Re: [Evolution] Dealing with huge imap accounts / best practise?

[Milan Crha <mcrha redhat com>]

On Tue, 2019-03-05 at 16:00 +0100, fkater posteo net wrote:
> > The server-side search is
> > done only/mainly for the body/message contains search type.
>
> Ok, so what shall I do to definitly trigger a server side search?

        Hi,
I feel shamed to repeat what I already wrote. The answer for your above
question is a bit more above it. If you mean how to change the search,
then it's under the magnifier icon of the Search entry; see also:
https://help.gnome.org/users/evolution/stable/mail-searching.html.en

> I ran tests with/without clicking on Get Messages before searching.

It depends on your settings for the account. If Get Messages means "get
new messages in Inbox only", or "get new messages in all folders",
or .... There are options how to tweak this. If your folders are
changed by multiple users, then you might want to get new messages in
all folders, rather than in your Inbox only.
https://help.gnome.org/users/evolution/stable/mail-send-and-receive-automatically.html.en

> In no case these messages were found afterwards searching for the
> subject of those stored messages.

This seconds another my previously written text:

> > Doing a search in a folder which is not selected in the UI (aka in
> > "Current Folder and Subfolders" or "Current Account" or "All
> > Accounts") doesn't invoke refresh of the folders, it just reads
> > what is cached locally.

> I still fail to find a way to get mail search work yet.

I'll try to summarize:
- IMAPx code tries to be smart, which means to avoid message download
  when possible, which means if a search is done on values which are
  already stored locally (folder summary, with values shown in the
  message list), then it prefers local cache for searches and relies
  on its content;
- body contains/message contains does run the search on the server,
  when the account is connected (evolution not in the offline state);
  it's supposed to limit message download;
- the search doesn't do refresh of the folder content (you can file
  a request for enhancement at [1]), thus for searches relying on the
  local cache content using old values will return old (inaccurate)
  results;
- tweak in Receiving Options of the account what folders should be
  periodically checked for new messages, or use folder Properties
  to overwrite the setting per folder.

I hope it helps to understand how the IMAPx searching in Evolution
works.
        Bye,
        Milan

[1] https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/evolution-data-server/issues/new