Discussion about auto-send messages

Hello everyone

I want to discuss some bug (imo) that is present in eM Client from long time. I discussed it with eM Client staff, but it goes nowhere, probably because not so many people report it or notice it. And since I think it’s a bug and staff think it’s made “by design”, I want to know your (users) opinion.

Ok, so eM Client has option “Send messages immediately” that everyone may leave checked or uncheck in configuration. When checked - everything works like supposed to, but when unchecked - emails are send anyway during automatic synchronization of mailboxes!

IMO automatic sync should affect only IMAP (for sync) or POP protocol (for receiving), but not SMTP (for sending). Only manual click on “Refresh” button should activate send emails when option “Send messages immediately” is disabled. What is the point of having that option if, for example, automatic periodic refresh will send this message after (for example) 5 seconds anyway (if I have bad luck)?

Of course now someone may think that removing that option will be nice solution - easy and “everything works now”. But imo there is nothing so difficult to change program the way I described - that automatic refresh do not trigger SMTP sending and only manual Refresh sending emails. This option is very useful for me, but I really want it to work like it should work (like in ANY other email client that have queue instead of immediate send).

So I want to know your opinion - is it good idea and am I right that it should work like I described?

When checked - everything works like supposed to, but when unchecked - emails are send anyway during automatic synchronization of mailboxes!

That makes sense to me that when the box is unchecked to send later that eM Client sends when it auto syncs as normal. I agree with eM Client staff as is meant to be that way & is correct.

However if you have eM Client Pro in the “Send Later” option you can also (specify a time to send), rather than just automatically being sent when it auto syncs.

How Send Later works eM Client Pro.

https://support.emclient.com/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/153/6/how-does-send-later-work

But SYNC supposed to be made for syncing mailboxes. If I choose not to send message immediately and program sends it anyway (sometimes immediately if I have bad luck) then it’s not so good design.

In any other mail client when “send on check” or “immediate send” is disabled, only user can send email using button. That doesn’t stop program for syncing mailboxes with server, but queued mail is not something to synchronize. It’s not “sent” mailbox, it’s “outbox” and it’s local, so there is nothing to synchronize with server. Unless eM Client will use server’s outbox (but is not).

And first of all:

It’s not what this option is. There is no option “send later”. There is option “Send messages immediately”, so I do not choose to SEND anything later, I choose to NOT send messages immediately.

As a programmer I know that it’s very easy to made it works - just skip sending procedure when is called from automatic check and enable it when using button. Nothing very difficult to made. And if user wants to send messages immediately, then it changes nothing. So everyone will be happy.

There is an option in the account settings (Menu > Accounts > General tab) to Include when sending/receiving emails.

If you untick this option, then the account will not send according to the schedule you have specified in Menu > Settings > General > Synchronization, as long as you have also unticked the option to Send messages immediately.

The Inbox will still receive new messages, because they are pushed from the server, not synced from eM Client’s side, but messages you send will remain in the Outbox

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It’s not the same. This way I disable the possibility to immediate check email when I want.
And it will not work in POP3 accounts (I mostly used IMAP, but I have two POP3 with that option disabled and automatic check or manual refresh do nothing, I must check specific account).
So - not a good solution, just workaround like “program works that way, so live with that”.
Much easier will be just made option work like description in option says.

This is total annoying. Last time my few emails was sent IMMEDIATELY after I press “send”, even if I have “send emails immediately” checkbox unchecked. I was trying to re-edit one of them, but it was too late. Just bad luck - at the same time automatic sync was made. Bad, really bad design. Not even single other email client with option to queue sending emails not works like that.

Well, of course there are always people who says that it’s not a bug, but improvement. Or others who says that everything works great and I can made some “workarounds”. But in fact problem is very simple - there is option “send emails immediately”. If option is UNCHECKED and emails still sends immediately, then is not working.

Really, eM Client is great, but programmers are stubborn in their beliefs that everything they made is 100% great and well designed.

What happens is that when you click Send, the message is immediately uploaded to the server, unless you have disabled send immediately. In that case, the message will be sent on the sync period you have set in Menu > Settings > General > General > Synchronization. It is just a coincidence that the sync period happened to come immediately after you clicked Send.

If you have a Pro License, you can use eM Client’s Send Later feature if this is something you regularly need to do. That way all messages can be delayed by a fixed time, say 5 minutes. Regardless of you having selected to send immediately or not, all messages will wait 5 minutes before sending.

This is NOT how it suppose to work and I described it in my first post!

If I DON’T want to send messages immediately, then none of “bad luck” or other coincidences should send my message without MY OWN interaction with program by CLICKING on refresh manually! That is how it should be design.

And what do you talking about SYNCHRONIZATION? What Synchronization? IMAP synchronizes mailboxes and that’s ok, but this is NOT IMAP mailbox to synchronize, it’s SMTP protocol that gets email from local outbox. There is NOTHING to sync, since it’s not syncing, it’s SENDING. There was no email on server in sent or local in sent to be synced.

