yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Android Apps and Games] M66B:
All versions recently (last seven days) released in the Play store are still pending evaluation, which means that the app will probably be removed automatically from the Play store tomorrow, even though I got an extension of a week to solve a minor policy violation (which was already solved more than a week ago). This whole experience is frustrating, and it is pretty much an unworkable situation. I have tried to contact Google via various channels, but I didn't receive any response so far. I don't know what else to do. There seem to be Covid-19 measures again.

I will reconsider my "position" as Android developer again if the app is being removed from the Play store again. In any case, all development will be ceased until this is resolved. Please don't blame me and don't call me a drama queen, but instead blame Google. This is all outside of my control.

I expect that some are going to suggest this: since less than 1% of the installations are outside the Play store, there is no point in releasing the app outside the Play store only.

My mother has an incurable and aggressive cancer, so my priorities have shifted anyway.

Edit: updated here too:

FairEmail in the Play Store

Status and frequently asked questions

faircode.eu
[Android Apps and Games] nadir husain:
Prayers for your mom! Forget about everything else, just take care of her!best wishes
[Android Apps and Games] boldrake:
in these situations only strength and courage.
[Android Apps and Games] mkasimd:
@M66B, consider FairEmail a "side project" for now. It's not your job to provide us with daily updates. We're all fine for as long as we have a stable working app. Even just updating libraries and dependencies once in a month will keep 99% of us happy anyways.

If you have a sick mother, it's obviously where your priorities should be. I wish her well and hope she gets better soon. You don't need to take care of us. Make sure to take care of her instead :)

Also, feel free to enable an auto response stating that you are "out of office" due to your mother being sick, but adding a link to this XDA thread for questions. I'm sure the community will be able to help with most questions, even if that might take a few hours.

Anyways, go take care of your mother and don't worry about us or Google for the time being.
[Android Apps and Games] GalaxyA325G:
I agree with all those who said the developer should take care of his family, first and foremost and always.

Hence, I do NOT ask the developer to respond to this question below, which I ask only of the people on this thread who are already using FairMail.

Background is:

I care greatly about privacy (probably more so than most).

I have no accounts set up on my Android 12 non-rooted phone.

For years, I've never had a Google Account set up on the phone.

My Android phone works just fine WITHOUT it!

The GMail app, of course, CREATES a Google Account.

So I never use the Gmail App on Android!

For years, I've accessed "google email" using K-9 Mail.

However, after June 30th, login/passwd will no longer work.

And I deplore 2FA/2SV as an invasion of my privacy.

Luckily, Oauth2 works (which is the least evil approach).

Yes, I know about tokens and hardware authentication.

But OAuth2 is (apparently) the least evil in terms of privacy loss.

However, as far as I know, K-9 doesn't support OAuth2.

So I would like an Android MUA that supports Google OAuth2.

Which brings me to this thread found after a DDG search.

My OAuth2 experience is:

I've been using OAuth2 on Thunderbird with Google for years.

The first connection pops up the default web browser.

That default web browser sets up the OAuth2 handshaking.

That's it.

Oauth2 just works with Thunderbird after that.

Notice there is no Google Account forced upon your operating system. Notice that your default web browser does the authentication for you, not the Thunderbird app. That all works fine. On Windows.

Fast forward to today:

I do not have (nor do I want) a Google Account on the phone.

I simply want to log into Google mail servers to read email.

I install FairMail and follow the excellent prompts.

But FairMail CREATED a Google Account on my phone!

I never want a Google Account on my phone.

This is for the obvious privacy reasons.

My question to the group at large:

Q: Why did FairEmail CREATE a Google Account on my phone?

More specifically to my confusion:

Q: Why didn't FairMail do what Thunderbird did for OAuth2?

My basic question is:

Q: How do I get FairMail to authenticate the OAuth2 like Thunderbird does (which simply pops up the default web browser for that task)?

