Syncing Unified Inbox updates all folders

[groszdaniel]

Checklist

• I have used the search function to see if someone else has already submitted the same bug report.
• I will describe the problem with as much detail as possible.

App

Thunderbird for Android

App version

8.1

Where did you get the app from?

F-Droid

Android version

crDroid 10.8 GSI, based on Android 14

Device model

Xiaomi Redmi 9C NFC

Steps to reproduce

1. Open Unified Inbox from the sidebar if you're not already there.
2. Pull down to refresh.

Expected behavior

It updates only the folders that are included in the Unified Inbox. (Synchronizing one folder generally takes only takes a few seconds, and I only include Inbox, Sent mail and Drafts in the Unified Inbox, so it shouldn't take long.)

Actual behavior

It updates all folders, even ones that aren't included in the unified inbox, so it takes about a minute to complete. (I use GMail, and there are 7 standard folders and I have 15 tags, which appear as folders via IMAP.)

Having an option to synchronize all folders is useful, but we have the Synchronize button on the sidebar for that. I'd expect refreshing while viewing the Unified Inbox to only update those folders that need be up to date to show an up-to-date unified inbox.

Logs

No response

[hwittenborn]

Would it be ok for me to start working on this? I saw that the unconfirmed label was on it, but I'd be more than glad to add in the needed patch to make this work.

[cketti]

@hwittenborn: Thanks for offering 👍 We'd welcome help on this.

To add support for only checking the folders included in the unified inbox, please add a new method checkUnifiedInbox to MessagingController. However, the implementation itself should go into a separate file and use Kotlin. See DraftOperations for an example.

This part of the code base is quite old and not very intuitive. I expect you'll have quite a few questions. You can find us in the Thunderbird for Android developer room on Matrix: https://matrix.to/#/#tb-android-dev:mozilla.org

[hwittenborn]

I'm terribly sorry for the late update on this @cketti, but I did want to note that I actually experienced different behavior than what this issue says (I originally had thought otherwise as I misread what they said):

When syncing through the Unified Inbox, I don't see other folders get updated unless I go to them and then swipe down to refresh.

Maybe this issue needs to be looked into more? It feels kind of strange that @groszdaniel and I are experiencing opposite behavior...

[cketti]

Currently, syncing the unified inbox will simply sync all accounts. Depending on how folders are configured this could sync all folders in all account or no folders at all. Usually it's something in between.

[babakou9]

I'm terribly sorry for the late update on this @cketti, but I did want to note that I actually experienced different behavior than what this issue says (I originally had thought otherwise as I misread what they said):

When syncing through the Unified Inbox, I don't see other folders get updated unless I go to them and then swipe down to refresh.

Maybe this issue needs to be looked into more? It feels kind of strange that @groszdaniel and I are experiencing opposite behavior...

I’m in the same situation, I depend a lot on folders to sort my mail out, and I need all of them to show me if new mail arrived when I sync the unified inbox. I can’t find the folder configuration mentionned by @cketti that would let me setup this the way I need it to be.

Are those settings supposed to be on the server side or k9-mail side ?