Using Ubuntu Gutsy (i386), just installed v3.3.0 as per http://www.claws-mail.org/downloads.php?section=downloads instructions. Setup: I'm a trying Claws anew having been a Thunderbird user for quite awhile. My accounts are all IMAP based. Problem: Address Harvester only gets 5 email addresses out of 5,000 email headers. Workaround: individually view all messages so as to download them to my local hard drive. I gather that the Claws developers are mainly POP users, so I'm wondering if this has to do with an assumption that all emails are locally downloaded already. I'll post the IRC conversation I had with iwkse earlier this evening.
(05:13:42 PM) hunteke: anyone know why gutsy claims to have claws version 2.10 but this room (and seemingly everywhere else) claims 3.3.0? why is gutsy's claws-mail package so out of date? (05:16:31 PM) iwkse: hunteke: i notice that too. use the gutsy packages from claws-mail.org (05:16:45 PM) iwkse: hunteke: ubuntu maintainer maybe are busy with something else (05:17:23 PM) hunteke: iwkse: aha. thanks (05:23:00 PM) hunteke: iwkse: do you use the harvest addresses at all? (05:23:45 PM) iwkse: hunteke: i used it one time (05:23:50 PM) hunteke: did it work for you? (05:23:53 PM) iwkse: yes (05:24:06 PM) iwkse: check in addressbook (05:24:11 PM) iwkse: should have create a folder (05:24:21 PM) hunteke: so, the behavior I'm seeing is that it's only importing messages that I've literally clicked on and read (05:24:24 PM) hunteke: i.e. downloaded (05:24:35 PM) hunteke: (bear with me, I jus installed claws this morning) (05:24:53 PM) iwkse: there's from messages and folder (05:25:01 PM) hunteke: yep, same behavior with both (05:25:05 PM) iwkse: if you want all messages in folder choose the second (05:25:33 PM) hunteke: is there a way to download all of my messages automatically so that I don't have to view each and every one? (05:25:44 PM) hunteke: it's a workaround for this behavior (05:26:50 PM) iwkse: hunteke: you're saying it does not create a new addressbook in the addressbook window? (05:27:19 PM) hunteke: it *does* create a new addressbook in the addressbook window. It does not, however (05:27:34 PM) hunteke: search through all messages I've selected or in the current folder. (05:27:44 PM) hunteke: it only reads from the ones that I've already viewed (05:28:11 PM) iwkse: ah yo mean mark all as read? (05:28:17 PM) hunteke: which, in looking in the .claws-mail folder and my imap account subdirectory, I take to mean "what it's downloaded" (05:28:26 PM) iwkse: there's a shortcut, alt-\ (05:28:41 PM) hunteke: no, I don't want to mark all as read, I want to harvest all the from emails in my inbox (05:28:47 PM) hunteke: and to: emails in my sent folder (05:29:03 PM) hunteke: but currently, it only harvests from those messages at which i've literally clicked and viewed. (05:30:11 PM) iwkse: not here (05:30:29 PM) iwkse: hunteke: did you upgrade to 3.3.0? (05:30:31 PM) hunteke: yep (05:30:37 PM) hunteke: just did on your advice (05:30:46 PM) hunteke: hmm, have you been using claws for a while and all of your email is already downloaded locally? (05:30:49 PM) iwkse: it works here also on unread stuff (05:30:51 PM) hunteke: do you use imap? (05:30:55 PM) iwkse: no (05:31:03 PM) hunteke: hmm, that may be it then . . . (05:31:29 PM) hunteke: because, lol, I haven't actually counted, but I'm guessing I have more that 5 recipients in the last 5000 messages I sent. ;-) (05:31:46 PM) iwkse: :) (05:32:11 PM) hunteke: actually, that would make sense, if you use pop (05:32:18 PM) hunteke: because even it's unread, it's already been downloaded, right? (05:32:49 PM) hunteke: as opposed to imap which has an index perhaps, but doesn't necessarily download the message body, yes? (05:33:18 PM) hunteke: if I haven't grossly misunderstood pop and imap, I'll file a bug report . . . (05:35:00 PM) iwkse: yes (05:35:07 PM) iwkse: pop download everything (05:35:18 PM) iwkse: imap maybe not (05:35:24 PM) iwkse: probably just headers (05:35:33 PM) iwkse: i don't use it (05:35:41 PM) hunteke: huh, which should be enough, then? (05:35:53 PM) hunteke: oh well, I'll post this conversation as well. (05:35:57 PM) iwkse: yes, but i don't know if this one is an option (05:36:07 PM) hunteke: sorry, this one? (05:36:08 PM) iwkse: i know almost nothing about imap (05:36:19 PM) hunteke: heh, and I know nothing about pop! ;-)
Indeed, the address harvester works on files, so the mails have to be downloaded to be in caches.
I'm not a developer of this project, so I'll leave the triage details up to y'all. I will mention, however, that I (personally) deem this address harvesting a fairly big feature for one switching mail clients, not a mere "enhancement". Prior to Claws, I used Thunderbird; through no fault of Claws, I am unable to access Thunderbird's address book, thus the harvest tool is crucial. As it is, Thunderbird is buggy with my large amount of email, so I'm forced to use another mail tool, and Claws is it now. To me, the harvest tool is more than an enhancement; this is a large feature that doesn't work as advertised. That said, thanks for Claws, which, modulo this and a couple other annoyances, I very much appreciate.
Since the harvest feature does require that messages be downloaded, a workaround would be to have an option to "synchronize" or "download messages for offline use". As a large member of the Traveling Notebook Society, I ma{d,k}e use of this feature extensively with Thunderbird. I'm currently getting around the lack of this in Claws by making sure to access emails before I disconnect. Is there a "download feature" that I'm overlooking with my PMB (Pattern Male Blindness :-P )?
You can either right-click on a folder and use "Download messages", or right-click on a folder, choose Properties, "Synchronise for offline use", and set "Synchronise offline folders for offline use as soon as possible" in Configuration/Preferences/Others.
(In reply to comment #3) > Prior to Claws, I used Thunderbird; through no fault of Claws, I am unable to > access Thunderbird's address book, thus the harvest tool is crucial. Why don't you just export your addressbook from Thunderbird, and import it again in Claws Mail? Claws Mail has a script to import csv files generated by Thunderbird (http://www.claws-mail.org/tools.php).
(In reply to comment #6) > (In reply to comment #3) >> Prior to Claws, I used Thunderbird; through no fault of Claws, I am unable to >> access Thunderbird's address book, thus the harvest tool is crucial. > > Why don't you just export your addressbook from Thunderbird, and import it > again in Claws Mail? Claws Mail has a script to import csv files generated by > Thunderbird (http://www.claws-mail.org/tools.php). Because I'm oh-so-prodigious about backups (read: not at all) and my hard drive died. :-(
(In reply to comment #5) > You can either right-click on a folder and use "Download messages", or > right-click on a folder, choose Properties, "Synchronise for offline use", and > set "Synchronise offline folders for offline use as soon as possible" in > Configuration/Preferences/Others. That durned right-click. Heh. Exactly what I needed. Okay, so workaround is found; thanks all. This bug is still perhaps pertinent, however, in that it's behavior was unexpected to *this* end user. I'll leave that to your capable hands. Ciao.
I would argue that this is a design mistake though. Why does someone need to load the whole folder offline which can take many minutes when you could harvest the addresses from the headers only which you have loaded in the client already? It could work in a few seconds and this way it takes long minutes. Not speaking about how counterintuitive this feature is. You should really at least indicate somehow why it only downloads a few messages instead of the whole folder.
*** Bug 3974 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***