On Wed, 2014-09-24 at 16:53 -0400, Alex wrote:
Hi,
There are no "real" folders in Gmail. It's a database. "Folders" are simply labels (which is why the same message can be in multiple "folders"). Possibly Trash is a special case of messages marked for deletion (as happens on IMAP servers), I wouldn't know.
I meant "real" in terms of accessibility from IMAP, compared to the labels/filters that can be created and aren't really part of IMAP at all.
So I moved the 260k messages I had in Trash to some folder called [imap]/Trash, and as the name implies, I was then able to access them using fetchmail.
AFAIK they are all accessible from IMAP, however your IMAP client may not be subscribed to all of them. For example, I don't subscribe to the Gmail Trash folder (label) from Evolution because Evo has its own virtual Trash folder which is slightly different (it follows the canonical IMAP model, which strictly speaking Gmail doesn't).
I'm pretty sure there are some folders that just aren't available. There's also an option in Settings that allows you to select/unselect which folders are visible to IMAP, and the general Trash folder is not there, along with many other folders.
"All Mail" is another folder that I just can't figure out how to access.
I do see the Gmail Trash folder (and [IMAP]/Trash which is different and has nothing in it currently). I also see Drafts, Important, Starred and Sent Mail, but not Chats, Spam or All Mail, so they are clearly special cases.
poc