Hello,
I‘m testing mobile app on my iPhone (using Push setting). Works quite well, but if emails are already read on desktop, mobile app still shows unread items. Not only for a few minutes but for hours, unless I open app on my iPhone.
Is there a setting I‘m missing?
Kind regards
René
What version of eM Client on iphone is this ?
Hello,
it’s the latest version (at least there are no updates available):
10.2.1465 (34cd093)
iOS is also latest:
18.4.1
Kind regards
René
V10.2.1465 (34cd093)
Ok there is a later Testflight (Beta) V10.3.1640 version that is not released to the app store yet “that does sync really quickly” from my own iPhone testing.
You can join the beta program via the link below if you would like to test the Beta version.
Thank you, I just joined the beta and will report, if read emails are synced faster now.
Hello again, unfortunately there is no difference in syncing read status. I waited for about 1.5 hours…
Kind regards
René
What account is it? Is it Gmail? If so, we’ve seen Gmail not reporting status changes on some accounts. IMAP log would help with diagnosing it.
Hello,
it’s an IMAP account.
If you tell me where to find and how to submit the log it would be a pleasure for me to do that 
.
Kind regards
René
Click on the avatar icon in the top left corner - Settings - YourEmailAccount - IMAP - enable diagnostic logs, then restart the app.
Wait for your issue to happen.
Settings - Help & Feedback - Send logs
Thank you, just submitted the logs.
Kind regards
René
What exactly is your behavior? Where you don’t see that email is already read? You say you can see it once you open the app. When or where do you expect to see it otherwise? Are you talking about badge number of unread emails?
Hello,
sorry I think I expressed myself not so clearly. I meant the unread badge on app icon and also on iOS notification center. This doesn’t disappear if emails are read on another device (eM client on my Mac).
I have also set up this email account on iPhone Apple Mail using Exchange (Account supports both), and there it works very well. The badge count and notification in notification center disappears after a few seconds if the mail is read on my desktop.
Kind regards
René
Ok, now I understand and I don’t have good news for you I’m afraid. This is quite a complex issue, I’ll try to explain it a bit.
iOS system generally does not allow applications to run background tasks to prevent battery draining and performance decline. There are some exceptions, but these are not really applicable for eM Client. So syncing eM Client and be permanently connected to email servers is not possible.
What iOS allows is to run some (very short) background task when push notification is received. We use that to sync new emails when our push notification service detects there is a new email. Our push notification service is a very tiny service that focuses on speed and maximum privacy, so it does not store any data and just notifies the client about new emails.
Here comes the problem. Once a message is read on some device, IMAP protocol sends a notification about that change, but at that moment the app must be connected to the server. This is not the case with iOS app that is not currently active (in the foreground). There is no way how to do that on the client side in iOS.
So the only option is a server based push service. As we value privacy of our users a lot we’ve decided to use a super secure architecture with almost no data caching on the server. But this approach means we are not able to notify the client from push notification service about events like read status change.
The reason why it works with iPhone Apple Mail is because the native apps have an exception from the rule and can do background tasks. It is not fair to competitors, but it is how it is.
So the only way we can resolve this problem would be to fully sync mailbox on our push notification service and wait there for all these status changes. It is doable, it is not trivial at all, it would require a completely different architecture and we’ll consider it for the future. But for now with the current privacy and security oriented architecture this feature is a bit unreachable for us.
Hello,
okay thank you very much and an even bigger thanks for the detailed explanation.
Strange thing here is that my iCloud email address on Apple Mail (on iPhone or iPad) shows the same behavior. If I read an email on my Mac, unread badge shows forever unless I open Apple Mail or connect my device to a power cable.
But not with my company exchange account (on iOS Apple Mail). With this account the unread badge disappears after a while for read emails ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Thanks again and keep on the great work!
Kind regards
René
Thanks for all the info on this. I’ve been running into this exact issue where my badge notification count only increases unless I open the app where it can perform a full refresh. It’s been one of the sticking points for sure!