Please be gentle with me as I'm sure there's a good reason for why the FairMail app CREATED a Google Account when I never wanted one and never will put up with one - but I just want to know how to tell FairMail to do what Thunderbird did - which is pop up a web browser to do that initial authentication task.
[Android Apps and Games] M66B:
@GalaxyA325G it is possible without an on-device Google account too via a web OAuth flow, but for this there needs to be a yearly security audit costing up to $75,000. This is not an option for an app which is basically provided for free. Please see here for more information:

https://github.com/M66B/FairEmail/blob/master/FAQ.md#user-content-faq111
[Android Apps and Games] mkasimd:
Q1: this will be explained in Q2

Q2: There are two methods to enable OAuth authentication:

OAuth using the Google account already on the device

OAuth using an own page

The first method is very straightforward. It uses the built-in accounts in Android, and if you select "add account", you add a Google account to your device. Because it's not the app asking you this question, but the OS. And that's what happened in your case (as you described in Q1)

The second method is only viable if you have a large foundation supporting you. Because Google requires recurring audits that cost something between 15.000 - 75.000 Euros per audit.

But Thunderbird can afford it, so why can't Marcel (the dev of FairEmail), you may ask. Let me explain that as well.

Thunderbird has the Mozilla foundation backing it. While Marcel exclusively earns through donations, Mozilla not only has a larger community and more donating people, but also makes revenue through anyone searching in search engines like Google using their browser (yeah, search engines usually give a cut to browser vendors and that's among the reasons why Google developed Chrome). So, Mozilla likely has the required connections and financial resources while Marcel cannot afford it.

(Don't take this wrong, I'm not bashing against Mozilla. They do pretty amazing work for the open source community as well)

Q3: You simply cannot do that in or expect from FairEmail due to the aforementioned reasons in Q2.

So what can you do?

Either add the Gmail account to your device, or use app passwords or don't use a Gmail account at all. If you are using a Gmail account, you already let Google snoop through your emails anyways.

Also, you can add multiple methods to use 2FA/MFA. For instance, you can use any OTP app (e.g. FreeOTP) and not just Google Authenticator. You may even use USB tokens. Google's 2FA offers are large. Very large. See my attached picture I just took a minute ago.

If you don't want to give your phone number, you can always go for prepaid SIMs or VoIP providers giving you a virtual DID instead of inserting your private phone number as well.
[Android Apps and Games] M66B:
@GalaxyA325G your best option is to not use a Gmail account.

I can recommend FreeOTP, which is what I use myself for 2FA in general too.
[Android Apps and Games] fraschi51:
I disagree with you that gmail usage and google account on device is a huge difference. On the contrary, if you do NOT sync your Google account on the device with Google, then your privacy ideas do not fit with Gmail usage. Therefore, it is best not to use Gmail at all. There are enough other, better alternatives.
[Android Apps and Games] M66B:
I did appeal in the official way and this is the answer I just received.
[Android Apps and Games] heinhuiz:
"I appreciate your patience while I look into it." So now the AI has a personality?
[Android Apps and Games] M66B:
The AI is this time called "San", last time it was "Bruno".
[Android Apps and Games] mkasimd:
I work at one of the leaders of its field in Germany, and even our devs have troubles with Google. I saw them asking our corporate lawyers about looking into the app's privacy policy as well as Google's demands.

Seems like Google is indiscriminately doing those things lately. The only difference is that FairCode B.V. doesn't have corporate lawyers to help lol
[Android Apps and Games] M66B:
Version 1.1925 is available on GitHub now and in the Play store at some time in the future, hopefully.

Changelog/download:

https://github.com/M66B/FairEmail/releases

This version was released to fix a crash. You are advised to update soon.
[Android Apps and Games] M66B:
I am curious what the problem was, if you already know and are allowed to share that.

FairCode B.V. is owned by me and is there to protect my personal finances from cat-in-the-microwave (Don't do that!) claims. Lately there were even death threats, so I am glad it is there in between.
[Android Apps and Games] mkasimd:
I can share some broad things with you, but I prefer to do it over email rather than here as I don't wanna disclose where I work at. Because I know that there are colleagues that received support requests via social media channels and things like that and I don't want to have customers write me privately here 😂

You'll receive an email in a few minutes :)
[Android Apps and Games] heyrict:
Thank you M66B for this great product. I just started using this app hours ago and it is a surprisingly great experience. I am a developer as a hobby and I've also had a bad time with google (Then banned my adsense account claiming that I've been clicking ads myself, which is of course not the case). Not sure why google has been so _strict_ on open source apps, but I would appreciate all your efforts on maintaining this huge project and reaching out to google repeatedly.

