Help K-9 Mail App - Undelete Email?

[mikeledford0258]

I was having problems with forwarding email attachments from my work email with the stock Droid email app, so I switched to K9 and now that's solved. However, as with the stock Droid email app, I can't figure out how to move messages from my "trash" folder back into my inbox if they were deleted by accident. I've read that K9 supports moving messages between folders, I just can't figure out how to do it.

FWIW, this is a company phone, and at the end of my Verizon contract my boss offered to move me over to AT&T so I could get an iPhone, and I told him that if he'd be willing to fork out iPhone money, I'd prefer a Droid instead... mostly because my opinion of people seems to mysteriously lower when I find out they're iPhone owners. Anyways, now it's the end of HIS contract, and he's weighing the Droid over the iPhone, and I'd like to have my own bugs ironed out before recommending it to him

 

[KeithG]

I'm assuming your using an IMAP box.... I don't have any pop accounts but it should be similar...

Open k-9 mail. Get to your inbox view.

menu > folder list > find your trash (trash) folder and select it.

Locate deleted message, long press it. Wait for the long press menu to appear
Scroll and find "move"

If you get a toast notification that it can't complete a move with an un sync'd folder. Make sure you "load more messages" to sync the folder. Or do a long press on the trash folder, and in the long press menu select "check mail".

If the move request works, then you'll be presented with your folder list again. Scroll and find the desired destination folder. Select the destination folder ... message is moved.

 

[mikeledford0258]

It's a POP3 account actually, but I didn't think it would make a difference. When I long press, I don't get a move option, just:

Open
Delete
Forward
Reply all
Reply
Mark as Unread
Flag
Forward (alternate)

If it helps, I'm using version 2000 according to the app manager (the one I found in the marketplace).

I'm not really an IT guy, so if there's any information that's vital you need which I'm leaving out, don't hesitate to let me know.

 

[ramblin66]

Using K-9 client with both IMAP and POP accounts..

IMAP does indeed have a MOVE option as described above...
POP does not have the MOVE option...

So... I can MOVE email out of my IMAP trash, but, my emails are still stuck in my POP trash..

 

[KeithG]

pop does not provide a mechanism to push mail back to the server once deleted

Its not in the protocol specification. But its easy and minimal. The email client, is caching your inbox, and once you *delete* a message from the server, the cached copy is moved to the trash. Which is a folder on the client.

To move the message back, you would need to create a new message with the old message content. Which... if you need to .. then you may be able to edit the trashed email as new and resend it back to yourself.

But if you really need that type of functionality. You need to switch to IMAP.

 

[ramblin66]

pop does not provide a mechanism to push mail back to the server once deleted

Its not in the protocol specification. But its easy and minimal. The email client, is caching your inbox, and once you *delete* a message from the server, the cached copy is moved to the trash. Which is a folder on the client.

To move the message back, you would need to create a new message with the old message content. Which... if you need to .. then you may be able to edit the trashed email as new and resend it back to yourself.

But if you really need that type of functionality. You need to switch to IMAP.

I can't speak for the OP, but, I realize that a POP client does not interact with the server again for the same message after downloading it (except if you choose to delete after download)..

However, on every desktop POP client I've ever seen, you have the ability to MOVE files between folders, including the trash..

Not being able to move a deleted file from POP trash to some other folder (inbox or otherwise), is a flaw, IMHO.. YMMV

K-9 is still better than the native app...

 

[mikeledford0258]

Thanks for all the help guys - I know there are differences between the POP and the IMAP protocols, but I don't completely understand whether it's a setting I can change on my phone, or if my email server has to support IMAP. Our company uses an email that comes from the guys who host our website - do I call them, or do I just try setting up my phone as if it were IMAP and see what happens?

 

[ramblin66]

Thanks for all the help guys - I know there are differences between the POP and the IMAP protocols, but I don't completely understand whether it's a setting I can change on my phone, or if my email server has to support IMAP. Our company uses an email that comes from the guys who host our website - do I call them, or do I just try setting up my phone as if it were IMAP and see what happens?

Well... It's easy enough to just try adding an IMAP account and see what happens... If it works, great... If it doesn't, you're out about 3 minutes time..

One thing to note... Depending on how your company's mail host handles their servers, the correct server name for incoming/outgoing mail could be different..

