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ubercool

macrumors 65816
Original poster
I've noticed that there's little easy-to-find information on how to properly manage IMAP mail folders. Since I'm suddenly experiencing a lot of weird issues, like Mail suddenly storing sent e-mails in an unexpected folder, plus duplicate, confusingly named folders, etc., I thought I would create a master "How To Organize IMAP Folders with Mail/iPhone" thread, which I'm sure will be very useful for the legions of Mail and iPhone users.

But first I have to show you my folder structure. I have four e-mail accounts that I have all set up under IMAP. Three are work-related and one is my MobileMe account, which I use to synchronize my calender and contacts.

Inbox
--MobileMe Account
--Work 1
--Work 2
--Work 3
Sent
--MobileMe Account
--Work 1
--Work 2
--Work 3
Trash
--MobileMe Account
--Work 1
--Work 2
--Work 3
Junk
--MobileMe Account
--Work 1
--Work 2
--Work 3

On My Mac
~Sent Items (my PC e-mail pre-dating using Mail)
--Admin
~to
--Sales etc. (these folders are used to locally archive mail)

Ubercool (IMAP server folders)
--Apple Mail To Do
--Deleted Messages
--Drafts
--Drafts (Ubercool)
--Read
--Sent
--Sent Messages
--Spam
--Trash

MobileMe (IMAP server folders)
--Drafts

The first problem I noticed is that suddenly, Mail started storing sent messages in the "Sent Messages" folder on the Ubercool server, but just as suddenly stopped. How do I prevent this from happening? Can I just move messages in the "Sent Messages" folder back to the main "Sent" folder?

I assume this has something to do with the way the iPhone interacts with Mail and the way everything is synchronized, which brings up a separate problem of multiple Calendars showing on my iPhone:

iPhone Default Calendar Setting
On My iPhone
Calendar

address@mac.com (MobileMe)
Calendar (set as default)

Can you post your tips on how to properly manage IMAP folders here and what your tactics are for properly synching your calendar? I would like to unify sent e-mails and eliminate duplicate Drafts and Drafts (Ubercool) folders, while avoiding duplicate calendar entries. 😱
 
Here's my Quota Limits dialog box, which shows that Mail has stored most of my sent mail in "Sent Messages" but suddenly also put 276 e-mails in the "Sent" folder. 😕

mail-quota-limits.jpg
 
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