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Bug 713715 - Button to check for new mail
Button to check for new mail
Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX
Product: geary
Classification: Other
Component: client+engine
master
Other All
: High normal
: ---
Assigned To: Geary Maintainers
Geary Maintainers
: 734794 737041 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
 
Reported: 2012-01-18 09:11 UTC by Adam Dingle
Modified: 2019-10-24 04:53 UTC
See Also:
GNOME target: ---
GNOME version: ---



Description Charles Lindsay 2013-11-21 20:22:27 UTC


---- Reported by adam@yorba.org 2012-01-18 13:11:00 -0800 ----

Original Redmine bug id: 4628
Original URL: http://redmine.yorba.org/issues/4628
Searchable id: yorba-bug-4628
Original author: Adam Dingle
Original description:

Geary currently polls the mail server for new messages periodically. Sometimes
I want to know right away whether new mail is available, so Geary should have
a button I can press to check for new mail.

If someday we have IDLE (#3885) and it works reliably then we might not need a
button like this any more. But that day may be a ways off, and in the meantime
this would be quite useful.

Related issues:
related to geary - 3885: Use IDLE when available (Fixed)
related to geary - 6991: Exchange not reporting new messages (Need Information)
duplicated by geary - Feature #6580: Refresh button (Duplicate)
duplicated by geary - Feature #7606: Add Button send/receive and time settings (Duplicate)
duplicated by geary - Feature #7608: Add Button send/receive and time settings (Duplicate)



---- Additional Comments From geary-maint@gnome.bugs 2013-07-11 15:17:00 -0700 ----

### History

####

#1

Updated by Christian Dywan over 1 year ago

The button could also be used for IMAP servers with no IDLE support.
Eventually, the button would hide if only IDLE-supporting mail accounts exist.

####

#2

Updated by Adam Dingle over 1 year ago

  * **Target version** deleted (<strike>_0.1_</strike>)

Right. As you may know, we've already implemented IDLE (#3885), so there's now
much less need for a button like this. I agree it would be cool to have a
button like this which appears if an IMAP server doesn't support IDLE, though.

####

#3

Updated by Jim Nelson 8 months ago

  * **Category** set to _client+engine_
  * **Priority** changed from _High_ to _Low_

It doesn't seem like we need this as much right now -- IMAP IDLE works well
and seems widely available.

####

#4

Updated by Sean van Buggenum 6 months ago

my 2 cents:

Against the IMAP server I have to use at work, I guess it must not support
such an IDLE functionality. And the only way to receive new mail is to restart
the client.

This (apart from a serious crashing issue) prevents me from using what looks
like the most beautiful looking email client for linux i've seen.

Please provide a refresh option ... if only a context sensitive menu option
when clicking on a particular account or inbox.

####

#5

Updated by Jim Nelson 6 months ago

  * **Priority** changed from _Low_ to _High_
  * **Target version** set to _0.4.0_

We're so used to seeing servers that support IDLE, it's possible the
background polling check broken at some point. Do you know what kind of server
your mail is on (Dovecot, Zimbra, something else)?

####

#6

Updated by Sean van Buggenum 6 months ago

Hi, yes,

well, if you say most support it, I am also surprised....

as, I "think" it is some version of microsoft exchange.... ??

that is, the server is

profimailer/1und1.de

imap address : imap.profimailer.de

I can ask the sys-admin if you like to see if he knows more details....

As you can see, it is not an internally managed email server, so I am not sure
what level of detail i'll be able to dig up.

Does that help? If not, .. can you advise what exactly I should ask (of those
who might better know).

####

#7

Updated by Eric Gregory 6 months ago

The server does report that it's Exchange:

    
    
    * OK The Microsoft Exchange IMAP4 service is ready.
    

####

#8

Updated by Jim Nelson 6 months ago

Huh ... the server says it supports IDLE. You should be able to receive new
messages without manually polling.

I've opened a new ticket for this issue: #6991. Sean, please visit that ticket
to continue this discussion.

####

#9

Updated by Sean van Buggenum 6 months ago

ok, thanks!

