Email Folders & Auto-Deletion — Trash, Spam & Plus Addressing
TL;DR — EasyCloudify mailboxes can automatically delete old messages from the Trash and Spam folders so they don't eat into your quota. Plus addressing can also auto-create IMAP folders so newsletters and sign-up mail sort themselves the moment they arrive.
This guide covers two small but powerful housekeeping features you can switch on per mailbox.
Auto-Deletion of Trash & Spam
Most messages in your Trash and Spam folders are not worth keeping forever. EasyCloudify can purge them automatically after a configurable number of days, freeing storage with zero effort on your part.
How It Works
A background process runs once a day. For each mailbox with the feature enabled, it deletes messages from the Trash and Spam folders that are older than your configured retention window. The Inbox, Sent, Drafts, Archive, and any custom folders are never touched.
Enable Auto-Deletion
- Go to
/cloudpanel/mailboxesand select your mailbox - Click Edit Mailbox → Storage & Retention
- Choose retention windows:
| Field | What it does | Sensible default |
|---|---|---|
| Trash retention (days) | Auto-delete Trash messages older than this | 30 |
| Spam retention (days) | Auto-delete Spam / Junk messages older than this | 14 |
- Set either field to
0(or Never) to disable auto-deletion for that folder - Click Save
💡 Quota relief. Trash and Spam can easily account for half of a mailbox's storage. Setting 30 / 14 day windows usually keeps mailboxes well below their quota indefinitely.
What Auto-Deletion Will and Won't Do
- ✅ Permanently delete Trash messages older than N days
- ✅ Permanently delete Spam / Junk messages older than N days
- ✅ Run silently in the background, every day
- ❌ Will not touch Inbox, Sent, Drafts, Archive, or any folder you created
- ❌ Will not "empty" Trash or Spam outside of the retention window (recent items stay)
- ❌ Cannot recover messages once deleted — set a reasonable window if in doubt
Recovering a Mistakenly Deleted Message
Auto-deletion is permanent — there is no undo. If you store anything important, move it out of Trash and Spam before the retention window elapses. Your mailbox has a regular Archive folder for exactly this purpose.
Folder Auto-Creation via Plus Addressing
Plus addressing (see Plus Addressing) lets you turn [email protected] into [email protected] on the fly. When combined with folder auto-creation, the matching IMAP folder is created automatically and the message is delivered straight into it.
How to Enable
- Open
/cloudpanel/mailboxesand select your mailbox - Click Edit Mailbox → Delivery Rules
- Toggle Auto-create folders from plus addressing
- Click Save
Example
You hand out [email protected] to Amazon. The first time a message arrives at that address, EasyCloudify:
- Creates an IMAP folder called
amazon - Delivers the message into that folder
- Future Amazon mail lands in the same folder automatically
You don't need to create filters or folders manually — the system does it for you.
Naming and Nesting
- The folder name matches the part after the
+and before the@(case-insensitive) - Use a
/(or.on some clients) inside the plus tag to create nested folders. Example:you+shopping/[email protected]lands inshopping/amazon.
When to Disable
If you receive a lot of randomly addressed plus mail (some senders generate them dynamically), folder auto-creation can leave you with hundreds of one-message folders. Turn the feature off and use server-side filters in webmail instead for full control.
Manual Folder Management
Whether or not you use auto-creation, you can always create, rename, and delete folders manually.
- Webmail — right-click the folder list in https://webmail.easycloudify.com
- Thunderbird — right-click an account → New Folder
- Apple Mail — Mailbox → New Mailbox
- iOS Mail — Mailboxes view → Edit → New Mailbox
Folders created in any client are visible everywhere because they live on the server (IMAP).
Standard / Special-Use Folders
EasyCloudify recognises the standard IMAP "special-use" labels (\Sent, \Drafts, \Trash, \Junk, \Archive). When you mark a folder with one of these in your client, the server knows what it represents — auto-deletion, spam reporting, and "move to Trash" all use these labels.
If a client created the wrong folder for sent mail (a common Apple Mail / Outlook issue), open the parent folder's properties and re-assign the special-use label, or delete the stray folder and let the next sync recreate it correctly.
Quota & Storage
Check your current storage in /cloudpanel/mailboxes — each mailbox shows used / quota figures. If a mailbox is approaching its quota:
- Enable auto-deletion for Trash and Spam (often reclaims 30–50% of used space)
- Search webmail for messages with large attachments (
size:>10M) and delete or download them - Upgrade your mailbox plan from
/cloudpanel/account/plansif you genuinely need more