MUA not noticing new mail

[Mike Eggleston]

On Mon, 15 Sep 2008, Kenneth Marshall might have said:

> On Mon, Sep 15, 2008 at 04:50:38PM -0500, Mike Eggleston wrote:
> > On Fri, 29 Aug 2008, Kenneth Marshall might have said:
> > 
> > > On Fri, Aug 29, 2008 at 01:34:24PM -0400, Wesley Craig wrote:
> > > > On 29 Aug 2008, at 10:13, Kenneth Marshall wrote:
> > > >> We tried many IDLE options here, but so many clients had poor IDLE
> > > >> support that we ended up turning it off. The number of help desk
> > > >> calls such as the one above dropped essentially to zero after the
> > > >> change.
> > > >
> > > > I wonder if you have some practical experience to share, e.g., which 
> > > > clients & versions have poor IDLE support?
> > > >
> > > > :wes
> > > >
> > > Outlook/Outlook Express drove the change for us. They would open
> > > multiple IMAP connections (sent folder, deleted folder, INBOX, ...)
> > > but the only folder for which they would issue the IDLE command for
> > > properly was the INBOX. From the behavior of other clients, many
> > > had the same issue. Apparently Outlook counted on the IDLE for the
> > > INBOX counting for all additional IMAP connections to the same
> > > server.
> > > 
> > > Ken
> > 
> > I turned idled back on this morning as the user says she is still missing
> > emails. This particular user has hundreds of folders and hundreds of
> > sieve rules to automatically file messages into these folders (co-worker
> > messages go into co-worker folders and she wants to be notified (unread
> > count) that there's a message in a co-worker's folder, etc.). Is there
> > a setting on sieve I need to tune?
> > 
> > Mike
> > 
> Sieve is not even part of the imap spec and does not have an effect on
> IDLE handling by the client. It sounds like a worst-case scenario where
> unusual mail handling process meets poor IDLE implementation. There is
> nothing tuneable on the sieve side. If the client were implementing the
> spec correctly then it would be getting notified when you have IDLE enabled,
> but like I said above, those clients are few and far between. Let me know
> if you figure something out that can handle this situation. The only thing
> that I can think of is to have the sieve rules deliver to both the INBOX
> and the specific folder and then only monitor the INBOX for new mail. I
> suspect that would require changes to the workflow that may not be acceptable.
> 
> Cheers,
> Ken
> 

Thanks for your thoughts. Seems odd that Outlook and Mac Mail would
both not follow the spec. I think this user's approach is inefficient
and all mail should be delivered to the INBOX and worked/filed/deleted
from there. Oh well, It's not my place to say.

Mike