####

#10

Updated by Jim Nelson 4 months ago

  * **Target version** changed from _0.4.0_ to _0.5.0_



--- Bug imported by chaz@yorba.org 2013-11-21 20:22 UTC  ---

This bug was previously known as _bug_ 4628 at http://redmine.yorba.org/show_bug.cgi?id=4628

Unknown milestone "unknown in product geary. 
   Setting to default milestone for this product, "---".
Setting qa contact to the default for this product.
   This bug either had no qa contact or an invalid one.
Resolution set on an open status.
   Dropping resolution 

Comment 1 Jim Nelson 2014-08-15 17:56:24 UTC
*** Bug 734794 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 2 Jim Nelson 2014-09-23 19:15:35 UTC
*** Bug 737041 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 3 Frédéric Parrenin 2014-09-24 20:42:07 UTC
I noted that when I receive a new message in gmail, I get a notification about 5s earlier in gmail on my android phone than on geary on my laptop.
This is not super-blocking but it makes me feel geary a bit slow.
Maybe something can be improved here?
Comment 4 iii_iii 2015-06-15 15:33:41 UTC
I sent an email to myself, from gmail to yahoo. The yahoo account showed a new message was waiting, but I could not see it. I waited for some 15 minutes... longer now. I still cannot see it even if I exit and restart. But I can see the email with thunderbird. I am not sure if yahoo supports IDLE. Possibly not.
Comment 5 iii_iii 2015-06-15 15:48:22 UTC
I quit geary. But there is still some process running.

ps axf|grep -i geary
 5414 pts/1    SLl    0:48          |   |   \_ geary

So I kill it, then start geary, and I can see the new email.

This is 0.10.0 compiled on opensuse Linux hamlet 3.16.7-21-desktop #1 SMP PREEMPT Tue Apr 14 07:11:37 UTC 2015 (93c1539) x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Comment 6 Michael Gratton 2016-05-16 12:43:10 UTC
(In reply to iii_iii from comment #4)
> I sent an email to myself, from gmail to yahoo. The yahoo account showed a
> new message was waiting, but I could not see it. I waited for some 15
> minutes... longer now. I still cannot see it even if I exit and restart. But
> I can see the email with thunderbird. I am not sure if yahoo supports IDLE.
> Possibly not.

This is covered by bug 766463.

(In reply to iii_iii from comment #5)
> I quit geary. But there is still some process running.

You have "Always watch for new mail" checked in the prefs.
Comment 7 jeremy9856 2016-07-20 09:08:38 UTC
A simple "Refresh" button will be great to instantaneously check if there is new email.
Comment 8 jeremy9856 2016-07-27 13:58:45 UTC
Sometimes I see some mismatch in the mails between my 2 computers. The mismatch don't "fix" themselves and I need to kill Geary and relaunch it. I don't know if this will be fixed in future version but a refresh button is really needed to avoid this kind of problem.

Thaks !
Comment 9 johns2ses 2017-10-20 12:18:15 UTC
I'm using Gmail and sometimes I have to restart Geary to get new messages; a refresh button would be great to solve this problem.
Comment 10 Michael Gratton 2017-10-23 00:20:07 UTC
Hey all, thanks for the additional feedback.

Unfortunately, the bugs above that cause Geary to stop showing new messages instantly after they arrive may also cause a "Check Mail" button to also stop working. As a result, it is much better to fix the underlying bugs so that Geary always displays new mail, rather than try to work around it by adding a new button.

If you encounter any problems where Geary stops showing new messages, please report it as a new bug so that we can diagnose and fix it.

Thanks!
Comment 11 Michael Gratton 2017-11-15 05:38:20 UTC
To follow up on this, if Geary is not working for you in such a way that means you would like a Check Mail button, can you please try the following so I can debug the underlying problem:

1. Run Geary from a terminal window using the following command:

    geary -d --log-network |& tee geary.out

2. Send yourself an email either from Geary, or from another device.
3. Quite Geary when the message arrives or after it fails to arrive after about five minute's wait
4. Create a new bug and attach the newly created file "geary.out" to it using this link: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=geary&component=engine

Note you may want to open geary.out in a text editor first to find & replace your email address or other personal details before attaching it to the bug.

Thanks!
Comment 12 Michael Gratton 2018-07-12 02:05:48 UTC
Further note: Yahoo does indeed not support IDLE, and so for Yahoo and other such accounts new mail will only show up when when Geary notices it. For various technical reasons, this doesn't happen very often at all with 0.12.x, but this should improve when 0.13 is released.

Still, I acknowledge that sometimes you want to know if there's any new mail *right now*, so I'll also look at adding support for manually checking mail for accounts for servers that do not support IDLE.
Comment 13 Michael Gratton 2019-02-02 06:05:25 UTC
Just FYI, !95 will bring the default time period for polling to new messages down to every two minutes on servers that do not have IDLE support, and the development master has seen a bunch of fixes that should make the polling process much more reliable. These will all be in 0.13, which will be out in a week or two, so that version should work much better with servers that do not support IMAP IDLE.