Hazard-tape progress bar - Why does it show?

Mail
1

I configured each of my IMAP account to:

  • Download messages for offline use and to search in message bodies.
  • Include attachments to search in attached documents.

Both are enabled. Yet when I see the notification popup that a new e-mail was received, and open it (in its own window) using the notification, I have to wait for the hazard-tape progress bar to stop pulsing until the message appears. Might be only a few seconds, but why is there any delay at all? All messages should be already download, already local, so opening the message should be immediate, not with a “please hold” state.

In fact, I have the 3-pane layout showing accounts/folders, header pane, and message pane. The messages are shown in the message (preview) pane. However, when I double-click on a message to open in its own window, I might still see the hazard-tape progress bar for a second. This makes it appear eM Client is again making another IMAP connection to get the message that it should already have.

2

I have to wait for the hazard-tape progress bar to stop pulsing until the message appears. Might be only a few seconds, but why is there any delay at all?

I suspect that’s because it’s just caching the new message due to you haven’t clicked it before.

Once you see the message appear though, and then go to eg: a previous message and back to the new message, you should find it then displays instantly.

3

But, according to the IMAP options mentioned, the message should already be cached when eM Client notifies me there is a new message. When I see the notification of a new e-mail, and when I decide to interrupt my workflow to read the e-mail, it is already cached. It should not have to cache a 2nd time.

When I see the hazard-tape progress bar, eM Client is indicating it does not have a local copy of the message. The hazard-tape progress bar shows, and after it disappears then the message appears. That means those options are not working.

Oh, the sync interval option is set to “All time”. So, it’s not due to sync only on new messages, but on all messages.

There’s something goofy in eM Client showing the hazard-tape progress bar when it already have a locally cached copy of a message. It could be minutes, or hours, before I click on the notification to view the message.

I do have eM Client to not download externally linked content, like images. To see those, I need to click on “Download pictures”. However, I’m not clicking on that when the hazard-tape progress bar shows up. I’m clicking on the notification, or clicking on a message in the header pane to show in the preview pane. As you noted, once I open or select a message, and after the hazard-tape progress bar disappears (in one second, or several seconds), that progress bar no longer appears when I revisit a message.

I want eM Client to locally cache all messages, so I set the options as noted. Most times it is a 1 or 2 second nuisance to wait. Sometimes it can be several seconds, so I’m sitting there waiting which I wanted to avoid by saving an offline copy of messages.

I just recently (last couple of days) upgraded from v8 to v9 of eM Client. I don’t recall seeing the hazard-tape progress bar before, and I previously had the IMAP options enabled to save offline copies (locally cached). I can’t be absolutely sure that the progress bar didn’t show up before, but it happens so often now that the nuisance is definitely noticeable.

Worst is when I have to allow a site to send me a 2FA code, I have to wait until it shows up in a new e-mail, and then select the message to wait again. Regardless of how 2FA or 2SV is implemented, it interrupts my visit at a site or login, so I really don’t want more interruptions.

1 Like
4

I just realized there is a new feature that might be causing the hazard-tape progress bar to show up despite the messages should already be locally cached (offline mode): showing avatars. Could be eM Client is retrieving avatar images from somewhere online. Not sure from where since they are not images or attachments to the e-mails. I disabled the “Show avatars” option to see if subsequent e-mails when visiting don’t show the hazard-tape progress bar.

Avatars are glitz that I don’t need. I’ll have to check behavior on future received e-mails.

From where (URLs) does eM Client get the avatars? Are they just the favicons from a web site for the sender’s domain? If so, that would explain the lag in displaying a message due to having to reconnect to a site to get its favicon.ico file. To me, that has the client go connecting to a site to get an image file, but I don’t want my mail client connecting anywhere except to the mail server. I disabled externally linked content, like images, and I don’t want the client connecting to any site for an e-mail (until I click on something in the e-mail).

5

There’s something goofy in eM Client showing the hazard-tape progress bar when it already have a locally cached copy of a message.

If the red dotted hazard tape line is still moving, it means “something in the body of the email is still not 100% cached”. Nothing wrong with the program.

All the various versions of eM Client have worked like that. Enabling both the Sync options avoids you waiting to download the complete message contents everytime, but as I said it still has to fully cache when you click on the new unread emails.

Sometimes an html email is trying to read a eg: graphic inline element from an external website, and if that’s not available at the time when you read the email, that could then cause the hazard tape line.

6

Pity. Really wanted an offline mode that fully cached messages. Sync, and no later retrieve of anything more.

Thanks for the assist.