All my best wishes to your mother.
[Android Apps and Games] M66B:
There is an update here:

FairEmail in the Play Store

Status and frequently asked questions

faircode.eu
[Android Apps and Games] deechte:
I was happy to find this post, by searching this thread. Somehow my app changed behavior of opening links, opening them in an internal Firefox clone, instead of the full Firefox on my device. I don't know why that changed, I didn't do that.

I tried solving that by browsing and searching the settings for "browser' and "links". I was looking for a setting that most other apps call "open links in internal browser" yes/no. "Confirm links" in the privacy menu in Dutch translates to "Bevestig het openen van koppelingen". In my view this wasn't what I was looking for, cause I wanted to change how links are opened, which is something else than confirmation. Secondly, I didn't really associate "koppelingen" with internet links, more with connections or shortcuts. I think links or internet links is more commonly used in Dutch.

Looking back, when you already know what the confirm links dialogue offers, then is it logical to tick that to ON to be able to change the behavior. But only then. If you don't know what it offers, then it doesn't make sense to look there. In other words, it's not so intuitive. Also given the fact that people come ask here. So maybe you could give it a better name (more analogue to other apps) or additional description. Thanks!
[Android Apps and Games] M66B:
If you want to update translations, you can do this here:

FairEmail — Translation Project on Crowdin

Help us translate FairEmail and bring it to the world!

crowdin.com

The 'open links' setting should have been updated automatically for the new browser selection, but for some reason this doesn't seem to have happened in your case.
[Android Apps and Games] nadir husain:
Congratulations!😊
[Android Apps and Games] chris122380:
I am showing in the United States Play Store that it has been updated to the latest version that is also on GitHub. 👍
[Android Apps and Games] M66B:
I have thought about that, but people might miss this subtle change and thus not understand how multiple select works.
[Android Apps and Games] heinhuiz:
I'm not sure that moving to another folder works as intended.

I have a thread with 3 messages, two of them in folder A which is the current folder, and the third message is in folder B.

If I select that thread and move it to folder C, I expect the 2 messages belonging to folder A to move to C, while the third message remains in B.

Currently, only one message is moved from A to C, the other two stay in A and B. Furthermore, the moved message is disconnected from the thread: the original thread now only contains 2 messages and the one that is moved forms its own new thread (with currently 1 item).

---------- Post added at 08:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:41 PM ----------

Pro users are smarter than that ?
[Android Apps and Games] M66B:
That is not how it is supposed to work and I will fix this tomorrow if needed.
[Android Apps and Games] m0d:
Maybe having the highlight colour the same as the FAB button, meaning on select have FAB button change colour to match highlight colour and switch from pencil icon to folder icon. That makes the connection more visible.

Currently the highlight colour is a light shade of grey, which might work. Or, another matching colour?

If you manage a simple clean way that works, would be great.
[Android Apps and Games] glops:
1+
[Android Apps and Games] :
:( it would have been nice because it would have brought more attention to AutoCrypt and to your mail client. It may have possibly featured here on privacytools.io.

People can't use encryption unless MUAs implement it, in a way it's their responsibility to help protect people's right to privacy.

In this day and age it is becoming more and more important with governments insisting that they must scoop up everyone's communications to "keep us safe".

There are some email providers which implement encryption, but it typically involves clicking a link to view the email on the email provider's web server, which unfortunately centralizes the email. AutoCrypt seems like a really good initiative to keep email decentralized and also private.
[Android Apps and Games] M66B:
I think FairEmail doesn't need to support encryption to be featured on privacytools.io because it was designed to be privacy friendly.

