Inbox Folders recognized as Subfolders instead of Folders in the sidebar

[elioqoshi]

Steps to reproduce

1. Subfolders are not shown in a tree structure in my inbox
2. They are shown as Nextcloud.Box instead of Box (child) under Nextcloud (parent)

   Expected behaviour

The Inbox folders should appear in a tree hierarchy supporting Subfolders and maybe also Subsubfolders.

Mail app

Mail app version: 0.5.3

Mailserver or service: Namecheap Shared Hosting

Transport security - IMAP: SSL/TLS

Transport security - SMTP: SSL/TLS

Number of accounts: 1

Mail app version build date: (only if you are using a Nightly Build)

Server configuration

Operating system: linux

Web server: Apache 2.2.31

Database: MySQL

PHP version: 5.4.43

Version: 10.0.1 (stable)

Updated from an older version or fresh install: Fresh Install

List of activated apps: Mail Contacts Calendar

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[ChristophWurst]

Hi, maybe https://github.com/nextcloud/mail#dovecot-imap helps?

[elioqoshi]

@ChristophWurst I'm not too technical but had a look through my FTP and there was no etc/dovecot folder or dovecot.conf file. Do I need to create one? It's not really explained in the documentation

[ChristophWurst]

@elioqoshi only touch that if you really know what you're doing. Do you run your own mail server? Then I'm sure you'll find the mail server's documentation on the internet. This is nothing we can/should document here as this is just an IMAP client.

[doomi]

same issue here. all my folders are subfolders of the inbox (it's configured this way by my ISP, I cannot change it).

[timreeves]

I run several servers all managed by Plesk. So not only myself but quite a number of my loved-ones and customers already use mail accounts on these servers. For backward compatibility - Plesk used to install Courier - it configures Dovecot with the "INBOX" namespace.

I understand how I could easily change the way dovecot works by adding a config file to its conf.d directory, as noted here.

BUT doing so would change the addresses of all the folders, so all my customers would have to reconnect all their accounts on all their clients (or modify the mailbox adresses, that's possible in Thunderbird). And even if the eMail clients silently correct their knowledge of the accounts structure, then it would change the way my customers have become used to seeing the mailboxes, not to mention all old folders thrown away and all mails downloaded again. To put it simply: That ain't gonna happen )-:

As it is now, other mail clients like TB and Android Mail manage quite well with this "INBOX" structure - the folders are all displayed as children of 'Posteingang'. Personally I quite like this hierarchy - I have many mail accounts and I can see them all in Thunderbirds left sidebar: I expand just the account so I see 'Posteingang', but leave 'Posteingang' closed to save display height by not showing the folders, except when I actually need them.

What happens now with the mail app, it does not recognise that the children of INBOX are in fact the top level folders, and thus does not display them in the left sidebar. But it does allow 'Posteingan' to be expanded, and there they all - in a flattened list )-: Not really fun if you have a large hierarchy.

My idea is to have an option in the account settings to use the 'INBOX' structure.

That would also solve issue 185.

@ChristophWurst , @Henni Thanks so much for the great work!

Cheers, Tim

[ChristophWurst]

Hi Tim,

thanks for this detailed feedback. Actually, I've worked with the folder management code recently and I'm convinced that we can eliminate this restriction once https://github.com/nextcloud/mail/pull/271 has been finished ;-)

[RPDiep]

271 has been merged ; would be great to see this one fixed as well. If I run the dovecot server myself I can fix it but for some accounts I'm not the admin.

[j-ed]

I confirm the described behavior on Panda IMAP too. Mailbox files and the sub-folder itself are listed but not in a tree view. The folder itself is recognized correctly and marked with a small arrow in front of it but it has no effect on the way how the folders are listed. Example:

> Archive
  Archive/Mail-Folder-1
  Archive/Mail-Folder-2
  Archive/Mail-Folder-3

[ChristophWurst]

I'm closing this ticket because it hasn't received any updates in a long time. If this is still relevant, feel free to re-open or file a new ticket.

Thank you.

[Grunthos]

This still seems to be a problem in NC Mail; hierarchical folders on the IMAP server are displayed in a flat structure.

[miaulalala]

This still seems to be a problem in NC Mail; hierarchical folders on the IMAP server are displayed in a flat structure.

Can you please tell me your NC and Mail version?

[Grunthos]

NC 22.2.3; Mail 1.11.5.

[Grunthos]

If it helps at all, I'm using Dovecot IMAP server and the underlying mail are stored in individual files and the folder name structures is represented by unix folders where the 'folder' names are separated by '.'

[ChristophWurst]

Does it still happen?

[timreeves]

Hi Christoph,

thanks for checking on this issue! The short answer: When a child folder of inbox is discovered it is shown correctly, with the dropdown arrow (which then works).

Nowadays I use folders as siblings of inbox, none as children. But I decided to check it out and added one in Thunderbird, which the NC Mail app only discovered on the 2nd attempt. So then I added another child folder in NC Mail - which the app shows correctly, but Thunderbird can't discover. And then I added a third one in Thunderbird, which NC Mail repeatedly fails to discover. I'm using Dovecot on Debian 10, I checked and the INBOX subfolders are all there as expected. But how Dovecot administers its knowledge of subfolders seems like murky waters, and # doveadm force-resync -u info@timreeves.de INBOX did not update the corresponding dovecot.index file. And Android Mail has failed to discover any of the new inbox children. What a bummer.

So: I'm irritated about the non-discovery, but delighted that NC Mail displays the things (it can find) correctly.

Many thanks for your years-long dedication!

Tim

[timreeves]

BTW a slight beef: So I deleted an inbox child folder in Thunderbird - but NC Mail still showed it. I clicked on it... and am still looking at "Lade Nachrichten..." It would be nice if NC Mail would notice it's not there any more and remove it from its own cache.