Mail and Folders

[Windows Expat]

I'm trying to understand something...

I use IMAP email for my business. Across my devices (iMac, MBP, Android phone), I keep numerous identical folders for various projects. I routinely archive emails from my inbox into these folders. Email I no longer need gets deleted.

For some time now, I've been noticing that messages I've filed or deleted keep returning to the inbox. If I actually open the folder I put them in, the little loading circle goes around and they stay put. Otherwise, they eventually reappear in my inbox.

The weird thing is that when I access Mail on my Macbook and file messages into folders, they stay put without any fiddling.

My settings are identical on both machines. I only have the one account in Mail. Any suggestions?

 

[robgendreau]

Not sure, but make sure you're distinguishing local folders from folders on your email server.

And to make it more confusing (or maybe less, dunno) Gmail refers to them as labels, though they look like folders.

But the delay you might get when you see an email in the inbox on your device and then upon clicking the folder you thought you stored it in (on another device) might simply be the current device catching up with what has already happened on the server. My inbox messages in gmail will move before my eyes as my iPhone syncs up, for example. Some devices are gonna push that info quicker; others might be set up to require a manual sync (which is nice sometimes if you want to save bandwidth).

On your laptop that bandwidth conservation consideration doesn't apply, generally, and so the changes are much more immediate. And although the settings in the account on the laptop and iMac might be the same, perhaps the time interval set in the general Mail preferences is different on each machine.

Otherwise, I'm lost Hope it helps.

 

[Windows Expat]

Thanks for the reply!

I'm definitely in server folders, not confusing them with local folders. Don't even have any, actually.

And this is email through my domain, not Gmail.