commanderclif_me

Q: Mac Mail odd folder with Exchange account

At our office we recently moved from an internal mail server for the office Exchange account to Office 365. There is an odd folder showing up on all Macs running anything from El Capitan back to Lion where a folder called "Files" has shown up in the list of folder icons in the sidebar. This folder does not show up when logged in to Office 365 via a web browser but it behaves like a distinguished folder as it can not be deleted (much like the Conversations folder and new Clutter folder).

 

Inside the folder called "Files" appears to be a collection of receipts of any email that had an attachment either sent or received. No actually content, just a bunch of time and date stamp info, file name, and some times some code. Always displayed as NO SENDER.

 

Any idea what this is and how we make it go away?

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013), OS X El Capitan (10.11.1)

Posted on Aug 12, 2016 5:57 PM

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Q: Mac Mail odd folder with Exchange account

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  • by mr.robert.,

    mr.robert. mr.robert. Aug 15, 2016 6:46 PM in response to commanderclif_me
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Aug 15, 2016 6:46 PM in response to commanderclif_me

    I have also been experiencing this issue.

     

    Not sure what exactly is causing it, but any attachment sent or received is being stripped of its text and a blank email with no addressee sits in the 'files' folder.

     

    When I run Outlook on Mac or Office365 in browser, I can't see the 'files' folder.

  • by commanderclif_me,

    commanderclif_me commanderclif_me Aug 16, 2016 6:51 AM in response to mr.robert.
    Level 1 (13 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 16, 2016 6:51 AM in response to mr.robert.

    I had our IT folks who moved us to Office365 look in to it as well. His response was it was some how connected to the new CLUTTER folder feature. He thinks it will eventually come to MS's attention and will get addressed but as of now, not a way to hid or remove. He also confirmed this is not just a Mac thing, he was able to see the FILES folder on a PC as well.


    I thought I might try and go in to the online version of Office365 Mail and see if there was a way to turn off the CLUTTER feature and see if it went away. If I have success, I'll report back!

  • by Waragainstsleep,Helpful

    Waragainstsleep Waragainstsleep Aug 18, 2016 8:09 AM in response to commanderclif_me
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 18, 2016 8:09 AM in response to commanderclif_me

    I spent some time investigating this with a Microsoft engineer today.

     

    I have replicated the issue on Macs running both El Capitan and Yosemite;

    The issue occurs with all Office365 accounts I have tested so far;

    The "Files" folder is not present if you use Outlook 2016 either on Mac or Windows (7);

    The "Files" folder is not present in Apple Mail if you set the account type as IMAP instead of Exchange;

    The "Files" folder cannot be deleted "distinguished folders cannot be deleted";

    The messages in the "Files" folder seem to be created whenever an email with an attachment is sent or received to or from an external email address;
    The messages in the "Files" folder correspond to genuine emails but are marked "no sender". Subject and timestamp matches a message in either the sent folder or the inbox;
    The messages in the "Files" folder may contain text as the message body taken from the attachment that was in the corresponding original message. Attachments without text will be blank save for subject and timestamp;

    There will be one 'no sender' message in the "Files folder for each attachment;

     


    My theory is that "Files" is a backend Exchange system folder used to store or organise attachments and for some reason Apple Mail's implementation of the Exchange protocols is now causing it to show up when it should be invisible to the user.

     


    Microsoft say they are looking into it and will talk to Apple if they confirm the issue to be with Mail.

  • by commanderclif_me,

    commanderclif_me commanderclif_me Aug 18, 2016 8:14 AM in response to Waragainstsleep
    Level 1 (13 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 18, 2016 8:14 AM in response to Waragainstsleep

    Thanks War for the detailed write up. I tried to be brief in my original post but appreciate the depth here as it will help others find this thread irritated by folders appearance.

     

    As I suspected, just turning off Clutter in my 365 preferences did nothing to have either "Files" or "Clutter" folder from being removed or becoming distinguished.

     

    I'm curious if there are any benefits/consequences to going IMAP protocol vs. Exchange.

     

    If they weren't already looking in to it, thanks for helping get it on MS's radar to be looked at.

     

    OH, and just a thought. Maybe theres a "leap year" bug in there. There are 366 days this year after all. (just a little MS poke there)

  • by skoussouris,

    skoussouris skoussouris Sep 5, 2016 2:24 AM in response to commanderclif_me
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Sep 5, 2016 2:24 AM in response to commanderclif_me

    I can confirm this is happening when selecting the "Exchange" protocol.

     

    Also when in an iPad or iPhone, even with Exchange, this folder does not appear.

  • by commanderclif_me,

    commanderclif_me commanderclif_me Sep 5, 2016 10:48 AM in response to skoussouris
    Level 1 (13 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 5, 2016 10:48 AM in response to skoussouris

    Partially correct skoussouris. The folder "files" does not show up nor does the new "Yammer Root" folder showing up on Macs, but "Conversation History" and "Clutter" are showing up on iOS.

  • by skoussouris,

    skoussouris skoussouris Sep 5, 2016 11:00 AM in response to commanderclif_me
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Sep 5, 2016 11:00 AM in response to commanderclif_me

    Not really, I see all the three of them

    Screen Shot 2016-09-05 at 21.00.06.png

  • by commanderclif_me,

    commanderclif_me commanderclif_me Sep 5, 2016 11:06 AM in response to skoussouris
    Level 1 (13 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 5, 2016 11:06 AM in response to skoussouris

    You said in your first post that the folder doesn't show up in iOS, without identifying which folder. To clarify:

    OS X: Clutter, Conversation History, Files and the new one, Yammer Root all show.

    iOS: Clutter and Conversation History show up.

  • by skoussouris,

    skoussouris skoussouris Sep 5, 2016 11:07 AM in response to commanderclif_me
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Sep 5, 2016 11:07 AM in response to commanderclif_me

    You are correct, my mistake!

    Btw I don't see the Yammer in OS X (maybe because I have never activated/used it)

  • by commanderclif_me,

    commanderclif_me commanderclif_me Sep 5, 2016 11:10 AM in response to skoussouris
    Level 1 (13 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 5, 2016 11:10 AM in response to skoussouris

    NP! We were surprised to see it show up. And anything with the word "root" in it would normally mean you should be suspicious of what ROOT are we talking about?! So after a moment of panic, I figured out that Yammer is Microsofts version of "Slack" so how it got activated when my team had not expressed in interest in using it is beyond me. My suspicion was like "Clutter" this is just Microsoft pushing services on users without them asking for them first. Typical MS.