Is it that hard to made a small change - let automatic check/refresh skip sending emails if “send emails immediately” option is disabled and only MANUAL pressing refresh button let send email. 9th version is coming and I’m waiting, as paid customer, for that for very long time. Lot of other things was impossible to made, because “it was not a bug, but designed that way” so I’m used to it, but this one is horrible.

And no, I don’t want to set email to send later, because when I’m ready to send it (when I AM ready, not when program is ready) I want to send it immediately after pressing “Refresh” button.

All messages are sent immediately when you click on Send.

The exception is when you have disabled to send immediately. In that case the messages will be sent on the next sync interval. That is the way it is supposed to work.

In EVERY program I know, automatic check/sync NEVER sends email if immediate send is disabled. Only manual pressing button send or send/receive emails in that case. USER INTERACTION should be the only way to send message if that option in config is disabled.
It’s NOT how it supposed to work, even if you designed it that way. IMO it works that way beacuse you didn’t think that two options - “(not) send immediately” and “send while refresh every x minutes” may be not compatible.

Is it REALLY that difficult to exclude SMTP protocol when syncing automatically (and when “send emails immediately” is disabled)? It’s probably very easy thing to do in code except when you don’t want to listen customers and persist that eM Client has bullet proof design and everything works tip-top.

Or just show me one program that has queue option (alternative name for not sending immediately) and sends messages without user interaction then. I really want to see that.

So disable the periodic sync completely.

The Inbox will still sync as that is PUSH IMAP, so the server is pushing messages to you, but any other sync will not happen. You will need to send messages manually.

It’s not a solution, but some bad workaround. As I asked - is it really that bad to made it like I described?

Why this workaround is bad? Well, I have few accounts, not all of them are IMAP, some are POP3. I want that program check them every X minutes, but only check, not sending my emails. Message in outbox supposed to wait for my interaction (pressing button).

It’s really not some kind of revolution and is not a shame to made something proper - like in any other email client I know (and I know them all probably, including few discontinued and few really rare ones). It’s simply action - if user press “Refresh” by button - sync everything, if automatic refresh is trigger and option to send messages immediately is disabled - do NOT send emails (skip SMTP operations). And as a bonus - you’ll have extra option in 9th version of eM Client.

Well, you have the option to exclude a single account from using the sync schedule.

It is the very last option in the General tab for the account in Menu > Accounts.

image

Even worse solution - now instead of single button I’ll must use lot of separate functions. Still not what I’m talking about, but as I suppose - all I can get is workarounds, even if solution is so easy to made and new version will be released soon (good moment for made few improvements). As I see we’re not a single step closer to a solution. But I get few advices how to use program, even if I know that (I always check most of options). Am I wrong? Do you know at least one email client that have option to NOT send emails immediately and yet sends them anyway? I asked few times about that.

Just give me other answer then - is possible to made it like I described or all I can get is assurance that everything works perfect, design is like it suppose to be and programmers are sure that they never made anything bad? Please consider that this is not asking for help - it’s bug report. It’s up to you if you want to think about it and fix it or leave it as is, because it works so perferct.

All the options are already there. None of these are workarounds, but settings that affect how the messages are sent.

  • Messages are sent immediately by default.
  • You can change that, and only have them uploaded on the sync schedule.
  • You can also disable an account from using the sync schedule.
  • You can disable all accounts from using the sync schedule.
  • You can have a global delay on sending messages.

Except for the preferred default option, each of the others will require some interaction from you, but that is what you wanted.

I think your best option is to purchase a Pro License and use the delayed send option which we have specifically created to allow users to intercept and change an email soon after clicking Send.

I have Pro lifetime license. And I’m still think that you’re wrong.

There should be easy option:

  • Messages are sent immediately by default.
  • You can change that and messages will be sent only when you MANUALLY press “Refresh” button.

That is NOT a workaround made using other options. Your methods are workaround, becuase:

  • Why do I must disable account from sync for prevent automatic email sending, if I already disabled option for automatic email sending? maybe you see any sense with that, but for me - when I say “no” that means “no” - that should be obvious.
  • Why should I disable sync accounts if I WANT to SYNC accounts, but not trigger sending my messages! It’s not the same as SYNC, because there is nothing to sync - message is not in any local IMAP outbox or any remote IMAP outbox until I sent it using SMTP protocol - and then and only then you can SYNC my outboxes (local and remote)!
  • I don’t want to global delay sending messages and I don’t want to fight with my email client - who is faster, me when I press “cancel send” or client when I am not fast enough.

Do you really pretend that you don’t understand what I am talking about? I’ll not ask fourth time for any example of other email client, because you’re pretenging that problem does not exists.

I report a bug - missing option for users who likes to postpone sending email (until they double or triple check everything) instead of immediate send. Without looking how to made it some strange way disabling not related options and then clicking 10 functions for checking/sending every account separately.

If you don’t understand what I mean, then I give up. Sorry, I though that was really easy to understand. Apparently not.

If you have VIP Support, please open a support ticket and I will handle it there.

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