GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 216446
IMAP Account Sent/Drafts Folders defaults to local
Last modified: 2017-04-26 16:19:40 UTC
Package: Evolution Priority: Normal Version: 0.99.2 Synopsis: IMAP Account Sent/Drafts Folders defaults to local Bugzilla-Product: Evolution Bugzilla-Component: Mailer Description: When a new IMAP account is created, the Drafts and Sent folders are configured to be the local system Draft/Sent folders. This is problematic for users who have multiple access points to the mail system, ie Web based, Evolution, other IMAP client, etc.. Copies of Sent/Drafts messages will not be stored on the remote server by default, and thus discontinuing continuity with other clients. Proper behavior would be to default Sent/Drafts folders to the remote server, and having the option to setup to local folders. Unknown reporter: mpav@debian.org, changed to bugbuddy-import@ximian.com.
unfortunately they kinda have to, it's not easy detecting the sent/drafts IMAP folders. Some name the folder imap://user@host/sent-mail others name it imap://user@host/Sent, some set it as imap://user@host/Sent Mail and that's assuming that the folder names have not been translated :-) what really needs to happen is the IMAP protocol needs to be extendded to be able to set attributes on folders or something. marking as WONTFIX but it's really more like CANTFIX
A reasonable search should occur, as "special use folders" are *very* common. Search for a reasonable number of folders should occur for Evolution to be an "enterprise" client. Outlook automatically does this w/ MAPI when connected to an Exchange server, and this greatly improves end user support, as a system needing to be re-built does not lose Sent/Draft items. At the very least, Evolution should display in greater detail in the mail settings dialog, which folders are selected for which accounts. "Sent" -> "Local - Sent" "Drafts" -> "Local - Drafts" Account1 "Drafts" -> "Account1 - Drafts" "Sent" -> "Account1 - Sent" etc..
this last part it does do now, as of a few days ago.
meant to reopen this I guess it'd be nice but certainly not easy to do maybe someone will get extremely bored and try to figure out some magic or something.
Mentioned in https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/evolution/+bug/38440 as well.
It would be nice to have an option in the account setup wizard. It should ask whether to save drafts/sent mails locally or on the server while defaulting to some commonly used folder names like "Drafts" or "Sent" if present when selecting the "save on server" option. I've used thunderbird for some time and then migrated to evolution. I did expect that it saves sent mail on the server, too. Once, I was looking for a previously sent mail and was very confused not to find it. Later I found it in the local folder which is not what is commonly expected when using IMAP accounts. A configuration option in the wizard would make the user aware of the problem.
*** Bug 550265 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Well, a very simple change would be : If "Sent" and "Draft" exist on the remote server, then use it. Else use local folders. This very simple stuff would already handle 90% of the usecases. (Personnaly, I never encoutered a server with an other name. And even when it's translated, the real name is "Sent", the translation is done in an upper layer)
Lionel: you may not have seen other names, but I have. It doesn't matter what the name displayed to the user is, it matters what the folder's name on the server is.
Indeed. But even if we cannot handle 100% exotic usecases, why not just try with existing known names and fallback to local if not found ? For people with exotics imap servers, it will not change anything. For most people, it will have the expected default behaviour. So, nobody has nothing to loose and it seems somewhat easy to implement.
I can see why you are hesitant to base default behaviour on a search for pre-defined names. If, however this search did not happen each time the connection to the IMAP server is made but instead from within the new account wizard and, one the choice has been made, saved to the preferences as normal the user would be in control and would not get any nasty surprises. The user could first choses whether he wants the Sent/Draft mail to be stored locally or on the server. If the user choses on the server a search can suggest some possible folders on the server already there for the purpose. The user would also be able to chose other folders if he recognises the names from when he uses another client or even create new folders if this is the first time he has connected to the server. While we are at it can we please have the special 'Sent' and 'Drafts' icons shown against the IMAP folders that are set as the current Sent and Drafts folders. Regards, Steve.
*** Bug 588605 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
What about just including the choice of Sent and Drafts folders in the IMAP account setup wizard? Together with some reasonable autodetection for common cases, I think that would solve the problem.
This had been addressed with changes for bug #725320, thus I'm closing this as a duplicate of it. *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 725320 ***