Localized Gmail IMAP folders

There are no well-know names for common folders such as Drafts, Trash, Spam, … on IMAP servers.

The problem is even worse when you use localized version of IMAP client. Gmail folder names are localized with respect to the user localization settings, so ‘[Gmail]/All Mail’ show as ‘[Gmail]/Todos’ to Spanish users for example.

Google and Apple developed a special IMAP XLIST command to address this issue.

IMAP XLIST command returns a list of folders and their well-know flags.

Here’s the sample XLIST response:


C: A001 CAPABILITY
S: * CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 ID XLIST ...
S: A001 OK Thats all she wrote! 17if1168678ebj.35
C: A002 XLIST "" "*"
S: * XLIST (\HasNoChildren \Inbox) "/" "Inbox"
S: * XLIST (\HasNoChildren \AllMail) "/" "[Gmail]/All Mail"
S: * XLIST (\HasNoChildren \Drafts) "/" "[Gmail]/Drafts"
S: * XLIST (\HasNoChildren \Spam) "/" "[Gmail]/Spam"
...


As you can see XLIST is advertised in CAPABILITY response.
You can probably spot additional flags in the XLIST response: \AllMail, \Spam, \Drafts…

Mail.dll IMAP library supports XLIST command (and SPECIAL-USE extension). It is used automatically when server advertises support for this feature.

You can use CommonFolders class to match folder names with they real purpose.

Take a look at the examples:

// C# version:

using (Imap imap = new Imap())
{
    imap.ConnectSSL("imap.gmail.com");
    imap.UseBestLogin("pat@gmail.com", "app-password");

    CommonFolders folders = new CommonFolders(imap.GetFolders());

    Console.WriteLine("Inbox folder: " + folders.Inbox.Name);
    Console.WriteLine("Sent folder: " + folders.Sent.Name);

    // You can select folders easy:

    imap.Select(folders.Inbox);
    imap.Select(folders.Sent);

    imap.Close();
}

' VB.NET version:

Using imap As New Imap()
    imap.ConnectSSL("imap.gmail.com")
    imap.UseBestLogin("pat@gmail", "app-password")

    Dim folders As New CommonFolders(imap.GetFolders())

    Console.WriteLine("Inbox folder: " + folders.Inbox.Name)
    Console.WriteLine("Sent folder: " + folders.Sent.Name)

    ' You can select folders easy:

    imap.Select(folders.Inbox)
    imap.Select(folders.Sent)

    imap.Close()
End Using

Remember to enable IMAP in Gmail (your authentication options are app-passwords and OAuth 2.0).

Tags: Gmail IMAP IMAP component XLIST