Local folders in Android version

[SCr]

It would be nice if the local folders could also be linked in the Android app. Then you wouldn't have to boot up your laptop to move the mails to the local folders.

[Jon]

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[MikeYates]

This is vital for importing mail to Gmail, which happily exports to mbox format but only imports by an old unstable and unsupported POP3 method. Thunderbird has long been commonly used for this and now needed on Android.

[geraldco]

As my email inbox is only 1GB of size, I move important mails to local folders to keep them.
On Thunderbird for Desktop this works very well. 
The local folder is transfered with nextcloud to all my devices. 
Unfortunately on my android phone I can not integrate this folder to browse all my mails.

[wsm]

What you are really asking for, is a shared storage space.  That's what imap is for.

As for "local folders", on a technical level I don't quite see how this would work as you described, in part because the very point of local folders is that it is local to ONE device.  

[SCr]

The "local folders" can be stored on IMAP, but I would also like to be able to store and open the emails on my smartphone in the "local folders". With Outlook, which I have at work, this is also possible. The "local folders" are displayed on the company laptop and company smartphone, and I can store or open the emails with both devices.

[booma1]

Before I make a comment, a question!

Is a difference seen between Archive and Local Folders, from a functional perspective? I take there is from an operational perspective.

Point being that as WSM notes Local folders means just that, to your one and local, I have mine on my floptop and at the mo only accessible on that device.

However, I also use the same storage for Archive, which is meant to be a "longer term out of the way" storage, where as Local is supposed to be on your main and one device only. Archive could be configured to store remotely (and so be accessible to otehr devices) and therefore be a pseudo "Local Folder" in terminology.

Personnaly I do not like the "cloud" approach, remote storage.

This also raises the question about "syncronizing" TB Android, because unlike Firefox which uses a central repository for all FF stuff, emails can be on a number of different servers, making sync impossible

[ThorstenT]

This feature would be very helpful when archiving emails.

[failxontour]

@wsm yes while technically I agree with you a shared storage issue on hand for me too.

As from pebkac end-user perspective such as @SCr tech it represent itself the other way arround out of this position I can't, don't want afford more email storage as I either have enough on device at hand or have not sufficent knowledge of hosting, maintaining a mail server, IMAP etc. and dev effort the coherent issue at present here not the cannot workarround to this issue but infurating as user. To cook this analogy way to far it looks to me a bit like a chicken egg problem.

I for example been remotly VNC'ing into my rpi to look inside the desktop version of thunderbird instead of using the mobile email client for some obscure email I may have received 2 years or older ago where I need some info, or need to know if I have registered there.

Yes the chicken are local folders and on desktop they were there before all was fine. And yes K9 Thunderbird here for me is an egg. But I guess this has more to do with how to easily import/export works for users we expect the content to be all there even archives. We may even wanna incorporate it as a semi level backup from the standpoint of used POP3 before but only one 1 device.

Folder- subfolder, marking, mapping all other elements over to factors such a new os, device type with a different codebase. Does impose quite a bit of dev effort from my POV. Which I dont see realistic for a few reasons but only to name one.

Main issue here I could also foreshadow here would be userspace level access to the directory. If Thunderbird mobile implemented this where would these local folder emails have to reside on iOS/Android devices on the system itself as folder permission had to be granted you have to remember you deal with sensible mostly unencrypted data here. Which could be exploited even in a custom mbox container imposes a major security risk for most users. And certain apps on android require full file level access.

Be it either as POP3 account or linked in a mbox container. The work arround evem if I havemt fully done it yet would be to use a POP3 accoumt on FairMail client for e.g. if you use a IMAP account make sure to stop sync for the POP3 account and delete all other mail except for the archive. Beware I, nor anyone else is responsible for data loss but you! You've been warned.

Iirc FairMail explicitally mentions in their FAQ to not use POP3, mbox in case of data loss. Be mindful with your data here. As at least with IMAP you have already have at least a semi backup with one copy on device and one on the server.

First client and then server side or server side then client side. What is the right approch is up to anyone on their own I guess.

So to much of an edge case to make a difference. I guess this is more of a user-journey low priority issue. That people like me face which have low technical knowledge. And might wanna move, mirror there desktop email client experience over to mobile.

I hope that made sense and if you got pinged dont make you mad. Anyway here's some xkcd to cheer up at least

 

[wsm]

> With Outlook, which I have at work, this is also possible. 

In that case, I'm guessing your organization is on Exchange, so your "local" data isn't limited to that device - it is truly owned by the organization.  And so you are not a normal user.

The "normal user" in this idea asking for access to local data from any device is (obviously) asking for something which Thunderbird isn't designed to do.  But, whatever you may think, this really is not a simple to provide.

Thunderbird is designed with hard requirements that include security of data, supporting multiple operating systems (cross platform) and using open standards. In other words, we, Thunderbird, do not want to be programming one-off capabilities that do not interoperate with other applications and are also not future proof.  

The obvious, universal, secure, tried and true solution for most users (including users who are willing to compromise or use what is available today) is imap accounts. Unfortunately I don't see an obvious solution for the user who declines to use imap or can't for reasons of cost, space (vendor limits) or security. 

We are very interested if you know of any potential solutions that are standards compliant (RFC based), implemented in open source, and is also cross platform, easy to use and secure.