Conversation View / Grouping

I just upgraded to the v7 beta to check out the conversation view. 

The first thing I noticed was that it *seems* to just group messages by Subject, ignoring the Message Id and In-Reply-To fields in the header.

That means that EVERY email conversation that I’ve ever had with the subject of e.g. “Updates” gets lumped into one together, even though they’re different threads with different people over long ranges of time. 

Is this on the list of things to get fixed before 7 is released?

It also seems to be grouping messages together into a conversation even though I’ve filed them in different folders (because, obviously, they’re different conversations with different people). Can I stop that from happening too?

Hello Ben,
this issue should have actually been fixed in the BETA 2 update, and the message ID should be the defining factor.
Please could you export these messages as EML files for inspection and send them to [email protected] with a link to this forum topic?

Regards,
Olivia

I downloaded it this morning, but just checking: version 7.0.25432.0 is BETA 2, right?

Hi Ben,
yes, that is the BETA 2 update.

Regards,
Olivia

Did you get the emails?

Hello Ben,
yes, I got the emails and forwarded them to our developers for analysis.
Unfortunately I haven’t gotten any news yet on why it’s happening.
Thank you for understanding.

Regards,
Olivia

Follow up to the above query - i am using version 7.1.30794.0 also just recentyl noticed that my emails are being grouped incorrectly based on the message subject line.  is there a way to correct it?

The issue persists. I’m running v7.1.31849.0.

I do not have this issue, and my emails are grouped correctly by the combination of message ID, and subject.

Mars, could you send me two of the emails that are being grouped together that don’t belong. Right-click on the messages and choose Forward as attachment to my address [email protected]

I’m afraid not, Gary, as these messages contain confidential information, and I can’t find any other less-sensitive conversations for which I’m seeing this issue (though I am seeing this issue for several conversations).

It seems the messages are being grouped by subject OR message ID, not subject AND message ID.

More information:

  • The message IDs do not match.
  • The messages are years apart but have a common TO recipient.
  • Both messages are forwards/replies to messages having no subject.
  • One message has subject "Fwd: ", the other has subject "Fw: Re: Fwd: ".

Thanks,
mars

P.S. The incorrect grouping affects all views, not just the messages or details views.

Sorry, my usage of message ID above was not complete in it’s context. Message IDs are unique to every message, but may be quoted in the In-Reply-To or References fields.

Please see Maurice’s last comment in https://forum.emclient.com/emclient/topics/email-threading-bug-serious where he describes how emails are considered as part of a conversation.

Ah, understood. It seems to me then that the fall-back heuristics for grouping messages are a bit over-zealous. I would much prefer that the it err on the side of caution by not grouping some related messages for the sake of also not grouping some very unrelated messages.

Is there at least a way of manually un-conversationing a group when the algorithm gets it wrong?

It is impossible to say why these deviant emails of yours are being grouped without seeing the headers. If that was known, the emails could be exported, the headers edited, and imported back into eM Client. Not a very pretty solution, and it would have to be done manually for all future emails with the same problem, so it is not practical at all. But in principle it works.

What I would suggest is that you open a Pro Support ticket with the issue, and they may be able to give a solution or at least pass this on to the developers. They will probably want to see these emails though.

I face these same issues, with the latest version of EM Client. This doesn’t happen with other mail clients I use. Any solutions please ?

Which other email clients are you using that have conversations?

Which version of eM Client are you using?

Hi Gary,

I have tried with Outlook, Postbox, Windows 10 Mail, The Bat!, Thunderbird. All look ok.

I have the latest version of em client installed 7.2.36908.

I took a quick look, and one of the wrong conversations group even had slightly different subjects 

Every application will have different heuristics for determining which messages constitute a thread or conversation. eM Client uses a combination of headers that include in-reply-to, message-id, references, and subject. It is quite possible to have messages in a conversation that do not have the same subject. It is also possible that two messages with the same subject do not make a conversation if the other headers do not match.

Also, in eM Client, for messages to be considered as part of a conversation, they need to be in the same account tree. So a message in Local Folders will not be considered part of a conversation where the other messages are in an IMAP folder.

If you want me to look at these messages that are grouped incorrectly, or the messages that should be grouped and are not, you can forward them to me. To do that select the messages and choose Forward > Forward as attachment,

Thanks Gary, I’m also synchronizing messages from my gmail - completely IMAP.

Regardless of the heuristics from each client, I think it needs to make sense.

I’ll forward a few ones to you - thanks very much for your support here.

It could just be that the message database is corrupt. There are a few ways to fix it:

  1. Right-click on the folder (like Inbox) that contains the messages and choose Properties > Repair. If it is a Gmail or Gsuite account, right-click on All Mail instead. That will reload the messages from the server.

  2. If it is an IMAP or Exchange account, you can remove the account from eM Client, then add it again.

  3. Close eM Client and run C:\Program Files (x86)\eM Client\DbRepair.exe. That will check for any errors in the database.

One final suggestion I have is to uninstall eM Client, then download 7.2.35595 from the Release History.

During the uninstall you will be asked if you want to delete the database directory. Don’t delete it, then when you have installed the previous version, all your data and settings will still will be there.

Otherwise best would be for you to contact eM Client directly. As a Pro License user you can make use of your VIP support option and open a support ticket with them. They will either be able to assist you by email, or if necessary remotely access your computer with TeamViewer. They are probably closed on the weekend, but you will get a reply on Monday.