Moving Maildir folders

[Mark Foley]

Not quite there yet. The folders show up, but I cannot see the mail inside the folders unless
(in the Thunderbird client) I uncheck the setting "Show only subscribed folders". Still, the
top-level folder is shown as grayed-out/italics as well as the the sub-folder INBOX. All other
sub-folder at the same level as INBOX are not grayed-out, nor are folders subordinate to INBOX:

user at mydom.org <-- topmost "real" account folder
  +Inbox
  Drafts
  Templates
  send Items
  Junk E-mail
  Deleted Items
  +bpatterson   <-- added Maildir folders from former user, grayed-out, italics
    +INBOX      <-- grayed out, italic
      Payabled  <-- not grayed
      Health Care  <-- not grayed
      :
      :
    Sent           <-- not grayed
    Sent Items     <-- not grayed
    Templates      <-- not grayed  
    Trash          <-- not grayed

Mozilla has a reference to this phenomenon http://kb.mozillazine.org/Grey_italic_folders, but
this seems to have to do with GMAIL accounts. Mine is a local IMAP server and the link has no
apparent remedy.

Furthermore, if I attempt to delete e.g. "Trash" I get an error, presumably from Dovecot: "The
current command did not succeed. The mail server for account user at mydom.org responded:
[ALREADYEXISTS] Target mailbox already exists." Seem like an odd error when trying to delete.

My theory is that if I can designated these folders as 'subcribed' everything would work
normally. I don't know if that's true. I've tried added these folders to the 'subscriptions'
file in the user's Maildir folder, an excerpt of which:

INBOX.Directed Brokerage
INBOX.Directed Brokerage.Abel Noser
INBOX.Investments-Active.Kayne
INBOX.Pending - Open Projects
Deleted Items.Oath
INBOX.Board Info.New Trustee-Oath of Office
INBOX.Rule Filing-Rule Changes
bpatterson.INBOX.2011 Investment Confirmation Responses
bpatterson.INBOX.2011 and 2012 KCR Audit
bpatterson.INBOX.2012 Investment Confirmation Responses
bpatterson.INBOX.2013 Health Care Changes - Information
bpatterson.INBOX.2013 Investment Confirmation Responses

where the 1st 7 listed are part of the user's existing list and the next ones are what I added
for the former user's mail folders. This did not work.

Ideas?

--Mark

-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Foley <mfoley at ohprs.org>
Date: Sat, 16 Jul 2016 15:05:33 -0400
Organization: Ohio Highway Patrol Retirement System
To: dovecot at dovecot.org
Subject: Re: Moving Maildir folders

Hey!! It is now showing the former users' folders at the top level of the current user.  Great!
Perhaps dovecot just needed time to "index" the new messages? Anyway, Luigi's suggestion on
moving and renaming the folders apparently worked. 

Thanks!!!! --Mark

-----Original Message-----
> Subject: Re: Moving Maildir folders
> From: Frank-Ulrich Sommer <f-u.s at gmx.net>
> Date: Sat, 16 Jul 2016 20:41:10 +0200
> To: dovecot at dovecot.org

> How did you verify that dovecot doesn't show these folders? Couldn't this be a client problem? In Thunderbird e.g. it might be necessary to update the list of displayed folders.
>
> Am 16. Juli 2016 19:07:39 MESZ, schrieb Mark Foley <mfoley at ohprs.org>:
> >On Sat, 16 Jul 2016 08:53:27 +0200 Luigi Rosa <lists at luigirosa.com>
> >wrote:
> >>
> >> Mark Foley wrote on 16/07/2016 07:43:
> >> > Our office had a user leave.  Another user is taking over her
> >duties and needs reference to the
> >> > departing user's email.  I've copied that entire departed user's
> >Maildir structure to the current
> >> > user:
> >> >
> >> > mv olduser/Maildir/.* curuser/Maildir/.olduser
> >> >
> >> > I did change permission and ownership on curuser/Maildir/.olduser
> >to be the target user. I did
> >> > not bring over the olduser/Maildir/dovecot* files (indexes,
> >subscriptions, etc.) as I thought
> >> > that would be bad.
> >>
> >> Maildir has no nested folders.
> >>
> >> If you want a subtree structure in maildir you must create each
> >folder at the 
> >> first level
> >>
> >> in the new user you must have something like:
> >>
> >> .olduser.INBOX
> >> .olduser.Sent
> >> .olduser.Trash
> >> .olduser.Drafts
> >> .olduser.whatever
> >>
> >> Each directory with tmp, newm cur subdirs only (ad dovecot files, of
> >course)
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> -- 
> >>
> >>
> >> Ciao,
> >> luigi
> >>
> >> /
> >> +--[Luigi Rosa]--
> >> \
> >>
> >> Understanding is a three-edged sword.
> >>      --Kosh, "Deathwalker"
> >
> >OK, I believe I've done as you suggested, but still nothing showing on
> >the target users mail
> >client. Here's what part of the Maildir looks like with the 1st set of
> >folders belonging to the
> >target user and those beginning with .bpatterson from the old user.
> >Does this look right as
> >you've advised? Perhaps I need to do something else?
> >
> >.INBOX.Travel/
> >.INBOX.UPS/
> >.INBOX.US\ Bank/
> >.INBOX.United\ Health\ Care-Employee/
> >.INBOX.VRC/
> >.INBOX.Website/
> >.INBOX.Website.Mouse\ Pad\ Insert/
> >.INBOX.iLink/
> >.Junk\ E-mail/
> >.Sent\ Items/
> >.Templates/
> >.bpatterson.Deleted\ Items/
> >.bpatterson.Drafts/
> >.bpatterson.INBOX.2011\ Investment\ Confirmation\ Responses/
> >.bpatterson.INBOX.2011\ and\ 2012\ KCR\ Audit/
> >.bpatterson.INBOX.2012\ Investment\ Confirmation\ Responses/
> >.bpatterson.INBOX.2013\ Health\ Care\ Changes\ -\ Information/
> >.bpatterson.INBOX.2013\ Investment\ Confirmation\ Responses/
> >
> >At the top level, the target user has (in email client):
> >
> >Inbox
> >Drafts
> >Templates
> >Sent Items
> >Junk E-mail
> >Deleted Items
> >
> >I'm expecting to see "bpatterson" appear in that list.
> >
> >Thanks --Mark
>
> -- 
> Diese Nachricht wurde von meinem Android-Mobiltelefon mit K-9 Mail gesendet.
>