Delete by Date Range or Number of Msgs

[this_is_nascar]

Was wondering if there was an easy way to delete by date range or by keeping only so many messages in my AM accounts?


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[this_is_nascar]

Anyway to implement something like that?


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[StR]

Was wondering if there was an easy way to delete by date range or by keeping only so many messages in my AM accounts?

As Paris Geek responded, - there is no way to delete by date range, but you can configure how many messages you keep loaded in Aquamail.
Long-press onto the account (in the account view), -> Account options -> Messages to cache
As far as I know, that's how many messages will be kept loaded in Aquamail.

What I never verified is whether it is only about the main Inbox (I believe it is not this), all folders in the account that are configured to be synced, or all of them minus "Sent" and "Deleted"...
Kostya knows that for sure.

[Kostya Vasilyev]

All folders set "to sync".

( sometimes the special three, each individually, may only exist in the app and not map to a server folder )

[this_is_nascar]

I just checked one of my secondary accounts.

Messages to cache is already set to 1000.
Messages to sync is currently set to 5000.
It's checked to be included in the Sync All.

When I check my Inbox of that account, it's reporting 6266 messages.

[StR]

Those are weird settings that don't make sense to me. Basically,  you ask Aquamail to download latest 5000 messages, but then to keep only 1000 of them (until the next sync, when it will again should download 5000, but keep only 1000 of all messages. That's a torture!
Not to mention thy you are wasting your data and phone battery.  Besides, the sync process can take long time, especially on mobile networks.

Why Aquamail kept that many, I don't know; you may have confused the hell out of it.
As far as I know, you can force Aquamail to ditch the messages beyond the configured number (to cache) by issuing "compact database'. But in your case,  it will last only until the next sync.

Kostya, it is an interesting torture test for an edge case. I am curious if anybody had ever tried that before!...

[Kostya Vasilyev]

Those are weird settings that don't make sense to me. Basically,  you ask Aquamail to download latest 5000 messages, but then to keep only 1000 of them (until the next sync, when it will again should download 5000, but keep only 1000 of all messages. That's a torture!

Yes, the "messages to sync" at 1000 and "messages to cache" at 5000 would be more logical:

--> Fully update 1000 most recent messages on each mail sync, and cache (store on the device) 4000 more per folder, in case the user wants to "scroll down to see beyond the 1000".

The code is smart enough to keep on the device  (cache) the max of those two, it won't be trimming and re-downloading.

But in any case, even "messages to sync" at 1000 is really for people who have the app check mail a few times a day, perhaps while traveling (go to nearest McD, check mail, go back to the beach and catch up, that sort of thing).

It can also make the app's performance slow (both the UI can become kind of sluggish and mail sync taking a long time, even when there are no new messages).

Kostya, it is an interesting torture test for an edge case. I am curious if anybody had ever tried that before!...

Nothing new under the sun -- I've had users complain about high battery / traffic use, only to discover that they had "messages to sync" set to something like 1000 or 3000 + scheduled mail check every five minutes + push ("but I can sync all my messages in Outlook").

---

The app's default "messages to sync" is 25 or 50 (depending on Android version) and default "messages to cache" is 250.

Those values *may be* too conservative, but I'd recommend trying something like ("to sync" = 100, "to cache" = 250) or ("to sync" = 250, "to cache" = 500) before jumping into the thousands.

[this_is_nascar]

Those are weird settings that don't make sense to me. Basically,  you ask Aquamail to download latest 5000 messages, but then to keep only 1000 of them (until the next sync, when it will again should download 5000, but keep only 1000 of all messages. That's a torture!
Not to mention thy you are wasting your data and phone battery.  Besides, the sync process can take long time, especially on mobile networks.

Why Aquamail kept that many, I don't know; you may have confused the hell out of it.
As far as I know, you can force Aquamail to ditch the messages beyond the configured number (to cache) by issuing "compact database'. But in your case,  it will last only until the next sync.

Kostya, it is an interesting torture test for an edge case. I am curious if anybody had ever tried that before!...

You almost sound a bit condescending, but I'm going to chalk that up as me not interpreting your response accurately.  When I first installed the app to my phone, I purposely made sure both of those settings were high (in this case 5000 each), because I wanted to ensure I downloaded all the messages sitting on the server, so I'd have them on my phone.

I had since gone back to change the message to cache to 1000, seeing how it appeared that was the setting to determine how many messages stayed in the folder.  That obviously has not worked as I expected.  I've not yet read the other responses yet, but I wanted to clear this up first.  I hope that helps, as I do appreciate the responses and help.

[this_is_nascar]

Those are weird settings that don't make sense to me. Basically,  you ask Aquamail to download latest 5000 messages, but then to keep only 1000 of them (until the next sync, when it will again should download 5000, but keep only 1000 of all messages. That's a torture!

Yes, the "messages to sync" at 1000 and "messages to cache" at 5000 would be more logical:

--> Fully update 1000 most recent messages on each mail sync, and cache (store on the device) 4000 more per folder, in case the user wants to "scroll down to see beyond the 1000".

The code is smart enough to keep on the device  (cache) the max of those two, it won't be trimming and re-downloading.

But in any case, even "messages to sync" at 1000 is really for people who have the app check mail a few times a day, perhaps while traveling (go to nearest McD, check mail, go back to the beach and catch up, that sort of thing).

