New user - bugs & feature requests

I’m a new eM Client user, after being a long-time Thunderbird user. As I’ve been using the package, I’ve found a few bugs, and a few features that I’d really like to see.

I am using v8.2.1473 (04b618f)

First, the bugs: Multiple calendars in Google Calendar doesn’t work in em Client. All I see is my primary calendar. The other calendars show up in the “Folder” list, but don’t get displayed even if selected. This true for both calendars that I created, and calendars that were shared with me.

For IMAP, if eM Client has previously retrieved unread messages, and I delete those messages using another computer, eM Client doesn’t properly update the unread message count when it removes the message on the next synchronize.

Next, the feature requests:

Please add an option for marking messages read when deleted. This is something the recent versions of Microsoft Outlook provides, and I really like it.

With Thunderbird, I don’t normally use the Trash, but rather have Thunderbird mark the messages as deleted on the server, and then manually expunge/compact them at the end of my session. I’d really like eM Client to support this as well.

I’d like to see it remember my reading position in a message that’s viewed in the reading pane, so that it’ll be in the same place if I click away from it to look at another message and then come back. I realize that I can open it in a new window and that’ll retain position, but retaining the read position was something that the old, original Eudora mail client did, and I still miss it.

When I open a message in a new window, the only keyboard shortcut that will close the window is Alt-F4. I’d like to see it allow Ctrl-W for closing additional reading windows, but NOT close the main window on Ctrl-W.

The way that keyboard focus is handled between the message list and the reading pane is a little clumsy. My ideal would be that I can select a message using the cursor up-arrow and down-arrow, and then use PgUp and PgDn to scroll the message. I can do that right now by using the cursor arrows to select the message and then using TAB to send keyboard focus over to the reading pane, but there isn’t an easy way to get focus back to the message list…TAB doesn’t do anything if the reading pane has keyboard focus. I’d also like an option to have the message list ignore PgUp/PgDn…if I think I’m paging through the reading pane but the message list really has focus then the selected message goes zooming away.

Please make sure you have ticked the color boxes next to each calendar you want to include in the combined display. If the box is not ticked, that calendar will not be displayed.

Go to Menu > Settings > General and make sure you have selected to empty Trash on exit. That way, when you close eM Client, the messages in the Trash folder will be deleted from the server.

The Tab key moves you on to the next field. The Windows default to go back is Shift + Tab.

I confirmed that my other Google calendars are checked in the Calendar “Folders” window, however entries from those calendars do not appear in em Client.

Using TAB to traverse fields in Windows is dependent on how the programmer set up the fields, and certain kinds of fields that normally will accept TAB as input cannot be tabbed out of. Multi-line edit fields, even if they’re set to read-only tend to prevent you from tabbing out. Once the reading pane receives keyboard focus, you cannot TAB or Shift-TAB out of it. This might be possible if the message is completely plain text, but if there are identified URL’s in the text (even without any other HTML markup), TAB and Shift-TAB merely move you from one URL to the next, staying in the reading pane.

EMC’s approach to deleting IMAP message, always utilizing the trash is not unreasonable, however it’s not the workflow I’m accustomed to using with every other IMAP mail client I have used. (These include K9 Mail on Android, Eudora (Classic), Thunderbird and Horde IMP. The only other mail clients I’m aware of that mandate deleted messages go to the Trash are Microsoft’s Outlook and Google’s web interface to Gmail.

I’m now about a week into my initial 30-day trial of eM Client and I’m still on the fence about it. It provides a much more attractive visual presentation than Thunderbird, and definitely handles scaling properly on high-DPI displays (which Thunderbird does not).

However, my accustomed workflow for reading emails has me keeping my fingers entirely on the keyboard using keyboard shortcuts for navigation, and I haven’t been able to do that with EMC.

The calendar doesn’t work properly. (Although Thunderbird’s calendar support doesn’t really work either).

I’ve also seen quite a few people complaining about glitches in your licensing and I’m hesitant about packages that require communications with the authors’ servers. I was able to continue to use Eudora for YEARS after Qualcomm stopped supporting it specifically because my purchased license key didn’t require interaction with Qualcomm’s servers. At $180 for two copies with version updates, this is on the pricey side, when compared with the competition (Thunderbird is free, and Outlook is only about $90/year as part of a full Microsoft365 Office subscription which allows copies on up to three computers.)

