Re: [Evolution] Receiving message count is wrong

[Ralf Mardorf <silver bullet zoho com>]

On Wed, 2017-07-19 at 15:32 +1000, Doug Hutcheson wrote:
> I use gmail as my mail server and access it using POP (inward) and
> IMAP (outward).

Hi,

if you are using POP to receive messages, I suspect you are using SMPT
to send messages.

Btw. taking a brief look, I don't see any option to see any mail number
in the status bar. I only see numbers in a pop up dialog box, but it's
to fast to say what actually is displayed.

> As at this moment, I have 146 messages on the server, as I have not
> cleaned it up for a few days, but the countdown always stops at 19 or
> 20 (it's hard to tell because it clears so quickly at the end).

Yes, there could be 146 mails on the server and you probably already
downloaded 126, so there are only 20 mails to download.

You expect that the first number shows the amount of mails that will get
downloaded and the other displays the countdown, but actually the first
number might show the mails on the server, as e.g. Claws does.

Doing a very short research I couldn't find any information that there
are two number, one showing the amount of mails that need to get
downloaded and another showing a countdown.

Maybe one number just shows how many mails are still on the server, IOW
the amount of mails that were already downloaded + the mails that were
not downloaded.

> It must be something that is remembered either on the server or
> locally, but I can't see how it could be the server because of the
> number of messages discussed above.

Sure the MUA, in this case Evolution, remembers what mails already were
downloaded, to avoid to download them as duplicates.

You could automatically delete mails from the server by

Edit > Preferences > Mail accounts > select an account and double-click >
Receiving options > Uncheck "Leave messages on server"

but then they are deleted on the server and no other MUA could download
them, too. However, in this case downloading mails is faster, because
the check, if mails were already downloaded is faster and the number of
mails on the server is equal to the number that will be downloaded, so
you would get of your "issue".

Regards,
Ralf