First thing to try is ..... mail.YOURcompanyname.com

I have one ISP that if I want to use SSL (recommended), I need to use their server name explicitly in K9 account settings... something similar to this..

abhm23.myhostingcompanyname.com

The only way you'll know whether you have this requirement is to 1. Try the generic server address first and see if it works and then if it doesn't work, talk to your network admin or if you know the name of your mail hosting company, you can usually find this in their FAQ on the web and avoid the long wait on hold for cust support.

Hope that's clear??

Good luck..

 

[mikeledford0258]

Crystal clear. Luckily, our host is a small company with abut five employees, so it's not too hard to catch someone there. However, I think I'll take your advice and just give it a shot: I set up my own Outlook, and those settings just carried over when I set up my Droid. I think I'll just try it again, but this time pick IMAP instead of POP and see what happens.

Thanks for the advice!

 

[ramblin66]

Let us know how it goes...

 

[nyamyj]

I just updated my k-9 and now cannot send emails. I keep getting 530 authentication code needed. Please help, I'm so frustrated!!!

 

[cheeseontoast]

Fairly new to android so please bear with me - K9 working (or not) on an HTC desire.

1 When I receive an email and after looking at it it is moved to the trash or just vanishes! Any ideas, a bug?

2. Can u create new folders so that if I want to keep a certain email I can put in in there?

Failing that what other email progs for android are recommended?

Thanks folks

 

[webgurupc]

A workaround IF YOUR MAIL IS STILL ON THE SERVER ONLY.

WARNING!!!! USE AT OWN RISK.
Go into application manager and clear all data in the k-9 mail app.
When K9 is restarted you will have to setup your account again but all your mail will download again.

AND in options enable the confirm action for deleting mail. Should be on by default IMO.

 

[AngryHatter]

Workaround?
Get Maildroid - it just works.

 

[madmartian]

Workaround?
Get Maildroid - it just works.

Not quite. I followed your advice and when I tried to move a deleted item back to the inbox, I got a blank rectangular bar with nothing in it and the message was not moved. A bug.

I also tried Improved Email. That let me move the email back to the inbox, but it disappeared at the next sync since the server had it as deleted.

The problem is that these apps SHOULD have a setting for WHEN to delete the email from the server. If you set it to delete on sync, rather than instantly, then you have a window in which to move the message back to the inbox. The server will never know you deleted it.

This common setting on Windows phones (even years-old ones) seems to be missing from Android email apps.

If you know of an email app that deletes on sync rather than immediately, please let us know.

 

[AngryHatter]

Not quite. I followed your advice and when I tried to move a deleted item back to the inbox, I got a blank rectangular bar with nothing in it and the message was not moved. A bug.

I also tried Improved Email. That let me move the email back to the inbox, but it disappeared at the next sync since the server had it as deleted.

The problem is that these apps SHOULD have a setting for WHEN to delete the email from the server. If you set it to delete on sync, rather than instantly, then you have a window in which to move the message back to the inbox. The server will never know you deleted it.

This common setting on Windows phones (even years-old ones) seems to be missing from Android email apps.

If you know of an email app that deletes on sync rather than immediately, please let us know.

Maildroid has two sync settings - "When deleted on phone, delete on server" and "When deleted on server, delete on phone."

 

[bob01000]

.

 

[madmartian]

Run ATT.net or SBC.net IMAP accounts

That won't help for pop3 accounts.

The program appears to never empty the trash until manually selected from the menu. I don't know if that's a bug or a setting somewhere.

There is still no undelete. I tried selecting an email and then Batch Ops and Move Selected, but that did nothing - no option popped up asking where to move it.

 

[infracom]

pop does not provide a mechanism to push mail back to the server once deleted

Its not in the protocol specification. But its easy and minimal. The email client, is caching your inbox, and once you *delete* a message from the server, the cached copy is moved to the trash. Which is a folder on the client.

To move the message back, you would need to create a new message with the old message content. Which... if you need to .. then you may be able to edit the trashed email as new and resend it back to yourself.

But if you really need that type of functionality. You need to switch to IMAP.

The issue raised relates to offline deletions and moves. It has nothing to do with pop functionality. Even the standard Android email app has a move-to-folder function that allows a message to be moved back to the inbox from trash in the case of accidental offline deletion. I have never before encountered an email client that does not have this capability. It has always been a standard feature for offline mail management. Some people like imap, I don't and I have no desire to use imap. And one of the email servers I use supports only POP3 anyway. I do not understand why k9 is missing the an undelete or move-to-folder functionality for offline use.