8

Nope, this is far worse in version 9. E-mails that were delivered 5 hours ago, or even longer, are still not downloaded until I select an e-mail. eM Client is only getting the headers, and not retrieving new e-mails until I select them. Yeah, once selected, and then downloaded, there is a local copy, but not before. The IMAP sync option are supposed to create a local copy of e-mails when new ones are found on the server, not still wait until I select a message. The headers got retrieved for a message, so that is how I can see in eM Client that new messages are available, but they are not retrieved until I select them.

Even on short e-mails (which mine are mostly), I have to select a new e-mail, get the hazard progress bar, wait, and then get to read the e-mail. eM Client is left running all the time, so it could retrieve the FULL message whenever a new message becomes available. I should not have to wait at all when I select a new e-mail. It should already be local, especially many hours after the new e-mail arrived.

The sync options are not working in eM Client v9. New messages are not local until I select them. It is not important that they are local when I later revisit the same message as I rarely have to reread my e-mails except those I’ve moved into an Archive folder.

Click a new message. Only the headers were loaded previously to update the list pane. Wait for retrieval since offline sync did not work. This is a nuisance, and a repetitive one. The more I get nuisanced, the more I regret paying for the v8 to v9 upgrade, and the more I consider going back to MS Outlook. I’ll have to start planning on migrating from eM Client to MS Outlook, or maybe even to Thunderbird (which I used before switching to eM Client years ago). Version 9 has problems with its sync options to get local copies of my new e-mails.

9

I should not have to wait at all when I select a new e-mail. It should already be local, especially many hours after the new e-mail arrived

As you have already enabled both the below Sync Options check boxes in V9 accounts setup as in the following Gmail IMAP example screenshot below, then could be “you might need an eM Client program update”. Or you might need to uninstall & reinstall.

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You can get all the latest V9.x updates for Windows & Mac via the release history page. Latest releases are 9.2.2157 for (Windows) and 9.2.2230 for (Mac).

Note: If you do update, “close eM Client before updating” and also recommend to “backup eM Client prior to updating” via “Menu / Backup” incase you need to restore. You can see when the backup is complete in “Show Operations” via clicking the drop-down on the right of Refresh at the top left.

If you still have the same issue after updating the program, or you already have the latest version, “then try uninstalling and reinstalling the program”.

When you uninstall eM Client, if you have Windows “don’t delete the database when asked on the uninstall wizard”. Then reinstall the program via the d/l link and see if reinstalling made any difference to that issue. If you have a Mac, just “drag eM Client application to the bin” and then reinstall via the download link.

The more I get nuisanced, the more I regret paying for the v8 to v9 upgrade, and the more I consider going back to MS Outlook

Now If reinstalling made no difference, then suggest as you paid for the V9 upgrade (which includes 12 months VIP support) to contact eM Client support directly via the following support page. When you get there “login at the top left” and “create a support ticket”. An assigned engineer will then get back to you.

Lastly “you can also try the latest V10 Beta if you wish” for Windows or Mac also via the release history page. V10 Beta has no licence required atm till it’s officially released. As previously advised close eM Client before updating and make a backup first as “V10 is a completely different database than in V9.2”.

Note: V10 is also slightly different in the Sync Options as per the example screenshot below.

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10

Where are those sync options to be found? I don’t see them.

11

I’m already at version 9.2.2157.

Will try a fresh install, but will have to wait until I can schedule some time to work on this (maybe next weekend). Reinstalls rarely resolve a problem.

For v10, I have to wonder what the difference is between “Download messages for offline use” in v9 and “Download messages + Full messages” in v10. Seems the settings are the same, only the 2nd is now a drop-down listbox instead of a checkbox. What is “Enable raw download (entire messages at once)”? What is the difference between download a message, download a full message, and download entire message?

Any idea when v10 will get released? I’m not keen on testing betaware.

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rafikiphoto: For the IMAP sync settings, go to Menu → Accounts, select an IMAP account, and click on the IMAP tab.

Besides the 2 checkbox settings, I also have “All time” selected for the date range of what messages to retrieve.

13

Doh! Thanks I was looking in Preferences.

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Maybe I am misunderstanding the purpose of the hazard tape progress bar. I thought it meant eM Client was retrieving further content after selecting an e-mail that should’ve already been fully retrieved. The message may have been retrieved 4, 14, or more hours before I first look at a message, but I still get the hazard tape progress bar the first time I view a message (but not later when I revisit the same message).

eM Client is configured to download all messages for offline use, including attachments. I disabled avatars for contacts just in case eM Client was retrieving those images in an e-mail from those senders. External image links are blocked, so no having to retrieve images when viewing an e-mail. I even added the --imap-sync-messages-raw argument in the advanced settings for the IMAP accounts (which became available as a config setting for raw download mode in v10 of eM Client). As yet, I haven’t figured out how to get eM Client to instantly display a message that it retrieved hours earlier on the first view of a message. However, perhaps the hazard tape progress bar means something other than eM Client retrieving more content for a first-time selected message.

