Comments on: Changing the iPhone IMAP “Sent” folder name

By: Dave Warren

Dave Warren — Thu, 26 May 2011 17:10:45 +0000

I’ve been using an iPhone since OS 2, and I’ve been able to get this working.

The steps seem to be: Configure the account, start the Mail app (to load the folder list), switch back to the Settings app, change the Sent and Deleted folders, then switch back to the Mail app and review the the folder list to see if it changed the icons.

Once in a while it still creates the “bad” folders, but if you delete them via WorldClient and restart the Mail app (double click the Home button, press and hold the Messages icon, then click the red “-”) then it seems to work.

This has been tested across multiple iOS devices, including iPhones and iPads.

It’s a pain in the arse, but it does work once you set it up.

By: Blaine

Blaine — Thu, 26 May 2011 15:26:47 +0000

I agree with Jeff. There is no way I can find to stop my iPad, iPhone, and OS X laptop to use the same “Sent” folder consistently. I always end up with sent items, sent messages, and sent folders. Lame.

By: Dave Warren

Dave Warren — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 01:18:11 +0000

Hey Jeff,

To be honest, I don’t really know what to suggest. I’ve had an iPod Touch since OS 1 era (before the App Store) and currently have an iPhone 4 on iOS 4.1, along with an iPad.

In all cases the “Sent Messages” gets created the first time you send mail from the device, but once you point your iOS device at your “Sent Items” or similar, it seems to work.

I absolutely do not have a “Sent Messages” folder or similar, I have exactly one, “Sent Items” and have Outlook (With Outlook Connector), Windows Live Mail, ThunderBird, my iPhone, iPad, Windows Mobile (FlexMail), BlackBerry and WorldClient all delivering mail to that folder without difficulty beyond the initial setup.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 19:59:52 +0000

This would be great in a perfect world, but it does not work. There is a Sent Items folder on my IMAP server and a Sent Messages folder that keeps getting re-created. My Mac uses Sent Items by default and event if I change my iPhone or iPad to use this folder, it will always re-create a Sent Messages folder. If I try and tell my Mac to use the Sent Messages folder, it will still use the Sent Items folder -even after telling it to “use this mailbox as”.

By: James

James — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 20:57:59 +0000

Thanks for laying it out in such a straight forward manner, got it working right away with your guide.

By: Mario

Mario — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 06:33:31 +0000

This was the answer to what I wanted to solve, thanks ;-)