Aqua Mail confuses WIFI with cellular disabled for airplane mode

[mi7chy]

It's not uncommon to use a phone on WIFI with cellular radio disabled.  Unfortunately, Aqua Mail confuses this for airplane mode so it doesn't allow scrolling up past the set sync quantity to view older emails which is one of its most unique and useful feature.

[mikeone]

Hi,
I'm not sure what you mean with "Unfortunately, Aqua Mail confuses this for airplane mode".

Airplane mode disables a device’s cellular radio, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth — the wireless transmission functions.
> Therefore it's a normal behavior that AquaMail won't sync messages when the device is in Airplane mode.

[StR]

I might be wrong (and probably the only person to know this for sure is Kostya, the sole developer of Aquamail), but I do not think that Aquamail has the notion of the "airplane mode".
From what I know, it only looks at the presence or absence of a particular type of connection (Wi-Fi, Mobile), and if configured to use that, uses, as configured.
And as far as I remember, I've used Aquamail on Wi-Fi with the mobile connectivity disabled, while traveling internationally.

So, I'd look into what else interferes.

You may want to post the information about your phone model and Android version (and if you are using any customized ROMs or non-stock battery-savers/optimizers etc.), which might provide some useful insights at what might be the culprit.

[Kostya Vasilyev]

Re: I do not think that Aquamail has the notion of the "airplane mode"

It does, when in airplane mode, it automatically shows all stored (cached) messages in message lists -- not just the "sync'd" ones -- to help people catch up on older mail when traveling.

Re: I often use Aquamail on Wifi with mobile data disabled. Aquamail works perfectly without any issue.

And most of my phones don't even have SIM cards in them, connected to WiFi only. The phones I use for development.

Re: I'm not sure what you mean with "Unfortunately, Aqua Mail confuses this for airplane mode".

I'm not sure either.

Please elaborate:

- When (preconditions)

- What do you expect to happen

- What happens instead

- And how it's different

[StR]

Re: I do not think that Aquamail has the notion of the "airplane mode"

It does, when in airplane mode, it automatically shows all stored (cached) messages in message lists -- not just the "sync'd" ones -- to help people catch up on older mail when traveling.
...

Sorry, I didn't know that. It's nice to learn something new.

[mikeone]

It does, when in airplane mode, it automatically shows all stored (cached) messages in message lists -- not just the "sync'd" ones -- to help people catch up on older mail when traveling.

I didn't know either.
Thanks for pointing that, Kostya.

[Kostya Vasilyev]

Re: Stresemannstraße 3, 61231 Bad Nauheim

Did you mean to post your address (I presume)?

[StR]

Re: address

@Mikeone have you started celebrating St. Patrick's day early? 
I didn't know Germans celebrate it.

[mi7chy]

Normally, when I scroll down to the bottom of my inbox it shows "loading" then displays older emails beyond my set sync quantity.  If I keep scrolling down it continues to load older emails beyond the set sync quantity.  On other email clients I have to manually go into settings and change the sync quantity which is a PITA.

Now, if I enable airplane mode then enable WIFI such as on a non-activated phone it falsely assumes there's no internet connectivity so when I scroll down to the bottom of my inbox it shows "airplane mode" at the bottom.

If seems like it's only checking for one condition when perhaps it should be checking multiple conditions as below.

From:

If airplane mode is on
     then incorrectly assume there's no internet connectivity and display "airplane mode"

To:

If airplane mode is on and (no internet connectivity or WIFI/bluetooth/USB internet tethering disabled)
     then display "airplane mode"
     else behave as usual

Hope that's more clear.  Thanks for looking into.

[StR]

Now, if I enable airplane mode then enable WIFI such as on a non-activated phone it falsely assumes there's no internet connectivity so when I scroll down to the bottom of my inbox it shows "airplane mode" at the bottom.

And earlier:

It's not uncommon to use a phone on WIFI with cellular radio disabled.  Unfortunately, Aqua Mail confuses this for airplane mode so it doesn't allow scrolling up past the set sync quantity to view older emails which is one of its most unique and useful feature.

Oh, ma-a-an!
Your initial description was totally confusing!
If you set it to "airplane mode", it is not that "Aqua Mail confuses this for airplane mode"; it is airplane mode. So, there is no confusion here.


But I agree that when Wi-Fi is enabled that should override the airplane mode behavior.
Note, that that Aquamail does not assume that there is no connectivity. E.g. it can sync all accounts (at least manually, I haven't checked how the scheduled sync works.).
So, it is only "the bottom of the screen pull to sync more" behavior that is disabled.

But I am not sure about a part of this:

If airplane mode is on and (no internet connectivity or WIFI/bluetooth/USB internet tethering disabled)

Why would tethering enabled should be a reason to assume connectivity present? If you set the phone to the tethering mode, it doesn't connect to Wi-Fi. Or, maybe I don't understand something again.
Could you please clarify?

[mikeone]

Did you mean to post your address (I presume)?

Uuups, I inserted the wrong part of my clipboard.... and fortunately it wasn't my own address, 

Re: address

@Mikeone have you started celebrating St. Patrick's day early? 
I didn't know Germans celebrate it.

I wanted to organize an "AquaMail Party" for the German users. 

[Kostya Vasilyev]

You DO NOT want this in airplane mode.

And also:

Airplane mode means something, the combination described in this topic (device is in airplane mode which implies no connectivity AND YET the user then enables WiFi or whatever) is artificial and unnatural.

---

With Airplane mode, and WiFi enabled (but not mobile data)

And then you'll ask me to add a special case for "airplane mode + mobile enabled (but not WiFi)".

[mi7chy]

Airplane mode means something, the combination described in this topic (device is in airplane mode which implies no connectivity AND YET the user then enables WiFi or whatever) is artificial and unnatural.

It's actually very common for people to buy inexpensive, for example, $25 to $45 Moto G to use non-activated on WIFI especially since it can make/receive unlimited calls to/from mobile/landline and SMS/MMS to North America for free with Hangouts+Google Voice # over WIFI.  The only way to turn off unneeded cellular radio is to enable airplane mode then enable WIFI which has the huge benefit extending battery life to up to 19 days on idle with WIFI always on otherwise it would probably be only several days at most.  I only see benefits for Aqua Mail users.

[Kostya Vasilyev]

Interesting...

OK, I'll add the special case where "in airplane mode but connected to WiFi" will be treated as "not in airplane mode".

Thanks!

[StR]

They have changed the rules and now allow Wi-Fi on airplanes.

The nice thing is that Aquamail does seem to work in this situation, except for (in)ability to go beyond the sync horizon.