1015687 - Download newest pop emails only (by days or amount)

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 436723

(Thunderbird :: Account Manager, defect)

Description

[mscene256]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; WOW64; rv:29.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/29.0 SeaMonkey/2.26 (Beta/Release)
Build ID: 20140428215944

Steps to reproduce:

Set up a regular POP3 mail account that has numerous emails on your server.


Actual results:

When you first request new messages it attempts to download ALL messages from the server, in my case 4000+ emails.


Expected results:

I should be able to set SeaMonkey to only download emails from the last # amount of days or the last # amount of emails.

I have used numerous mail clients that have this option, especially on my android phone but also many on PC. I can set it to just download emails from the last 3 or 7 days (or whatever) and it stops immediately after retrieve that small amount saving time and resources, or I can set it download only the last 100 or so message and have it stop.

SeaMonkey just starts churning away trying to download 4000+ messages which is not needed, as so many other apps have this setting so I hope and would imagine it should be a simple addition.

I would believe most users don't need all messages on their server downloaded every time they set up a new client but may want them left and saved on their server for safe keeping or if they need them download some to other email clients on different devices or PCs.

Comment 1

[Philip Chee]

These Links are for Thunderbird but they should also apply to SeaMonkey:

http://support.tigertech.net/thunderbird-lmos
http://www.gn.apc.org/support/how-setup-thunderbird-leave-messages-server

Turn off "Automatically download new messages" and
Turn on "Leave messages on server" Until I delete or move them from inbox"

Comment 2

[rsx11m]

FWIW, bug 482476 implemented the backend functionality for IMAP accounts, with bug 510707/bug 515842 adding the UI in the Account Manager. Thus, for reasons of parity, a similar setting for POP accounts would be interesting, though the mechanisms are inherently different. In particular, the "master copy" for IMAP remains on the server whereas POP is supposed to maintain a complete copy locally with the option to remove the originals from the server. Thus, for reasons of data integrity, the question comes up how to ensure that there are not any "holes" in the download when accessing the POP account later than the specified download interval. What is the desired use case here?

Comment 3

[rsx11m]

> I have used numerous mail clients that have this option, especially on my
> android phone but also many on PC. I can set it to just download emails from
> the last 3 or 7 days (or whatever) and it stops immediately after retrieve
> that small amount saving time and resources, or I can set it download only
> the last 100 or so message and have it stop.

Are those set up for POP or IMAP?

Comment 4

[mscene256]

(In reply to Philip Chee from comment #1)
> These Links are for Thunderbird but they should also apply to SeaMonkey:
> ...
> Turn off "Automatically download new messages" and
> Turn on "Leave messages on server" Until I delete or move them from inbox"

That information may be helpful to some but it doesn't address the issue stated. Those are the settings I have, but are beside the point for when you click get new messages the first time on a new install, SeaMonkey starts to download thousands of emails instead of just the few you need.

I also know it can be set to download headers only, and while that cuts down time, it still requires thousands of headers to be downloaded and a filter created, which is convoluted and inefficient, especially when many other email clients you can simply set it to "last 3 days" and it takes a few seconds to download your newest emails and your done.

(In reply to rsx11m from comment #3)
> Are those set up for POP or IMAP?
Always POP. I figure as SeaMonkey doesn't re-download messages that are left on the server after the first download there is a mechanism for that already. So it would seem all that would be needed is just the limiting factor be checked first to pull down the few from X date and stop, or X number of emails and stop. I would assume that's how the other clients are doing it but haven't looked into it.

Comment 5

[willprot]

I see someone has posted this exact same bug for Thunderbird here:

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1093359

Install ANY Android email client they ALL ask for how many days n the past to download (5, 10, 20 etc.) or how many emails to download (25,50 , 100, 500, etc) To me this is standard..

How can the developers working on this client not think this is an issue, and more important not have the same issue I'm sure everyone trying to add a preexisting POP account must go through, having to download FIVE or SIX THOUSAND messages from the server into their mozilla inbox during the FIRST set up of a POP email account. This seems ludicrous and while I like the mail client it is the ONLY client that I have ever seen this issue even thought this is one of the oldest, plus since literally every other client I know of can do it it has to be a VERY SIMPLE FIX.

[if date < X DON'T DOWNLOAD] Seems like this issue has been around forever to not yet be fixed.

Comment 6

[willprot]

Seems like people have been having this issue for years https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1000718 but since it only comes up on install it has a low priority.

Every time I install I check, search, and come here to see if there is any update, I don't know why I keep beating myself over the head, too lazy to look for a new mail client I guess but I should just stop using Mozilla.

At any rate seeing as how it just stated there are 4000+ emails to download I guess this is still a thing and not a priority at all. ok