IMAP Folders Confusion in Windows Classic Outlook

[janb]

Operating system::    Windows 10 & 11
Outlook version:     Outlook Classic
Email type or host:    IMAP custom domains, hosts

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When I open Outlook, my IMAP folder looks like this.

When I expand the Inbox, it looks like this.

I end up with 3 trash folders (yellow), 3 junk folders (blue), 3 sent folders (green), and 2 draft folders (red).

What is in these folders is very confusing. For example, the Sent and Sent Items folders have DIFFERENT messages in them. Both Sent Items folders look the same. I think the Sent folder is when I sent from my android phone via Outlook, and the Sent Items folder is from my laptop.

I have another IMAP email account in the same version of Outlook, and it has only one set of folders. However, that email account is used by people who have iphones, android phones, and windows computers. If I go to Webmail on that account, I see messages in Sent and Junk that I don't see in Outlook at all. So even tho that account has one set of folders, we don't see all of the folders or messages in Outlook. There is no Junk folder in Outlook, but there is one in Webmail.

It is all so convoluted! Does anyone know a surefire way to get the folders to sync correctly?

Thanks for any and all ideas.
Jan Burch

 

[Diane Poremsky]

The extra folders are often because a mobile app doesn't use the folders the server says to use. I see it more with Apple as they use Sent Messages as the sent folder.

Are the extra folders showing in web mail? If yes, figure out which folder is used by webmail and delete the others (If there is mail you need to keep in the folders you are deleting, move them to the folder you are keeping). Delete a message, save a draft, send a message then see which folders they are in.

Delete a message, save a draft, send a message in outlook. Which folders do they use? Outlook should use the same folder the web server uses. The IMAP server should use Trash, Spam and Sent folders. Drafts is the only one I can't tell by name.