Everything is fine on my device
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Hi @optimumpro,
Thanks for your reply, thankfully I saw it before others flagged it for some reason and it got removed. You said that Thunderbird contains various Google binaries but the F-Droid version removes them, is that right? Are these binaries the only difference between Thunderbird adn K-9 Mail, or are there other actually useful features which are in Thunderbird but not K-9 Mail?
Cheers 
yes
there’s some theming differences too, iirc
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So, why was my post flagged, if you basically agree with what I said?
P.S. Or is it because I mentioned the fact that Desktop version of Thunderbird leaves your account metadata locally and wished that the feature wouldn’t come to Android?
If any of the above two is the reason for flagging, and it came from Thunderbird people, I would be concerned about the credibility of the project.
Nope. That was not the case. Ignore that flag.
All right, but then why is the post still hidden?
Your post makes no sense. It’s the nature of Android which is not related to F-Droid nor Thunderbird.
Now that the little mishap with the release was fixed comes the harsh critique:
The new combined account/folder view is total crap. I have 5 accounts at Google which are now all displayed as GM. In the previous version they were easy to distinguish, now I have to cycle through all accounts to find the one I want.
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Very true. It just confuses and looks weird as well.
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May I suggest that you contact the developer on thus subject, the guys at F-Droid cannot do much about it.
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@optimumpro’s post made a lot of sense to me. The first paragraph is clearly related to F-Droid. Regarding the second paragraph, if the Android version of Thunderbird can’t be completely removed and leaves all the account information intact then surely this would be an issue which should exclude it from F-Droid?
Have I misunderstood something?
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why would it be? many apps leave stuff behind, complain to their devs is that’s good, bad or intended.
Hi @Licaon_Kter, thanks for confirming. Theming differences seems an odd reason for @kewisch to say “features”. I think I’ll need to install it to see.
The new combined account/folder view is total crap. I have 5 accounts at Google which are now all displayed as GM. In the previous version they were easy to distinguish, now I have to cycle through all accounts to find the one I want.
Yes, it’s rubbish, best to raise an issue on their Github repo I think, or find the one that probably exists already and add your weight to it. However, if their project manager is anything like the one they had for Fenix prepare for your voice to be completely unheard, never mind listened to.
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Most apps don’t leave personal information and passwords hanging around, do they? Maybe they do? I still think @optimumpro’s comment was worth making and not off topic.
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Is this a trait of Thunderbird or of how login credentials are stored in the the Linux distribution/desktop environment you use (KDE Wallet, etc)? Thunderbird might be using a keystore, and depending on how Thunderbird in uninstalled it may not delete what is in the keystore.
Is this a trait of Thunderbird or of how login credentials are stored in the the Linux distribution/desktop environment you use (KDE Wallet, etc)?
It’s Thunderbird cache, which is NOT deleted on removal. How do I know? I use bleachbit and when I click ‘wipe thunderbird cache’, then and only then the metadata disappears.
In other words: You use Thunderbird Desktop client. Then you completely remove the app. Then re-install the app and all your accounts are there.
After using bleachbit and wiping TB cache, re-installation is clean.
I know. And I also have some experience with filing Thunderbird issues.
It should mentioned that it is a regression because it was working very nicely before the eye candy update.
Nice to see it got some attention though.
However, if their project manager is anything like the one they had for Fenix prepare for your voice to be completely unheard, never mind listened to.
Hi, my name is Philipp and I lead mobile engineering for Thunderbird. I work at MZLA Technologies, which is mainly funded by financial contributions from our users. You can learn more here: Who We Are — Thunderbird . Given we’re a small group I’m taking on both product decisions and engineering management, and I’m here, and listening. I certainly won’t be able to take action on every voice, but we’re actively looking at the release and beta feedback and weaving this into our plans. MZLA aside, Thunderbird is a community project and we welcome involvement and support in many different ways
The new combined account/folder view is total crap. I have 5 accounts at Google which are now all displayed as GM. In the previous version they were easy to distinguish, now I have to cycle through all accounts to find the one I want.
Yep, we’re aware the selection of the letters is unfortunate. It might work well for many folks who have a work email, a personal email, and maybe another. But for those who do have multiple Gmail, or a GMX and and Gmail account, or other situations like that, it just really falls flat because there is no way to change it. This was more a time constraint than a deliberate choice. We’ll be fixing it this year, we’re already working with a contributor who has proposed a patch and will be brainstorming with our design friends tomorrow. We plan to further improve the folder drawer in the new year.
You said that Thunderbird contains various Google binaries but the F-Droid version removes them, is that right? Are these binaries the only difference between Thunderbird adn K-9 Mail, or are there other actually useful features which are in Thunderbird but not K-9 Mail?
I answered this in part Thunderbird differences from K-9 mail? - Mozilla Connect , thanks for posting over on connect! Our build system has two variants, one that includes Google Play Services, and one without. The one without is what we post to f-droid. Our f-droid metadata additionally removes references to Google Play Services, because the scanner is obviously going through the whole repo and flagging code that we don’t build.
We use Google Play Services solely for financial contributions. On Google Play, we aren’t allowed to link to our fundraising site, so we chose this path. On f-droid, we aren’t allowed to use closed source binaries (good!), and unfortunately the play store billing library is closed source without a viable alternative. We’d love to be able to do this without the play store billing library and just have one variant that we build!
if the Android version of Thunderbird can’t be completely removed and leaves all the account information intact then surely this would be an issue which should exclude it from F-Droid?
Due to the nature of Android this isn’t going to happen. If you remove an app, you also remove the associated data. On desktop it is slightly different. If you uninstall, there is usually a choice to delete your files, but otherwise they are kept in your profile in case you want to re-install. It is still your data though. Profiles - Where Thunderbird stores your messages and other user data | Thunderbird Help
May I suggest that you contact the developer on thus subject, the guys at F-Droid cannot do much about it.
Good idea There are a few different ways you all can get involved:
- If you have an idea how to improve Thunderbird for Android (and in that sense also K-9 Mail), upvote or create an idea on Mozilla Connect. I look here as one of the many sources for our roadmap.
- If you found something that is clearly a bug head over to our issue tracker on github.
- If you have Thunderbird for Android Beta (the real one
) installed and would like to give us early feedback, check out the Android Beta Topicbox. - If you need support, head over to SUMO, our support platform.
- We have some frequently asked questions that might help with a few common cases.
- If you want to chat on Matrix, find us on #tb-android:mozilla.org
For the sake of keeping this forum about f-droid, I’d encourage you to use one of the above mechanisms to reach out or respond further.
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Hi Phillip,
Thanks for replying - honestly, I’m very grateful that you took the effort to do so. Please excuse me for so readily throwing shades, I should have given you a chance first! Unfortunately my experience with Mozilla’s approach to community participation took a huge dent through the Fenix development, I felt that the only people being listened to were marketing, statistics, UX “experts”, and not the actual people who used it. Anyway, I’ll stop that rant there - thank you for your engagement! 
Thank you for explaining the differences between Thunderbird Play, Thunderbird F-Droid and K-9, that was very helpful
Cheers
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