Just want to add that I’ve uninstalled eM client over the lack of this functionality. Thunderbird has it and it’s absolutely necessary for anyone who uses subfolders on an IMAP server with server-side delivery rules.
There is no way you can call yourself an email client if you do not notify users of emails.
Maybe the server isn’t sending eM Client PUSH notifications for those it has moved to other folders, so eM Client has nothing to notify you of. But I wonder if the notifications are maybe also server-dependent. As I mentioned above, I don’t get them on server-side moves when using Thunderbird or Evolution either.
Hi. I just got (and paid for) eM Client because I have become exceedingly frustrated with Thunderbird and a lot of people recommended this software. I’ve been becoming a more heavy email user lately as with my work picking up so I needed a powerful client. eM is amazing in almost every respect, but this is a deal breaker for me. It feels weird how in over 6 years, all the team members have said in here is “it’s not possible with eM Client” when even other free clients offer the ability, then when someone knowledgeable demonstrates how to do it in actual eM-compatible code, the reponse is “oh, okay, we’ll take a look” — and then that never happens.
I’m a little disappointed to be honest; this is my first ever “paid” third party mail client and it seems unable to do push or show notifications for subfolders without having to download the actual messages (what’s the point of IMAP then?) or needing client side sorting to make it happen, essentially disallowing me from using my sorting anywhere else, on the road etc?
With that said, if it’s truly technologically impossible to display the number of new messages as well as a notification, I feel at least a notification about folder changes as demonstrated above should be a feature in a pro mail client.
I really hope an upcoming version will add this feature, as it seems no big deal to implement and I don’t understand the team’s hesitation to do so. If not, I’ll switch back at some point. Thanks for reading, and thanks for an otherwise awesome client.
I must have missed that, or was it in another thread? If so, can you give the link please.
Hi Gary,
Even if this does not solve the issue as to showing instant, precise numbers within the client, a mere “folder change notification” on desktop would go a long way, imo. Thank you.
The lack of this feature is keeping me away from using eM Client. Hope one day devs will understand how important it is.
I agree with the other comments here. I was looking for a good email client to purchase, and eM Client looks good, but the lack of notifications for subfolders is a deal breaker for me, as I sort a large portion of my emails into subfolders via server-side Sieve rules.
It was when Matthew1 pointed out that eMClient already uses the IMAP IDLE command to check the inbox — all they’d have to do is run the IDLE command on the various subfolders too, to get notifications. Since this would require more concurrent connections to the server it should of course be an opt-in setting, but it’s certainly far from impossible (and in fact many other clients implement it, making this a sore shortcoming of eM Client).
My partner uses eM Client for our personal mail and calendar, and other than this Grand Canyon of a feature gap it’s a great product… but without support for such a relatively simple function, I can get by just using GMail and my phone for a calendar, and she’s not planning to drop $120 on a lifetime license because she’s effectively still shopping around for a client that can check all the other boxes and this. So yeah – to the eM Client team, this one feature is costing you $240. Sure it’s not much in the grand scheme of things… but how many other users are hesitating to buy a license due to this glaring omission?
FWIW, I recommended eM Client to Daniel15au (above), but he’s passing because of this missing feature… so that’s another $120 up in smoke.
Then she doesn’t need to purchase a license. The Free License (as in FREE) will be just fine.
Correct, she doesn’t need to; however, we believe in supporting quality software. Also, she is preparing to launch an art business, at which point the only ethical option would be to purchase a license — or switch to different software.
Yeah, of course. It is great to support your favorite software that way. 
And also, looking ahead, you may want to add more email accounts even if you don’t end up using it for business.
It is an odd situation. I use server-side filtering a lot because it is more practical when using multiple devices, but then there is the 1 minute delay with eM Client syncing those folders.
But I could let eM Client do the filtering and get notifications in real-time.
A delay isn’t much of a problem. Not seeing notifications is a big issue though. In my case I never actually saw the emails auto-update in eM Client; it just showed a “…” after the folder name that didn’t actually seem to do anything.
I’m trying another client now (Mailspring), which has a similar issue in that notifications only appear for emails in the inbox, but at least the app is open-source so I can just (attempt to) fix it myself.
I was previously using Thunderbird and it’s generally quite good, but the UI feels a bit heavy and dated now. It does properly display notifications for emails in folders though, as long as you enable the “When getting new messages for this account, always check this folder” option for the folders. I was also trying Postbox which is a fork of Thunderbird, which handles this correctly as well.
I use Microsoft Outlook at work and while it doesn’t display notifications for emails in folders by default, that’s easily fixed using a client-side rule (after a message arrives, display a Desktop Alert).
I agree, UI is not Thunderbird’s best feature. Anyway I see devs are working on it.
Yep, that’s why should be considered in this thread.
I’ve been using Postbox + Enigmail until Thunderbird implemented its own PGP (good) implementation.
I don’t think it is a case of “correctly”. eM Client does not offer notifications for any folder except Inbox, by design. If you want to move messages to other folders, and want notifications (in real-time) then you need to use eM Client Rules to move the messages. That way the message is received in the Inbox first, and eM Client can notify you of it. If they are moved by server-side filters, eM Client will not notify you other than increasing the unread count on those folders if applicable.
If that doesn’t work for you, there are so many other email applications available. Find one that has everything you want and be happy.
This is not really feasible given I use multiple devices (personal desktop PC, work desktop PC, work laptop, phone, tablet) and want to consistently filter emails across all devices. Server side rules are the best way to do that
It’s a strange design decision 
at least make it configurable.
I think it was a decision base on the application overhead. So less CPU and memory use.
The interesting thing is that CPU and memory is more restricted on phones, yet both Aqua Mail and Nine on Android handles this perfectly.
