[gentoo-user] Thunderbird folder structure on Imap servers inconsistent

[gentoo-user] Thunderbird folder structure on Imap servers inconsistent

[Alexander Puchmayr]

Hi there,

I'm trying out some mail clients with Imap support, and when using thunderbird 
(v24.2, latest version in stable gentoo tree) I encountered several problems 
regarding imap server consistency:

Folders which I already deleted still appear (marked in itallic grey color in 
TB's folder list)

Some folders appear multiple times (e.g. I have a folders like

Mailinglists
+ Gentoo
   + users

where all the mail from this forum goes to. This is consistent with the 
filesystem on my Imap server (dovecot). But, additionally, the 'Gentoo' 
subfolder appears in top level again (with all its other subfolders as well), 
and the 'users' folder appears again in top level a third time. Furthermore, 
when I select an unread mail in 'Mailinglists/Gentoo/users', the counter of 
unread mail decreases in the top level copy. 

Does anyone have similar experiences?

Best regards,
	Alex

[gentoo-user] Thunderbird folder structure on Imap servers inconsistent

[Alexander Puchmayr]

Hi there,

I'm trying out some mail clients with Imap support, and when using thunderbird 
(v24.2, latest version in stable gentoo tree) I encountered several problems 
regarding imap server consistency:

Folders which I already deleted still appear (marked in itallic grey color in 
TB's folder list)

Some folders appear multiple times (e.g. I have a folders like

Mailinglists
+ Gentoo
   + users

where all the mail from this forum goes to. This is consistent with the 
filesystem on my Imap server (dovecot). But, additionally, the 'Gentoo' 
subfolder appears in top level again (with all its other subfolders as well), 
and the 'users' folder appears again in top level a third time. Furthermore, 
when I select an unread mail in 'Mailinglists/Gentoo/users', the counter of 
unread mail decreases in the top level copy. 

Does anyone have similar experiences?

Best regards,
	Alex

Re: [gentoo-user] Thunderbird folder structure on Imap servers inconsistent

[Alan McKinnon]

On 26/12/2013 21:14, Alexander Puchmayr wrote:
> Hi there,
> 
> I'm trying out some mail clients with Imap support, and when using thunderbird 
> (v24.2, latest version in stable gentoo tree) I encountered several problems 
> regarding imap server consistency:
> 
> Folders which I already deleted still appear (marked in itallic grey color in 
> TB's folder list)
> 
> Some folders appear multiple times (e.g. I have a folders like
> 
> Mailinglists
> + Gentoo
>    + users
> 
> where all the mail from this forum goes to. This is consistent with the 
> filesystem on my Imap server (dovecot). But, additionally, the 'Gentoo' 
> subfolder appears in top level again (with all its other subfolders as well), 
> and the 'users' folder appears again in top level a third time. Furthermore, 
> when I select an unread mail in 'Mailinglists/Gentoo/users', the counter of 
> unread mail decreases in the top level copy. 
> 
> Does anyone have similar experiences?


I also run into those kinds of things with TBird; and there's no
right-click option to "resync" things. However, it always comes right if
I just leave it alone.

So here's my theory:

TBird is designed to operate async in the background. A amil server can
pump mails into imap folders faster than any client can keep up, so I
believe the TBird devs don't even try. Instead, the just let TBird get
on with syncing one thing at a time until it's all done. And then the
universe returns to normal :-)

I can't explain what we see when TBird works, all I can tell you is that
if I leave it alone, it always just works out fine (where "leave it
alone" is on the order of about an hour or so for my gmail account that
goes back 8 years, and that exchange-thingy the IT dept at work still
believe has something to do with email...)

-- 
Alan McKinnon
alan.mckinnon@gmail.com