What is the hazard tape progress bar supposed to represent? I’m describing it as a progress bar that shows what looks like an animated hazard tape. Maybe it has another name that would let me find it described in the online help.

15

Maybe I am misunderstanding the purpose of the hazard tape progress bar. I thought it meant eM Client was retrieving further content after selecting an e-mail that should’ve already been fully retrieved.

Yes if an email is still showing the hazard tape along the top of the email, then that usually means it’s still trying to load some email content either inline or from an external website or sites.

Sometimes this can happen “even if you have read it previously” and get stuck if eg: the server where the remote content comes from is maybe “not currently online” or “the remote page might have been removed” so eM Client keeps trying.

Eventually though the hazard tape should stop.

16

Under settings → Mail → Privacy, options are configured as follow:

__ External content and Other Content (These settings are mutually exclusive. Only 1 can be selected.)

  • Enabled: Block external content.
    • Disabled: Display content from whitelisted senders
    • Disabled: Display content from people in contact list
    • Disabled: Display content when email tracking is detected.
  • Disabled: Display content when email tracking is not detected. This setting is mutually exclusive with the “Block external content” setting.
  • Disabled: Display unsafe content in all messages.
    Manage whitelist (empty)

__ External Content Confirmations

  • Enabled: Ask before downloading external content when editing, forwarding, or replying to email. I’m just viewing a selected email, not doing anything with it yet.

__ Email Tracking

  • Selected: Always block detected email tracking content.

With those privacy settings, eM Client should not be downloading anything further after it has already downloaded a message.

Under settings → Mail → Read:
__ Message List

  • Disabled: Show avatars.

and under settings → Contacts → Avatars:
__ Avatars

  • Disabled: Show avatars from external sources.
  • Disabled: Show monograms when no avatar is found.

With those settings, eM Client should not retrieve nor show avatar images.

Under the Menu menu → Accounts, all accounts are IMAP accounts. Under the IMAP tab the following are configured:

  • Enabled: Download messages for offline use and to search in message bodies.
    – Enabled: Include attachments to search in attached documents.

Under the Diagnostics tab, I added the following argument:
__ Advanced Options

  • Parameters: --imap-sync-messages-raw

That changes eM Client from downloading e-mails in chunks to downloading them in one piece. In version 10 of eM Client, this became exposed as the “raw mode” setting under the IMAP tab.

That should download the complete message for offline access. eM Client should hold the complete message: headers, body, MIME blocks in the body. And eM Client should not be chopping the download into blocks; see:

https://forum.emclient.com/t/what-is-raw-download/95390

With those settings, eM Client should be downloading the complete message: headers + body (with MIME encoded text blocks for any attachments). When a message was previously retrieve 4, 14, or more hours before selecting it to view, there should be NOTHING more for eM Client to retrieve.

Some IMAP clients will retrieve on headers of articles, so they can populate their message list pane. Not until the user clicks on a message does it get fully downloaded (headers + body). However, they often have an offline feature, or an option to complete download complete messages (headers + body). Even if you have an Internet outage, you can still read the locally “offlined” messages. They’ve already been downloaded, and completely downloaded. Offline mode (the options to download complete messages) isn’t working in eM Client. When I select a new message the first time only, I get the hazard tape progress bar which, I think, means eM Client is downloading more content that it didn’t get before, but it should’ve downloaded everything before for a message as it is configured.

I also use MS Outlook 2021 and have used Thunderbird. They download complete messages. When I select a new message, there is no delay to display the message that was already completely retrieved. With eM Client, clicking on a new message stalls showing it until the hazard tape progress bar disappears. That could be a few seconds to a couple minutes. It is infuriating to open the email client to read new e-mails only to get stalled when clicking on each new e-mail. If a dozen, or more, new e-mails show up, I can waste a lot of time waiting for the hazard tape progress bar to disappear for each selected new e-mail. However, afterward there is no delay and no hazard tape progress bar. When I selected to view the message, and after the delay, eM Client finally retrieved the complete message, so revisiting the e-mail has no delay to read it. As it is configured, I don’t know what remaining content eM Client wants to retrieve on the first view of a message.