It can also make the app's performance slow (both the UI can become kind of sluggish and mail sync taking a long time, even when there are no new messages).

Kostya, it is an interesting torture test for an edge case. I am curious if anybody had ever tried that before!...

Nothing new under the sun -- I've had users complain about high battery / traffic use, only to discover that they had "messages to sync" set to something like 1000 or 3000 + scheduled mail check every five minutes + push ("but I can sync all my messages in Outlook").

---

The app's default "messages to sync" is 25 or 50 (depending on Android version) and default "messages to cache" is 250.

Those values *may be* too conservative, but I'd recommend trying something like ("to sync" = 100, "to cache" = 250) or ("to sync" = 250, "to cache" = 500) before jumping into the thousands.

I think I'm understanding what you're saying and it's obvious that I was not quite clear as to the meaning of those (2) settings.  I can tell you for a fact though, that when I have my setting set the way I describe, the app is not downloading 5000 messages each time.  I'd know that based on how long it takes to update/refresh.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but does any of this explain why I still have over 6k messages in the folder, with the messages to cache set at 1000?  If that setting is not trimming the folder down to the set number and the messages to sync is not really syncing the amount of messages I have configured, what's going on?

See what I'm trying to ask/say?

[mikeone]

The counter in each folder indicates the number of messages on the server not in the cache of the app.

[this_is_nascar]

OK, just so I'm clear, what the meaning of each of these parameters please?

Messages to cache.
Messages to sync.

How do they relate to the messages on the server vs. the message on the device/phone?
How (if at all), do they impact messages that are already on the device/phone?

Thanks again........

[Kostya Vasilyev]

@this_is_nascar -- most important bit here is what @mikeone wrote

OK, just so I'm clear, what the meaning of each of these parameters please?

Messages to sync.

How many messages the app keeps "fresh" (up to date, synced) with the phone (and stored there, obviously).

This is how many you'll see when you open that account's folder -- not more -- because only those messages are known to still exist on the server and their state is up to date with their state on the server (read/unread, starred, replied, etc.)

Messages to cache.

As time goes on, and your account gets new messages, the "messages to sync" -- "window" -- is going to move too.

And older messages which were previously inside this "window" are going to be "dropping off at the end".

These won't show when you open the folder anymore (see above why), but they will still be stored on the device, in case you decide to scroll a message list down to see more older messages. When you do this, the app will sync with the server the next "messages to sync" worth of messages -- and if they're still on the device, it'll be much faster than re-downloading completely.

Now, this "messages to cache" storage is trimmed each night automatically so the app's storage on the device doesn't grow infinitely. This is done without deleting any messages from the server.

How do they relate to the messages on the server vs. the message on the device/phone?

Not sure I understood this part. Maybe already answered above?

And just to clarify -- again, what @mikeone wrote.

The message count next to each folder is *server* message count -- does not mean that the app downloaded this many messages onto the device. Same goes for each folder's *unread* count.

How (if at all), do they impact messages that are already on the device/phone?

The app stores at least "Messages to sync" worth of messages per folder, and up to "Messages to cache" worth, and trims this storage automatically. Both are up to actual message count on the server, of course.

It does not download all messages existing on the server.

Thanks again........

If my original response sounded "condescending", it certainly wasn't intentional.

StR thought that large / reversed values of these two settings would be a good test -- and my meaning with "nothing new under the sun" was for that any such combination of these (and other) settings, someone's already done this, sometimes suffering ill effects (such as battery drain, caused by a very large "messages to sync" value combined with very frequent mail checks or push mail).

[Kostya Vasilyev]

Oh and in short -- you can think of AquaMail as providing a "window view" into your actual messages on the server, limited to a certain number of recent messages.

[this_is_nascar]

Thank you so very much.  I think I'm much clearer on things now, with a better understanding.  I have some re-configuring to do on some of my folders.  Thanks again for the help and the great app.  Keep up the good work.

[mikeone]

@this_is_nascar
In addition to Kostya's comprehensive (technical) explanations I will try to give you same basic information about the IMAP protocol by contrast to POP3- the other major protocol for accessing mail messages.

I assume your account is configured as IMAP.

To see whether your account uses IMAP or POP, check the Server Settings page in the Account Settings:
> go to the app's main window (account list view) > long press on Account name > Account setup > MANUAL > Server type ...

A POP client stores e-mail messages in mailboxes on your device and keeps track of which messages you’ve read, replied to, and so on. At some point, the POP client will delete old messages from the server.

IMAP stands for the Internet Message Access Protocol. It enables a mail client (such as AquaMail) to access messages stored on a mail server. It is more modern and fully featured than POP (Post Office Protocol). Most email providers now support IMAP.

Therefore the original messages stay on the server, along with a record of whether you’ve read, replied to, or forwarded a message.

Even though IMAP accounts keep your messages on the server, you can cache copies of those messages on your local machine for offline access.

> Message to cache

One tricky thing about using IMAP from multiple devices is making sure the messages you store locally on your various machines all match the copies stored on the server.
If you have a lot of email and you have space constraints on your local drive, you may not want to synchronize *all* your messages.

> Message to sync

Once you’ve got IMAP set up on your mobile phone, you can travel the world knowing that all those messages are sitting safely on the server, accessible from any device, at any time you want.