--- title: "Folders, sync and sending" description: "What a mail app sees of an address, how its changes reach OpenEmail, and the rules for the mail it sends." url: "https://openemail.uk/docs/knowledge/addresses/mail-apps/sync" area: "Knowledge base" category: "Mail apps" --- # Folders, sync and sending What a mail app sees of an address, how its changes reach OpenEmail, and the rules for the mail it sends. ## What syncs A mail app shows the mail of the one address it signed in as: the conversations it received, what was sent from it and its drafts. Labels belong to the whole workspace, so every label shows as a folder. | In the mail app | In OpenEmail | | --- | --- | | Inbox | Inbox. It lists the messages you received, without your replies. | | Sent | Sent | | Drafts | Drafts. A draft the app saves is a draft in OpenEmail too. | | Archive | Archive | | Spam | Spam | | Trash | Bin | | Any other folder | The label of the same name | | A flagged message | Starred. Starred is a flag in the app, not a folder. | - Read and starred state sync both ways. - Creating, renaming or deleting a folder in the app creates, renames or deletes that label in OpenEmail, for everyone in the workspace. Creating one needs permission to manage labels, and renaming or deleting one needs permission to change the workspace’s settings. Inbox, Sent, Drafts, Archive, Spam and Trash cannot be renamed or deleted. - Apps that recognise folder roles use Sent, Drafts, Archive, Spam and Trash by themselves, and the names other apps use, such as Sent Items, Deleted Items or Junk Email, land in the same folders. - New mail shows up within about 20 seconds in an app that keeps a connection open with IMAP IDLE. Other apps see it the next time they check. - A message the app adds to a folder, such as one dragged in from another account, can be up to 25 MB. ## Messages and conversations OpenEmail keeps labels and read state per conversation, while a mail app shows single messages. Where the two meet, the conversation decides: - Moving or deleting one message moves or deletes its whole conversation. - Marking one message unread marks the whole conversation unread, and it counts as read again once every message in it is read. - Flagging one message stars the conversation, and unflagging the last flagged one takes the star off. - A conversation that is unread in OpenEmail shows its newest message as unread in the app, and a starred one shows its newest message flagged. - Deleting from Inbox archives the conversation. Deleting from Archive or Spam moves it to Trash, which is Bin in OpenEmail, and deleting from Trash deletes it for good. Deleting from a label’s folder takes that label off, and deleting from Drafts deletes the draft. - Nothing can be moved into Sent or Drafts. ## Folder names Apps use different names for the same folders. These English names all lead to the folder on the right, so no app creates a second Sent or Trash. | The app asks for | Folder in OpenEmail | | --- | --- | | Sent Items, Sent Messages, Sent Mail | Sent | | Deleted Items, Deleted Messages, Deleted, Bin | Trash | | Junk, Junk Email, Junk E-mail, Bulk Mail | Spam | | Draft | Drafts | | Archives, All Mail | Archive | - A label whose name contains a slash shows as a folder inside another, such as Clients/Acme inside Clients, and a folder made inside another in an app becomes such a label. - A label with the same name as one of the six built-in folders shows with a code in brackets after its name, so the two stay apart. Rename the label in OpenEmail to drop the code. - Every folder starts out subscribed, so a new label appears in apps that only show subscribed folders. ## Sending - Mail sent from the app goes out through OpenEmail like mail sent in the web app, with the same domain checks, the same suppression list and the same sending limits. A copy lands in Sent, in the conversation it belongs to, and when the app saves its own copy to Sent, OpenEmail recognises it and keeps one. - The From address has to be the address the app signed in as. To send as another address, add that address to the app as an account of its own. - Sending needs permission to send from the address. Someone who may only read it can read in the app, and is refused when they send. - A message can go to up to 100 recipients and be up to 25 MB, attachments included. - Recipients on the workspace’s suppression list are left out. When every recipient is on it, nothing is sent and the app shows why. - A Bcc line is removed before the message leaves, so Bcc recipients stay hidden from everyone else. ## Connections and timing - Every connection is encrypted from the first byte: IMAP on port 993, SMTP on 465 and POP3 on 995. There is no STARTTLS and no unencrypted port. - A connection that stays open checks about every five minutes that its password, the access of the person behind it and the protocol switch still hold. That is why revoking a password, changing a role or switching a protocol off reaches it within about five minutes, while a new sign-in is refused at once. - An IMAP connection that sends nothing for 30 minutes is closed, and the app opens a new one. An SMTP connection with nothing to send closes after five minutes, and a POP3 one after ten. - IMAP, SMTP and POP3 accept the plain password sign-ins that apps call Normal password or Password. Secure Password Authentication (SPA), CRAM-MD5, NTLM, Kerberos and OAuth are not offered. - After a wrong password, OpenEmail waits a moment before it answers. After several, it pauses sign-ins to the address and from your network for up to 15 minutes. ## POP3 - POP3 lists the messages in the inbox and nothing else: no Sent, no Drafts and no labels. - Downloading over POP3 changes nothing in OpenEmail, so a message read in a POP3 app stays unread there. - An app set to remove mail from the server after downloading it archives those conversations in OpenEmail when it disconnects. Nothing is deleted. - Use POP3 only for an app that cannot use IMAP. ## Related pages - [Mail apps](https://openemail.uk/docs/knowledge/addresses/mail-apps.md): The server settings, app passwords, setup links and protocol switches every app needs. - [Troubleshooting mail apps](https://openemail.uk/docs/knowledge/addresses/mail-apps/troubleshooting.md): Every message a mail app can show, what it means and the fix.