Special folders

[Geezer]

I have quite a few personal folders and subfolders in which I organize my messages and keep them in sync.  But the folders I check most often are the special [Draft], [Sent] and [Deleted] folders.  However they are listed at the bottom of my long folder list, requiring many scrolls through the personal folders/subfolders.

I've tried to find a setting (folder sort?) that would place the special folders at the top of the list but I've not found it.  Is there a way to do this?

Thanks.

[Kostya Vasilyev]

Um, sorry, no, those "special" ones are always sorted after all the "incoming" type folders.

The order is:

Inbox type folders which are set "to sync" (regularly)
Special folders
---
Other folders which are not set to sync, and which you'd *recently* opened "as needed" (stay here for a limited time).

[Geezer]

I received the explanation of current operation but I'd like to offer the suggestion to place the special folders at the top of the folder list.  All UI is subjective but I'd like to see if this makes sense to others.

[StR]

Not advocating for one way or the other, I'd like just to point out that Thunderbird places its "special folder at the top, above other "subscribed" folder. This is in essence similar to what @Geezer is suggesting. It comes to mind that pine/alpine does the same way.

What is the logic behind that? I don't know what Geezer's motivation is for that.
One may think that it all depends on what you do the most with Aquamail: reading incoming mail or doing message logistics, in which case [Drafts], [Sent] and [Deleted] are accessed frequently.
Personally, I don't even use "[Deleted]" on many accounts, and relatively infrequently look in [Sent].
I do use Drafts occasionally (especially in Aquamail, since the message is saved in Drafts if some other app interrupts me composing that message), but I don't write that many messages in Aquamail. But I can see that for someone who uses Aquamail as a primary device for accessing e-mail, having those folders at the top would make sense.

[Geezer]

My motivation here is pretty much as indicated in the original post.  I use my computer for most email activity, but when I'm away from home it's AM of course (I never use public WiFi).  I subscribe to quite a few folders so I can reference them if needed.  But I've found that the ones I definitely reference the most are the special ones.  Mostly Deleted (I need to re-read that message) and Sent (what the heck did I just say?).  To do that on my device I need to scroll down past all my other folders.  A minor inconvenience some would say.

Pretty much every desktop email client I've used lists the special folders at the top of the list.  Since I believe this suggestion is likely too radical I'll likely unsubscribe to most, if not all, of my user folders placing the special folders at the top of the list.  I'll then have to subscribe to a user folder if needed.

[Davey126]

My motivation here is pretty much as indicated in the original post.  I use my computer for most email activity, but when I'm away from home it's AM of course (I never use public WiFi).  I subscribe to quite a few folders so I can reference them if needed.  But I've found that the ones I definitely reference the most are the special ones.  Mostly Deleted (I need to re-read that message) and Sent (what the heck did I just say?).  To do that on my device I need to scroll down past all my other folders.  A minor inconvenience some would say.

Since I believe this suggestion is likely too radical I'll likely unsubscribe to most, if not all, of my user folders placing the special folders at the top of the list.  I'll then have to subscribe to a user folder if needed.

My workflow is similar on a secondary device that is only configured with one account. Flyout menu seems to place special folders at the top (see screen shot). Have to check my primary device when I get home. You're seeing something different?

[StR]

Since I believe this suggestion is likely too radical I'll likely unsubscribe to most, if not all, of my user folders placing the special folders at the top of the list.  I'll then have to subscribe to a user folder if needed.

Let me ask you: Are you actually receiving any incoming mail to the "subscribed" folders? (I.e. do you have server-side filters that sort incoming mail into separate folders, and those folders are the ones that you are syncing in Aquamail?)
If not, - selecting those folder to sync on a regular basis puts an extra toll on your sync process (traffic and battery consumption). I don't know how big that is (it also depends on the number of folders), but it is non-zero.

The alternative to that would be to just open those folders "on demand", via "Other folders". Note that in that case these folders will stay in the menu for some time (configurable). By default, it is set to1 week, but you can set it to 1 or 2 months . Those folders are actually at the bottom of the list. So, if you are accessing them more frequently then 1 or 2 months, - they will always be on your list. (And if you are not, - you don't need them.) Just increase the "Recent folder count" from the default "3" to how many you'd need, up to 50.)
Both options are under Settings -> Account list -> the last two options.
I think this should achieve what you need.

As an aside, - long time ago, in pre- pre-MobiSystems era, I proposed to Kostya to have a category of folders that are "pinned" but not synced. This would be useful for people who frequently "file away" messages from Inbox to several most frequently used folders, but don't need those folders to be synced regularly.
It even sounded he might think about that, but I understand that it was not a high priority.

[Geezer]

Yes, StR, I agree.  That's should pretty much give me what I'm looking for.  Thanks.

[Kostya Vasilyev]

As an aside, - long time ago, in pre- pre-MobiSystems era, I proposed to Kostya to have a category of folders that are "pinned" but not synced. This would be useful for people who frequently "file away" messages from Inbox to several most frequently used folders, but don't need those folders to be synced regularly.

The app keeps track of a limited number of "ad hoc" folders for a limited time, and they show in the "move message to" and "open another folder" dialogs.

The defaults are to remember up to 3 folders (per account) up to a week. Can be changed in app settings -> account list (but will affect the dialogs mentioned above as well).

[StR]

Yep.
That's what I've found as a workaround - for the folders not needed to be synced but somewhat "pinned" to the list (in all different functions -- I didn't say that explicitly in the previous post, but it seemingly uses the same logic, maybe even exactly the same portion of the code).

I should point out why I still think it would be useful to implement "pinning" of folders without syncing (probably via the same interface as folders-to-sync are configured and special-folders are mapped). And this is not for me (I've found my workaround), but for other Aquamail users.

It is not straight-forward for users to discover this way of achieving that goal. I've seen a few people in this forum asking related questions. I might be slow, but I don't think I am the slowest Aquamail user. It took me considerable amount of time (many months!) to figure out this workaround. Once you know, you think: "Oh, yes!", but it is not intuitive, especially seeing that the folders disappear from the list quickly (with the default settings) unless you use frequently.

[Davey126]

re: I should point out why I still think it would be useful to implement "pinning" of folders without syncing

FWIW - I would use this capability if it became available. I have several dozen primary folders of which a handful see regular use. I prefix those with a single digit (eg: 1-FolderA, 2-FolderB, 3-FolderC ...) so native Gmail clients places them near the top. Of course Aquamail does the same when the full list of folders is displayed. It would be nice to 'pin' those folders so they remain permanently in the most frequent list as one or two occasionally age out.

This is NOT a big deal for me as AM provides parameters (ie: size and aging of the frequent list) that keep most of my common folders 'soft pinned' most of the time.

[Kostya Vasilyev]

Got it, thanks for the clarifications.