1723329 - Automatically show new subscribed IMAP folders

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 1244814

(Thunderbird :: Folder and Message Lists, enhancement)

Description

[David Mandelberg]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:88.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/88.0

Steps to reproduce:

1. Open Thunderbird with an IMAP account.
2. Using something else, create a folder and subscribe to it.

Actual results:

Thunderbird does not show the new folder, unless I restart the program or toggle the expand-folder button for the parent folder.

Expected results:

It would be nice to show new subscribed folders without extra work. It looks like a handful of people are affected by this: https://superuser.com/questions/392320/how-can-i-force-thunderbird-to-reload-imap-folder-structure

Comment 1

[Hoffmann]

I had a hard time trying to reproduce the above instructions or older recipes. None of them seems to work with newer versions.

The following worked for me (v91.7.0):

• Right-click on folder line (the one above the Inbox folder). Clicking on other lines will not give access to the next step.
• Select "Subscribe" item from the drop-down menu. A dialogue pops up.
• Check boxes for the folders that you want to see, uncheck those you don't want. The dialogue allows multiple selections/actions at once.
• Close the dialogue.
  The list should be updated now. If newly added folders are big, it may take some time to synchronise their contents though.

I propose to close this ticket. (Likely there will be no new solution for an older version.)

Comment 2

[David Mandelberg]

The main point of this bug is that we shouldn't need to do anything in Thunderbird to see the new folders, if they're already subscribed. I haven't tested those steps with the subscribe dialog, but even if they work, there's still a bug that new subscribed folders don't show up automatically.

Comment 3

[Hoffmann]

(In reply to David Mandelberg from comment #2)

The main point of this bug is that we shouldn't need to do anything in Thunderbird to see the new folders, if they're already subscribed. I haven't tested those steps with the subscribe dialog, but even if they work, there's still a bug that new subscribed folders don't show up automatically.

As I understand it, new folders are unsubscribed. In my opinion that makes sense. I don't want to pollute my folder list with a big number of folders suddenly popping up, and in the case of activated local email copies or limited bandwidth, it is better to let the user to decide if a specific instance of their Thunderbird subscribes or not to a new folder. In that sense, I disagree with you about "automatically show up". The selection mechanism is convenient enough for a simple "mass subscription". (For a possible context, I am reading emails – probably like many others – on at least three different computers. I deliberately want the "travel instance" to subscribe to a minimal number of folders and in no case without my explicit consent.)

Hence I think your report is not a bug report (any more), but a request of a new feature, like an optional subscribe-new-folders-by-default (with due warning). The flag (enhancement) reflects this, but not the title if this ticket. Alternatively, the account could indicate "new" or "unseen new" folders with a little icon.
Maybe that helps finding a developer who wants to implement it.

Comment 4

[David Mandelberg]

As I understand it, new folders are unsubscribed.

In many mail systems, I think that's true, but not in all mail systems. I use https://doc.dovecot.org/settings/core/#core_setting-lda_mailbox_autosubscribe so that all automatically created folders are also automatically subscribed to.

Separately, it's also possible for somebody who doesn't use something like that to run into this issue if they just use multiple clients (see also my question below). If you manually create a folder and subscribe to it in one client, another Thunderbird client won't pick up the change automatically.

if a specific instance of their Thunderbird subscribes or not to a new folder

Aren't IMAP subscriptions global-across-clients? I didn't think it was possible for some clients to subscribe to a folder, but other clients not to. (I'm not sure IMAP even has a way to differentiate between different clients.) Does Thunderbird have its own concept of subscription separate from the IMAP server's concept of subscription?

optional subscribe-new-folders-by-default

No, I don't want Thunderbird to do the subscription. I want my mail system to do the subscription, and Thunderbird to handle that correctly, like my other mail clients do.

Comment 5

[Hoffmann]

Aren't IMAP subscriptions global-across-clients?

I don't think so. In my understanding it is a client-side configuration, based on the explanations in your previous answer, my observations in Thunderbird and this (Outlook) or this explanation.

Also the dovecot function you mention seems to be a client option, actually exactly the one I suggested you to request for Thunderbird.

Comment 6

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

IMAP subscriptions are stored on the server, so they are global for all clients.
That said, it might be possible to somehow notice new folders and offer subscribing. It's unlikely to be very trivial though.

Comment 7

[David Mandelberg]

That said, it might be possible to somehow notice new folders and offer subscribing. It's unlikely to be very trivial though.

I have no objection to that new feature, but it wouldn't solve the issue of Thunderbird not showing new folders that are already subscribed, right?

Comment 18

[alyssacerve]

In many mail systems, I think that's true, but not in all mail systems. I use https://doc.dovecot.org/settings/core/#core_setting-lda_mailbox_autosubscribe so that all automatically created folders are also automatically subscribed to.

Separately, it's also possible for somebody who doesn't use something like that to run into this issue if they just use multiple clients (see also my question below). If you manually create a folder and subscribe to it in one client, another Thunderbird client won't pick up the change automatically.