Re: [Evolution] Initial run moved many emails from IMAP folders to Junk

[evolution johnea net]

On 8/31/21 12:40 AM, Milan Crha via evolution-list wrote:
> On Sat, 2021-08-21 at 15:53 -0700, John A via evolution-list wrote:
> > 1) Could it be that evolution is getting confused trying to interpret
> > these thunderbird "Junk" designations?
> >
> > 2) Does evolution interpret these thunderbird flags?
>
>       Hi,
> yes, and yes. The "Junk" flag is shared between the applications, thus
> they both understand them the same way.
>
> What Pete said about default virtual Junk/Trash folders is correct with
> a little exception, since some not so recent version of Evolution (or
> better libcamel from the evolution-data-server) the first run after an
> IMAP account being configured, it asks the IMAP server for the folder
> types and if some are recognized then they are assigned to the folders
> in the account settings. This includes Drafts, Sent, Junk and Trash
> folders. As both the Dovecot and Courier, you named, support this
> special folder flags, the IMAP account found the folders and turned
> virtual folders into real folders for the Junk and Trash. After that
> begun the download of the folders' content. As you had marked some
> messages as Junk from the earlier days, they had been moved to the real
> Junk folder according to the settings. Being it a virtual folder,
> nothing would be moved.
>
> As you use multiple clients to connect to your servers, I suggest you
> go to Edit->Preferences->Mail Accounts->IMAP Account->Edit->Defaults
> tab and turn off the real Junk and Trash folders, which will use the
> virtual folders, thus it will not move the messages around. Such change
> may need restart of the Evolution to take into effect fully. You may
> also turn off the Junk filtering for the account on the Receiving
> Options tab in the account Properties.
>
>       Bye,
>       Milan

Hello Milan,

Thank you for your clarification! With that additional information, I think the behavour I observed is all 
explained.

I will disable SPAM detection completely. (I agree with Pete that this is best done server-side)

However, I have been a little hesitant to start evolution at all, given concern that it will start moving 
files around again.

Follow up question:

If I want to start evolution, and have it not perform any data parsing or categorization, is it adequate to 
use:

evolution --offline

Thank you again, along with Pete and others who have helped me understand the application...

John Andrews
San Diego CA
2021-09-01