As said, very few people actually encrypt messages. As you can imagine, I get a lot of email, but it's just a few times a year that I receive an encrypted message. It is simply not worth the put effort into.
[Android Apps and Games] M66B:
I have just released

stable

version 1.114

Changelog/download:

https://github.com/M66B/open-source-email/releases

This version will be available in the Play store after Google's approval.

At this moment I don't have plans for more new features in mind, so for now it will be small improvements and bug fixing only.

Thanks, purchases and donations are appreciated.
[Android Apps and Games] :
You're welcome to ask in r/privacytoolsIO but my guess would be that it would need to support it to really claim to be privacy friendly. All the other clients there do, Thunderbird (which uses Enigmail), Claws Mail, K-9 Mail, Mailpile.

I don't use gpg encryption for public emails like that on mailing lists but I certainly do with friends and family.

I didn't used to get much encrypted email but now I get a lot more because I spent time to get my contacts to switch it on. My contacts use a variety of clients, Thunderbird (with Enigmail), Canary Mail, K-9 Mail what I had been using up until now. I guess I will have to wait for Starting Material Design to be completed. The concept looks pretty cool.

I was able to even convince some of my family to use qTox instead of Skype and other crappy programs.
[Android Apps and Games] BreckZeBoulay:
Up :)
[Android Apps and Games] M66B:
I haven't seen a screenshot yet.
[Android Apps and Games] BreckZeBoulay:
https://xdaforums.com/android/apps-games/source-email-t3824168/post77955317#post77955317
[Android Apps and Games] M66B:
This should be fixed in the next release.
[Android Apps and Games] M66B:
Would you still be interested in encryption support if I made it a separate pro feature for 10 euros excluding VAT?
[Android Apps and Games] yorikkk:
little feedback with the pro version after 1 day...

app is a bit slow, but it's normal since I'm syncing like 50k emails (from 2015 till now) and it lags the whole thing... I hope it finishes today ^^

otherwise I like that it has only the needed settings and features added and I don't have to spend an hour to configure the 300+ settings the big dogs have...

the minimalist design is cute too :)

only thing I am missing from my previous email app (Nine) is that it doesn't have image resizer integrated and I have to install an additional one...

If u add one down the road it will be pretty nice/...

keep the goods work :)
[Android Apps and Games] M66B:
After the messages are downloaded you'll see things will be much faster ;)

Downloading messages and browsing messages share the same database, so they have to wait for each other.

I don't think an email app should resize images. You could use an app similar to this one to resize images:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=mobi.omegacentauri.SendReduced
[Android Apps and Games] heinhuiz:
Would that be Autocrypt? Then I'm in (I'll probably never use it, but just for the sake of it :D).
[Android Apps and Games] M66B:
It would be implemented with OpenKeyChain which is Autocrypt compatible:

https://www.openkeychain.org/
[Android Apps and Games] yorikkk:
well, it's convenient if it has it... it saves a couple of steps if the email directly offers you to resize them instead of opening another app first to do it

not a dealbreaker though I agree...
[Android Apps and Games] heinhuiz:
Put me on the list then.
[Android Apps and Games] Oswald Boelcke:
@M66B Marcel, screenshoot of today from the German speaking play store (accessed via Aurora). I think that looks great as 5.0 is impossible with so many comments that occasionally can be called reviews.
[Android Apps and Games] M66B:
I have just added decoding of link addresses in the link confirmation dialog of links in this form:

https://.../link-tracker?redirectUrl=<base64>&sig=...&iat=...&a=...&account=...&email=...&s=...&i=...

The "<base64>" contains the real link in encoded form.

There isn't documentation for things like this, so I add what I see and get reported. In other words, please report things like this.
[Android Apps and Games] George_FOSS_Lover:
Hello. I am a Pro FairEmail user for 1.5 years. Version 1.1923a from Github. Android 10 with LG Stylo 5.

This is an app behavior question. I read an email from the combined inbox, and then a call comes in, so the app goes to background, and when I want to go back to that email, I select a particular email account, and then the inbox, or special folder, but that email has been marked Read, and I cannot find that email anymore. Why does selecting a particular folder in a particular account it only shows me "unread" emails? Why does It never allow me to see an email that I have already seen? How can I change the behavior or select the folder a different way to find that email again?

