Re: [Evolution] Syncing Evolution to my malboxes ...

[Kaare Fiedler Christiansen <kaarefc gmail com>]

On Tue, 2011-01-04 at 18:23 -0430, Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:

<snip>

> Going back to your original question: you say that when you created the
> Gmail account in Evo, it appeared under "On This Computer". AFAIK the
> only way that could happen is if you moved the Gmail tree into "On This
> Computer" after it was created. If that's not the case, it sounds like a
> bug and you should report it to Bugzilla.

Patrick, I think you misunderstand. I believe when "Jeremy Neil" says
'under "On This Computer"' I believe he means positioned physically
below "On This Computer", this is expected. Not "under" as in 'within
the "On This Computer"-hierarchy one level down'.

Jeremy, I would like to try to explain why the layout is the way it is:
Think of it this way:
You have a lot of email. The email is stored somewhere. Basically, there
are two options:
1) The email resides locally on your computer.
2) The email is stored somewhere else on a server at an email-provider

In evolution this distinction is made clear. "On This Computer" only
shows mail that is stored on your own computer and not on a server.
Mails that are stored on a server will be listed under a heading for
that server, such as "GMail".

There are two different ways to retrieve email, IMAP and POP (and a few
others less standardized). POP fetches mails from the server and stores
it locally. This mail will end up in "On This Computer". IMAP reads
mails stored on a server. This mail will reside under a heading for that
server, for instance GMail.

Even if you ask Evolution to synchronize remote mail locally, it will
still be considered only a "backup copy", and not shown in "On This
Computer". The primary copy is on the server.



There are a couple of ways to get what you want, if I understand
correctly what you want. You can either:
1) Collapse "On This Computer" and make the GMail folders reflect what
you want, or
2) Set up search folders to get what you want, or
3) Move all your mail to "On This Computer"

Let me try to explain each option.

1) Getting you GMail foldes reflect what you want
I would recommend this option.
 * Make sure your GMail account is set up to "Show only subscribed 
   folders" under "Receiving Options"
 * Then under "Folder"->"Subscriptions" select the folders and labels 
   you want.
 * If you want a copy available offline, do NOT mark "Synchronize 
   remote mail locally" in the account settings. This is because GMail 
   shows you the same mail multiple times (under "All Mail", under each 
   label, under "Important", etc.).
   Instead rightclick the folders you want available offline, and use 
   "Properties". Then check the checkbox "Copy folder contents locally 
   for offline operation".


2) Using Search Folders
Search folders show contents from other folders based on properties of
the messages. Using this option, you could show mail from several
locations, including both mail from "On This Computer" and any server.
To use this option, create a new folder under Search Folders, for
instance by saying "File"->"New"->"Mail Folder" and then give it a name
and select "Search Folders" as parent folder. This will open a dialog to
set the criteria for including a message in the search folder. For
instance, you select "Message Location" "is" and select the GMail inbox,
to include all mail from the GMail inbox. This way you could make your
own folder hierarchy, that includes mails as you like them.
Remember, though, that these folders aren't real. They simply display
mails that are really somewhere else. Therefore, you can't move to or
from these folders, etc.


3) Move all your mail to "On This Computer". 
I can't recommend this option. It will remove your mail from GMail and
only make it available locally through evolution.
To use this option, use "Message Filters".
Make sure your account options are set to apply filter to all mails in
INBOX.
Then use "Edit"->"Message Filters" and add an "Incoming Filter" without
conditions that moves mails to "Inbox" under "On This Computer".
Remember, all your mail will be removed from GMail.
You can also choose to only copy it to "On This Computer". I wouldn't
myself be confident that all mail was always indeed copies exactly once
in that case, though.


I hope this email helps.

Best,
  KÃre