Kmail and akonadi

[jlittle]

I got fed up with the Gmail composer always wanting to top-post. So I tried kmail. Composing mail is pretty good, there's enough options to be workable.

But it seems stuck in the 1990s, working like mail clients did then. It has tried to synchronize my entire gmail account back to when I started on gmail, several gigabytes worth, and now I'm getting errors that googling suggests is caused by the default mysql configuration that akonadi uses has some values too small. The .local/share/akonadi directory has reached 1.9 GB. I have removed the gmail account from kmail's list of accounts.

Firstly, how do I clear out that 1.9 GB? Maybe akonadictl stop, rm -r the directory?

Can I use kmail without akonadi syncing every item I have in gmail? I don't want it to sync anything except what I'm looking at. I thought IMAP email was supposed to work like that.

If not kmail, is there another lightweight mail client that I can use with gmail?

[woodsmoke]

Hi
yours is just one of ...dunno many, many dozens of such posts.
You might try searching for Akonadai + kmail in search and you will get ...many...many...posts...

You can just choose to update one service but you will have to shut off automatic checking ...don't remember where in Kmail... the sync function, tell it to not automatically sync on startup.

You "should" then be able to choose the service you want to sync from the tab on the top left.

If you REALLY want to clear the Akonadai folder you can try this but it is labor intensive:

stop Kmail and Akonadai

delete the contents of ~/.local/share/akonadi/file_db_data

move all the emails in ~/.local/share/.local-mail.directory to a temporary directory of your naming

move all the e-mails from ~/.local/share/local-mail to the same same dircectory

restart kmail and import all the e-mails using tghe import function you will have to navigate to the folder.

I would check for duplicates myself, just sayin.

Again, before importing anything go to settings ( I do not have Kmail on a machine any more so don't know exactly ) and un-tick the "sync on startup" / sync at this time function so that you can then manually choose the one you want to sync.

I wouldn't worry about light or medium or heavy weight unless you are running a minimal machine. Kmail is the absolute heaviest in that it is part of the whole Kontact suite and it all works together.

There ar several threads here about different e-mail clients. I, personally fought and fought and fought with Kmail for nigh onto a decade and just gave up.

I have used Thunderbird to deal with no less than four e-mail things from the college's microshaft Office 365 on the cloud stuff to a couple of others such as several "localized g-mail" setups.

Depending on what you mean by "light weight" Tbird has a "new look" and, speaking from three years or so experience it works well

and one can CHOOSE which e-mail system to update with a click of the down arrow menu where the different systems are listed at top left.

As to the composer, it works well for me...dunno...

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2017/12/...tting-new-look

woodsmoke

[jlittle]

Thank you for your useful and considered reply. (I can't resist... only 2 all caps words in three hundred odd!).

I'd forgotten about Thunderbird. I've supported my mother-in-law on it; it was (and is) much more like the old outlook express she was used to than Outlook itself. However, I loathed outlook, having had to use it at clients, so have stayed away from Thunderbird. Maybe I'll have a go.

I sort of followed the instructions, except I didn't do the export and import, just trashed everything. On restarting akonadi there's lots of errors, but another stop and restart and it's ok.

Now I've just noticed that the sending and receiving sides of kmail are separate, and that deleting the receiving account has left the sending in place. So I can still use kmail to send email... I'm running with that for a while.

I'm trying K9 on my phone, I'd like a non-android counter part. Hmm, I wonder, is there a way to run android in KDE somehow? Or, one day, KDE connect might let me send email.

[woodsmoke]

Jlittle:

You are a valued member of this forum.

You have cogent questions which are logically stated

is there a way to run android in KDE somehow?

of that I do not know.

Or, one day, KDE connect might let me send email.

Now...THAT might possibly happen, I continually am surprised at some new capablility of which I did not know because I just use it to transfer files...

but...maybe... a thought fraught with possibilities!!

woodjlittleisagoodmansmoke