folder separator is important. I also have subscribed the Inbox
folder (see Folder->Subscriptions). Though the most problematic is that
these (namespace) changes are sort of fatal, you want to close
Evolution and run it again when you do any change in it.
As far as I remember, the Inbox is enforced in the IMAP accounts, no
idea why you do not see it.
Bye,
Milan
@Milan
Thanks for the suggestion, but it didn’t work for me. The result was that I saw only the Inbox for the affected accounts, even after opening “Folder Subscriptions” and trying “Refresh” and “Expand All”.
P.S. Another minor convenience is that when the “spam” folder is indented under “Inbox”, it loses the option “Empty Junk”.
The result was that I saw only the Inbox for the affected accounts
Hi,
I had that when I did not use the folder separator. The forward slash
worked here. Sometimes a dot does the trick, it depends on the server
settings. Do not forget to stop and run again the Evolution after this
change.
Another minor convenience is that when the “spam” folder is indented
under “Inbox”, it loses the option “Empty Junk”.
The “Empty Junk” is offered only for folders identified as Junk, which
is also indicated by a special icon. It’s IMAP, thus open the mail
account Properties->Defaults, check to use a real junk folder and
select the one which you want it to be.
Bye,
Milan
Thanks! That did the trick. With “INBOX.” as “Personal namespace” the folder tree now appears the way I like it.