I appreciate Fair Email very much and if I need to donate more to encourage you to continue, I will find that button and do it.
[Android Apps and Games] chris122380:
I'm guessing as I don't know for sure. I don't know the app as well as others but I did find one thing that could cause it (it's possible there are other places to but I thought I'd take a look to see what I could find). Go into the inbox or special folder. Click on the three dots in the upper right hand corner. Click on "filter out" and make sure read is unchecked. When I check read under "filter out" it hides all read emails.
[Android Apps and Games] mkasimd:
Perhaps, you have added a server-side filter with your email provider or a FairEmail rule to move read mails to a different folder or ro delete them? I'd advise you to look into this.

Or it's as simple as Chris' answer :D
[Android Apps and Games] M66B:
@George_FOSS_Lover As already pointed out, the filters in the top action bar/menu are probably causing your problem.
[Android Apps and Games] George_FOSS_Lover:
I have screen shots that I am trying to upload, but all boxes in the filter bar are Unchecked - no the filter bar is not blocking me from seeing read messages.
[Android Apps and Games] M66B:
Please check the sort options too.
[Android Apps and Games] maybeme2:
Very longtime user and supporter of Fairemail.

Lately, my gmail account in FE has

intermittent

trouble downloading its rare messages. See attached image 1. What is funny is that if, within Fairemail, I go to the gmail inbox and refresh, it downloads properly (in this case there were no new emails) and the error message disappears (see screenshot 2).

Not really.a problem. Just to see if others have seen this behavior. The gmail account in Fairemail was created using Fairemail's wizard. I also use Netguard which might be interfering?
[Android Apps and Games] M66B:
This probably means that the Android account manager can't access the internet to refresh the access token.

This could be caused by using a VPN, firewall, ad blocker, etc.

A possible workaround is to use an app password, please see here:

https://github.com/M66B/FairEmail/blob/master/FAQ.md#user-content-faq6
[Android Apps and Games] George_FOSS_Lover:
You were right - I found the sort options set to unread. Thank you for helping me find that.

Second NEW topic - Storage on Android Phone: I enjoy FairEmail very much - and I have 7 email accounts configured and over 12,000 (unread) messages. I am looking for ways to reduce the space taken on the main storage of the android phone - over 2GB out of a total of 16GB on the phone. I know I have too many email accounts. I have visited each folder and set the value of days held on device down from 60 to 45 to 30 to 20, but the space used on the phone does not seem to decrease.

I found the FAQ that talked about "build search index" and I turned that off, and that saved 180MB - and that is good. But I am still seeking more ways to reduce the space taken by Fair Email - is it maintaining a list of metadata of all emails on the server? If the email is older than 60 days or the threshold set for each folder, then I thought that email or metadata would be removed and start to save some space on local phone storage.

Thank you for the support on the sort options - that was very helpful.

I will be preparing another donation for an excellent software product! Thanks again!
[Android Apps and Games] mkasimd:
Perhaps you have downloaded some attachments previously. Go to the miscellaneous settings and activate deleting attachments of old emails. Also, feel free to delete all temporary files while at it.

Also, messages that you starred or marked as high priority might not be deleted even after the sync time interval passes depending on your settings.
[Android Apps and Games] M66B:
Try to run the cleanup via the button in the miscellaneous settings.

In addition: force sync the folders (long press on a folder in the folder list of an account for this option).
[Android Apps and Games] xdaTanjiro:
Hi, does anyone know is there a way to filter and show all the emails from a specific sender. perhaps with a shortcut or something from within an email? (eg. by long clicking in the sender)

I would like to quickly show all emails from the sender and delete them all.

Thanks!
[Android Apps and Games] M66B:
Expand the addresses section between the message header and message text and tap on the magnifier glass.

You can add a button for this too via the horizontal three-dots menu, configure buttons.
[Android Apps and Games] xdaTanjiro:
That's neat! Thanks for the quick reply :D

Also I like the ability to use a button for this, configured it right away! Very useful trick indeed 👍👍👍