I am trying to understand the expunge options, however the documentation only repeats the non-informational description.
So what is “Email Submission”, “Scheduling Inbox” and “Share Notifications”? Does this have anything todo with my regular E-Mails? e.g. Email submissions with sent?
on
Here is a clear explanation of each of those three expunge settings:
These three options are entirely unrelated to your regular mailbox folders (Sent, Inbox, etc.) – they clean up internal server-side data structures.
Here’s what each one controls:
| Setting | What it expunges |
|---|---|
Email Submissions (expungeSubmissionsAfter, default 3d) |
JMAP “EmailSubmission” objects – internal records that track the status of outbound messages sent via JMAP. These are not your Sent folder emails; they are metadata entries created when a JMAP client submits mail for delivery. After the retention period they are cleaned up automatically. |
Scheduling Inbox (expungeSchedulingInboxAfter, default 30d) |
The CalDAV Scheduling Inbox – a special hidden collection (per account) where incoming iTIP messages (calendar invitations, replies, cancellations) are stored temporarily so CalDAV clients can process them. Many CalDAV clients do not clean these up themselves, so this setting auto-purges old ones. This has nothing to do with your IMAP Inbox. |
Share Notifications (expungeShareNotifyAfter, default 30d) |
JMAP share-notification history – records generated when a mailbox or calendar is shared with another user. These are internal change-notification objects used by JMAP clients to learn about new shares, not end-user emails. |
None of these settings touch your regular email folders (Inbox, Sent, Drafts, etc.). Those are managed separately by expungeTrashAfter, which controls auto-expunge of Trash and Junk Mail.
Relevant docs: DataRetention reference, Email Maintenance, CalDAV Scheduling
This is an automated reply from the Stalwart Help Bot. Other community members may follow up if this answer is incomplete or wrong.