Bobby Wilson
Email folders are named places used to group and organise email messages. Standard folders such as Inbox, Sent and Drafts are usually created automatically, while many email services also let you create your own.
The names are not exactly the same everywhere. One service may use Spam while another says Junk, and deleted messages may appear under Trash, Bin or Deleted Items. Gmail also works a little differently because it mainly uses labels rather than traditional folders.
What is the Inbox?
The Inbox is the main place where new incoming emails normally appear.
However, receiving an email does not guarantee that it will appear or remain in the Inbox. A spam filter may put it in Spam or Junk, while a rule or filter can move it somewhere else. An email can also disappear from the Inbox after being archived without being deleted.
The Inbox is therefore best thought of as the main location for incoming messages, rather than a complete record of every email your account has received.
What is the Sent folder?
The Sent folder contains emails that your email service or app considers to have been sent. Some services call it Sent Items instead.
It normally gives you a copy of the messages you have sent so you can look back at them later.
Seeing an email in Sent does not prove that the recipient has read it. It also should not be treated as proof that the message definitely reached the recipient’s Inbox. Delivery and reading are separate from your own email service or app recording a message as sent.
What is the Drafts folder?
A draft is an email that has been started but has not yet been sent.
The Drafts folder lets you return to unfinished messages later. Many email services save drafts automatically while you are writing, which helps prevent an unfinished message from being lost if you leave it before sending.
Drafts stored as part of your email account may also appear on other devices where the same account is being used. The exact behaviour depends on the email service and app.
What is the Spam or Junk folder?
Spam and Junk are different names commonly used for the same basic purpose: separating messages that an email service believes may be unwanted or suspicious from your main Inbox.
Gmail and Yahoo use Spam, while Outlook and iCloud Mail use Junk in their current terminology. Providers automatically identify many of these messages, although legitimate email can sometimes be classified as spam or junk by mistake.
The folder is intended to keep spam email away from the main Inbox, but a message being there does not automatically mean it is malicious.
What are Trash, Bin and Deleted Items?
Trash, Bin and Deleted Items are different names used for the place where deleted emails normally go.
For example, Outlook uses Deleted Items, while other email services may use Trash or Bin.
Deleting an email therefore does not always mean that it disappears permanently at that moment. It may remain in the deleted-mail area for a period before being removed permanently.
How long deleted mail remains recoverable varies between providers and accounts, so there is no single retention period that applies to all email. If a message has been removed accidentally, recovering deleted emails depends on the provider and whether the message is still within its available recovery process.
What is the Outbox?
The Outbox is a temporary place for emails that are waiting to be sent or have not finished sending.
A message might appear there after you select Send but before the email app has successfully completed the sending process. If a message remains in the Outbox, it can indicate that sending has not completed.
Not every email service or app shows a permanent Outbox. In some apps it only appears when messages are waiting to be sent.
Outbox vs Sent
The practical difference is simple:
- Outbox: the message is waiting to be sent or sending has not yet completed.
- Sent: the email service or app considers the message sent.
A message will normally leave the Outbox after sending succeeds and appear among sent messages. If it remains in the Outbox, it should not be assumed to have been sent successfully.
Where do archived emails go?
Archive is used to remove an email from the Inbox without deleting it.
Some email services provide an Archive folder. Gmail works differently. Archiving removes the message from Inbox, but the message remains available under All Mail and can still be found through search.
This is why archiving and deleting are not the same thing. What archive means in email can vary slightly between services, but the basic purpose is to keep a message without leaving it in the Inbox.
Gmail labels vs folders
Gmail uses labels as its main way of organising email. Google describes labels as different from traditional folders.
A label can be attached to an email to identify it as belonging to something such as Work, Family or Travel. Gmail can therefore organise a message using labels without requiring it to behave like a message placed inside one traditional folder.
Gmail still presents familiar areas such as Inbox, Drafts, Sent, Spam, Bin and All Mail, so it can look similar to a normal folder system when you use it. The difference matters most when organising and archiving messages.
For example, an archived Gmail message does not move into a folder called Archive. It is removed from Inbox but remains available under All Mail.
Can you create your own email folders?
Many email services let you create your own folders to group messages that you want to keep together.
You might create folders called Travel, Receipts or Family, for example. Outlook, Yahoo Mail and iCloud Mail support user-created folders, while Gmail lets you create your own labels instead.
If you want to create one, look for an option such as New folder or Create folder in your email service. Gmail uses Create new label because Gmail organises messages with labels instead.
The exact steps differ between services and apps, but custom folders or labels do not replace the standard areas such as Inbox, Sent or Drafts. They simply give you another way to organise messages that are useful to you.