CONFIGURING
In earlier releases of Domino®, the IMAP service used hidden folder reference views in the mail template to retrieve IMAP folder and message data. By contrast, in newer releases, the Domino IMAP service doesn't use folder references. Instead, it enables native storage of IMAP folder and message attributes in the mail file, thus eliminating the need for hidden views in the mail template.
By default, when you convert mail files to Domino IMAP format, the conversion utility disables folder references in the mail file. In most environments, use the default and disable folder references to ensure the best performance.
If your environment uses Domino applications that rely on folder references in user mail files to gather information, you may need to preserve folder references. To preserve folder references during conversion, you can set the variable IMAP_CONVERT_NODISABLE_FOLDER_REFS in a server's NOTES.INI file. When this variable is set, folder references are preserved during all mail file conversions, whether performed manually from the server console, or automatically as the result of an IMAP user logging in to the IMAP service for the first time.
Immediately following conversion, the folder and message information stored in the folder references matches the information stored in the mail file's IMAP attributes. However, because Domino does not continue to update folder references after the initial conversion, over time, as a user receives, moves, and sends messages, folder reference information will no longer be synchronized with the information stored in the mail file attributes.