Fill GMX folders automatically: filter rules, IMAP and AI compared
GMX and web.de belong to the same company and work almost the same way. Both can move email into folders on their own, and both let other programs into the mailbox via IMAP if you allow it. Here is how to use both and where an AI helps.
Approach 1: filter rules in the mailbox
In the GMX or web.de mailbox, first create the folders, such as "Invoices", "Customers" and "Newsletters". The filter rules are in the email settings. A rule checks sender, recipient or subject and moves matching email into a folder. It runs on the server, so the email is already in the right place in the app too.
As with any rule: what you do not foresee slips through. The list grows with every exception, and after a year nobody remembers why a certain email lands in the wrong folder.
Approach 2: switch on IMAP
For an email app or a tool like SortWerk to access your mailbox, IMAP must be switched on. At GMX and web.de this is not always the case, for security reasons.
The server for GMX is imap.gmx.net and for web.de imap.web.de, each on port 993 with encryption. A good tool knows these itself and only asks for address and password.
Approach 3: AI via IMAP
With IMAP access open, an AI can read and sort your new email. You describe each folder in one sentence, and the AI compares every email with it, including email from a sender it has never seen. Unlike a rule, it does not need to know exactly what the email looks like.
One advantage of the app password: it only applies to this one program. Delete it at GMX and access ends immediately, without changing your actual password.
Which approach fits?
| Filter rules | AI via IMAP | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | free | depends on the tool |
| New senders | slip through | are recognised |
| Upkeep | grows with every exception | adjust descriptions |
| Unclear cases | end up somewhere or nowhere | stay in the inbox |
| Access needed | none | IMAP with (app) password |
