I can't imagine why, but it works very well for me now. The solution was as follows:
set spoolfile ="imaps://imap.gmail.com:993" set folder ="imaps://imap.gmail.com:993/" unmailboxes "+[Gmail]/All Mail" mailboxes "imaps://imap.gmail.com:993/INBOX" "imaps://imap.gmail.com:993/[Gmail]/Sent Mail" "imaps://imap.gmail.com:993/[Gmail]/Drafts" "imaps://imap.gmail.com:993/bhakti" "imaps://imap.gmail.com:993/debian-user" "imaps://imap.gmail.com:993/family" "imaps://imap.gmail.com:993/mutt-users" "imaps://imap.gmail.com:993/reference" I'd swear I'd tried exactly this before, but perhaps it was the trailing '/' at the end of 'set folder' vs specifying 'INBOX" that did it.... Wen through so many permutations I'm not sure anymore... -- ❤ ♫ ❤ ♫ ❤ ♫ ❤ Indulekha