The debate is: “Is it good enough?” to justify the price tag and the risk of it suddenly stopping because of a licensing issue, and I’m still on the fence about that. I’ll give it a few more weeks and then make a decision. Even if I purchase it, I’ll still be keeping Thunderbird around as a backup, and it might be easier to just continue using Thunderbird.

What licensing issue is that @tgoltz ?

When I looked through your forums, I saw at least a half-dozen recent messages about licensing issues. After reading those, the following jumped out at me:

Your license keys appear to be limited to a specific computer. It’s unclear how you are identifying the computer, and if that identification will change if I reinstall Windows on the same computer. I seem to manage to send Windows into a terminal meltdown about once every 12 to 18 months and end up doing a clean install as a result.

Windows is also notoriously intolerant of motherboard changes, so I’ve almost always had to do a Windows reinstall if my motherboard dies.

I’m also hard on my notebook computers and end up replacing them every two to three years.

I suspect I would have to get the license key reissued in all of those scenarios. My impression is that my email client would be down for at least 24 to 48 hours every times this happens.

It’s hard to come up with a software licensing scheme that stops the pirates and doesn’t have a negative impact on your honest customers. It’s the classic dilemma between security and ease of use. In general, the more secure a system, the harder it becomes to use.

It’s really, really hard to license a software product on a per-installed-copy basis and prevent ALL illegitimate copies. Floppy discs with laser pinholes burned in them, hardware keys that had to be plugged into parallel ports, serial ports or USB ports. Endless schemes for fingerprinting a computer, or requiring the software to phone home on install and receive permission to install. What these all have in common is that they have ultimately failed. And all of these schemes caused significant pain to the legitimate users.

Among the licensed software I deal with, I’m most comfortable with the packages that do per-user licensing and don’t attempt to limit how many copies I install. Sublime Text is a good example of this.

For an email client, I’d suggest that the license key be for a specific email address, and will only work if you have that particular email address configured and active. I’d also update your installer to check the status of the license key when upgrading and refuse to install a newer version if it won’t be licensed under the current key. Installing the new version and then telling the customer that they need to go purchase a new key in order to get email working again will get a few payments, but will cause anger in everyone.

This is especially true when a downgrade requires manually exporting the data, going into normally inaccessible directories to scrub all traces of the newer version off the computer, reinstalling the old version and then re-importing all the data. You will also have to put up with being nagged about the upgrade every time you launch the program.

As far as I can tell, there is no option for disabling the update check which is a SERIOUS omission in my opinion.

If you are using eM Client for personal use only, you can use a Free License. The license will always be available for you to use unless you violate the license policy, in which case it will be disabled.

A Pro License is available to purchase so that you can use eM Client for business use, or if your require some of the other features. The license will remain yours to use indefinitely for that version of eM Client, or across all future versions if you purchased a lifetime upgrade.

But with whichever license you have, if you are no longer able to use eM Client for whatever reason, your data will still be on your server if your are using IMAP or Exchange, so you can access it at any time independent of whatever application you are using.

And even if the license is disabled, any local data will still be accessible through eM Client.

Yes, a license is per computer, so you cannot use it on more than one computer at a time. With a Free License, if you activate it on a second computer, it automatically deactivates on the first.

If you have a Pro License, you can disable the update check.

However long it takes you to replace the hardware. That is all, as reactivating the license only takes a couple of seconds.

What this tells me is that your software is phoning home for every install, and every time it is launched for the purposes of license enforcement. It is unclear what the behavior will be if your servers go down or otherwise become inaccessible. It sounds like this is true even for the “Pro” license.

I’ve seen a hell of a lot of software companies and software products come and go. Qualcomm still exists, but the Eudora license servers are long gone. I continued to use Eudora for over five years after that shutdown.

I still use a half-dozen software packages produced by companies that have gone out of business, and I can still do this because I generally do not purchase software that “phones home” if I can find an alternative that does not.

If you cannot access the licensing server, you can use the application for 14 days before there will be any issue.

So if your company dies, my licensed copy of the software will die 14 days later.

I think that answers my question.

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That is unlikely to happen, but if it does, you will still be able to access your local data beyond the 14 days, so you can export it for use in another application. And synced data will be on the server, so will not be affected.