Email import - mixed up / flattened folder structure

DEVONthink
1

I’ve cautiously taken the plunge with DT4 (v4.0.2) and am intrigued to see that email import is available again with Sequoia (apologies if this misrepresents the situation, I know the challenges were because of Apple’s own changes). But curiously, when I use the importer, the list of folders (mailboxes) under my iCloud account is a mixture of those at level 1, level 2, and level 3. When I launch the importer, the list of folders differs. Was that always the case and I didn’t notice it, or has something changed?

Illustration

folder 1
   - folder 1.1
      - folder 1.1.1
          <emails>
      - folder 1.1.2
          <emails>
   - folder 1.2
      - folder 1.2.1 
          <emails>
folder 2
          <emails>

I might see in the DT4 email importer:

folder 1
folder 1.1.2
folder 1.2
folder 2

So all folders are covered, if one assumes the parent includes the children. But there are also a lot of children…

2

Ugh! We thought that got fixed.
According to your example, the folder 1.1 appears to be missing. Is that accurate?

3

The fix in 4.0.2 is limited to IMAP accounts.

4

I’m seeing it in my iCloud IMAP account…

ScreenFloat Shot of Mail at Jul 8, 2025 at 3_51_18 PM
ScreenFloat Shot of Mail at Jul 8, 2025 at 3_51_18 PM418×854 34.2 KB

ScreenFloat Shot of DEVONthink at Jul 8, 2025 at 3_52_36 PM
ScreenFloat Shot of DEVONthink at Jul 8, 2025 at 3_52_36 PM424×900 71.2 KB

5

Yes, it is an incomplete list of folders under the top level. And the list changed between re-starts of DT4.

6

Please clarify this. Are you saying if you quit and relaunch now, the order of the mailboxes will or could vary again?

And is this indeed an IMAP account? Check Mail’s Settings > Accounts if you’re unsure.

7

Yes it is an IMAP account. The visible import mailboxes did change but I can’t be certain if this intersected with upgrading to 4.0.2. After a handful of DT4 restarts I haven’t noticed a change in import mailboxes, but there is still a mixture of level 1 and level 2 mailboxes but not level 3.

8

The next release will fix this.

9

That’s great to hear, thank you. I didn’t know that Mail import had been updated in DT4 to work with the new Mail restrictions, so it is a welcome added bonus.

10

And you can now set Hotkeys in Files > Emails if you want to do some quick email filing while inside Apple Mail or Outlook.

1 Like
11

That’s great! I prefer to suck everything into DT rather than have the cognitive load of choosing what’s important. Does the ‘import mailbox’ shortcut key Import or ‘Archive Mailbox’ ? (I appreciate the clue may be in the name.)

12

It does an import. But it does still detect and ignore emails previously imported to the chosen location.

image
image1156×530 51.4 KB

14

I agree! At the moment I have retained an old Mac running Ventura solely for the purpose of archiving email with DT3. It would be GREAT to have that facility again in DT4. I guess I’ll just need to keep my eye on this forum to know when it’s working.

15

You already can archive emails in DEVONthink 4. The specific bug reported here doesn’t inhibit archiving or importing emails.

16

Thanks. My impression was that this bug flattens the folder structure. In my laziness, I’m looking for archiving which replicates the folder structure of the mailbox (as with the old plug-in).