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Tell HN: NameCheap Private Email does not delete folders ever
A while back, when Google had announced the end of their free G Suite (aka Google Workspace, aka Gmail for Business) tier, I researched options for an email host that was inexpensive, but supported custom domain names, and catch-all email accounts. Since I already have web hosting with NameCheap, and the prices and features were good, I began to use PrivateEmail.
In recent months, when Hacker News users have asked for suggestions, I've recommended them. However, I cannot in good faith do that at this time, because I've discovered a flaw that could be quite problematic. For me, it's mostly just really annoying.
The issue was discovered because Outlook for Android does not give you options for which folders you see when connected via IMAP. So after I had inadvertently created an Archive folder, and subsequently deleted it, it continued to show up in Outlook, and I could not (and still cannot) find a way to hide it.
What I discovered via the WebMail that NameCheap Private Email provides is that they do not delete folders, ever. Worse, the emails inside of "deleted" folders are also not deleted. For the sake of convenience, I took 4 screenshots, and uploaded them to imgur: https://imgur.com/a/4RdzQjY
1. A folder with an email in it is deleted
2. I empty the trash
3. Going over to settings > mail > change imap subscriptions, I can see any deleted folders still exist and are merely unsubscribed by NameCheap Private Email's webmail client. I re-subscribe and save.
4. The folder is back, along with the email inside.
I've reached out to support, but so far have only been able to reach a level of support that attempts to walk me through how to use their webmail, including deleted folders and emptying the trash. I'm hoping I can escalate it further so that an issue can be opened and resolved.
One more note - while I demonstrated above using their webmail, the same happens if I use Thunderbird, and delete folders. They are not deleted, but merely hidden from some clients. However, other clients, like Outlook for Android, continue to see these hidden folders.
- legrande 4y agoI assume all my email is readily available to authorities, whether I deleted it or not. E-mail is inherently not designed to be private. I also assume multiple copies of it exist in various locations around the globe. There's a phrase: 'Dance like no one's watching, send e-mail like your email is going to be leaked'. But I feel your pain. Outlook is the worst. When you delete items from Trash, it sends them into another folder where you can 'recover' deleted e-mails. Everyday Joe assumes the e-mails are deleted when you purge trash, but oh no, dark patterns striketh again!
- neogodless 4y agoAgreed. The "annoying" part is that I accidentally created one folder, then several more in trying to figure out the issue. Several IMAP clients I've tried show me those folders even after deleting them and emptying the trash, so the UI is permanently cluttered unless I can repurpose them. Fortunately "move" and "rename" folder still seem to work.
- mixmastamyk 4y agoMaybe you need to delete all messages inside a folder before you can delete the folder? Not certain, but it is a common low-level limitation.
- neogodless 4y agoNo, empty folders exhibit the same behavior. If deleting individual emails is a concern, putting them at the root level of Trash before emptying it seems to work for permanent deletion (though the overall outlined behavior has left me with some doubt.)
- mixmastamyk 4y agoWell delete the messages and then rename the folders to gibberish then. It’s possible they are keeping mail for monetization purposes but there’d be backlash if publicized.
- neogodless 4y agoRight. The problem as I outlined for me, personally, is that the various IMAP clients I've tried on Android show me the "deleted" folders. So whatever they are named, they clutter up my folder UI. My only hope is to add some additional folders/organization I don't really need, tucking them away in a somewhat less annoying place. I've been using Outlook for Android, which expands all folders in the UI, which was fine with the system I had, but with the additional folders, is getting to be unwieldy.
- 2000UltraDeluxe 4y agoI'm not saying your observations are wrong. I would however like to mention that Dovecot exhibits similar behaviour when dealing with maildirs and disk/file system errors.