Recursively nested INBOX folders appear in mail.app

Question

Level 1

0 points

Recursively nested INBOX folders appear in mail.app

I have this strange issue that keeps popping up. Within one of my mail accounts, accessed via IMAP, a set of nested INBOX folders is created - see a screenshot here - http://bionicdan.net/depot/nested_inbox.png

Weird, huh?

Obviously, one of my IMAP clients is creating it, but I'm not sure which (I use mail.app on 2 10.5 machines, mail.app on my iPhone, and Thunderbird on a Windows machine).

Has anyone ever seen something like this pop up before? Know why / how to fix it?

MacBook 13", Mac Mini Intel Core Duo, Mac OS X (10.5.4)

Posted on Sep 15, 2008 7:34 AM

Reply

Answer 1

srp-uk

Level 1

0 points

Sep 23, 2008 12:05 AM in response to bionicDan

I'm getting exactly the same problem too, a non-infinite but quite deep nesting of INBOX folders. I've even tried deleting them manually from the server (which is courier-imap, running on a OS X Tiger machine) and this works for a while, but I'm pretty sure its Mail.app that's causing them to re-appear.

Reply

Answer 2

bionicDan Author

Level 1

0 points

Sep 23, 2008 4:04 PM in response to srp-uk

Yes - I've just confirmed that Mail.app - Version 3.4 (928/928.1) - is creating the problem for me. It only reoccurs if I delete the folders in another client, then open Mail.app. I still can't determine why.

I actually have 2 machines running Leopard and using Mail.app to access this account, but only my MacBook is creating the problem.

srp-uk - you don't happen to use Dreamhost to host your mail, do you? Just trying to rule them out as possibly related to the issue.

Reply

Answer 3

jerume

Level 1

0 points

Sep 23, 2008 4:22 PM in response to bionicDan

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8157012#8157012

Reply

Answer 4

jerume

Level 1

0 points

Sep 24, 2008 4:36 PM in response to bionicDan

up

Message was edited by: jerume

Reply

Answer 5

srp-uk

Level 1

0 points

Sep 24, 2008 10:48 PM in response to bionicDan

My mail is held on a server at the University, on a Tiger machine running courier-imapd.

A bit more experimenting confirms that it's definitely Mail.app that's creating the unwanted hierarchy, though sometimes it takes several hours to re-appear once it's been deleted manually from the server (so the effect of only your macbook creating it may just be that you've not left it running on the other machine for long enough to recreate the issue).

I don't think we're any closer to finding a solution here yet though! Mail seems to be working fine in every other respect, and on the macbook it's not a huge problem just to ignore the little disclose arrow -- on the small screen of the iPhone the extra hierarchy is horrible though!

Steve

Reply

Answer 6

jerume

Level 1

0 points

Sep 25, 2008 1:09 AM in response to jerume

problem with 3.5 too

Reply

Answer 7

bionicDan Author

Level 1

0 points

Sep 29, 2008 8:16 AM in response to bionicDan

My nested folders are growing! Now it's placed a Trash mailbox on the end.

See screenshot: http://bionicdan.net/depot/nestedinboxgrowing.png

If I delete the INBOX parent, it starts over creating them...

Reply

Answer 8

Sep 29, 2008 12:37 PM in response to bionicDan

Same here. I've tried fiddling with the IMAP-prefix settings but to no avail. IN my case it's only one IMAP account (of three) which has problems. It's nested 4 deep and the mailbox is the "Sent" mailbox.

INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.INBOX.Sent

Reply

Answer 9

Sep 30, 2008 12:21 AM in response to bionicDan

Same here, but it only started happening after I upgraded to 10.5.5. I have been on DreamHost for almost 2 years, and this has never happened before.

Reply

Answer 10

HazyRigby

Level 2

404 points

Sep 30, 2008 12:58 AM in response to bionicDan

Have any of you tried going into Mail > Preferences, clicking on Accounts, clicking on the "Advanced" tab (making sure the correct account is selected on the left), and adding the word "INBOX" (all caps, no quotes) to the "IMAP Path Prefix" box?

That's worked for some.

Hope that helps!
—Hazy

Reply

Answer 11

Sep 30, 2008 2:31 AM in response to HazyRigby

Yes, I have, to no avail.

Reply

Answer 12

bionicDan Author

Level 1

0 points

Oct 3, 2008 11:26 PM in response to HazyRigby

Yes. This is how my mailbox is set up now and how it was when the problem started happening... 😟

Reply

Answer 13

Oct 7, 2008 11:40 AM in response to bionicDan

Exactly the same problem here. But it doesn't bother me on my iPhone, which seems to show me the correct inbox without bothering me with dozens of sub-inboxes.

Reply

Answer 14

KennyAlp

Level 1

0 points

Oct 9, 2008 2:23 AM in response to bionicDan

Same problems here with the recursive mailboxes appearing mail.app (Version 3.5 (929.4/929.2)).

Reply

Answer 15

Oct 16, 2008 3:02 PM in response to HazyRigby

I have the same problem. But only with one of the four mail accouts I use. Two of them are on the same server and set up completely identically (both with some folder as inbox prefix), but I have this problem only with one of them... how does this make sense?

I too use Thunderbird on Linux and Windows, but the Problem only arises when working with Mail.
Further Mail sometimes hangs too when trying to quit.

Reply