thunderbird
Unified Inbox selection not remembered
Checklist
- [x] I have used the search function to see if someone else has already submitted the same bug report.
- [x] I will describe the problem with as much detail as possible.
App
Thunderbird for Android
App version
10.0
Where did you get the app from?
F-Droid
Android version
Android 15
Device model
Nothing Phone 1
Steps to reproduce
There are two problems here but I believe they stem from the same underlying issue, that is, that the default view for each account appears to be its own Inbox.
Repro 1
- Install App
- Configure at least 2 email accounts
- Click on the hamburger menu at the top left
- Select "Unified Inbox"
- Click on the "create new email icon" at the bottom right
- At the top left, next to "Compose", click on the "changed my mind" (back) arrow
- Notice you land in your account's Inbox, not in the Unified Inbox where you came from.
Repro 2
- Install App
- Configure at least 2 email accounts
- Click on the hamburger menu at the top left
- Select "Unified Inbox"
- Click on the hamburger menu again
- Click on the account name at the top to switch to another account (imagine you just wanted to double check the email address of that account or its folder structure)
- Observe that you immediately land on the individual account's Inbox, rather than staying in Unified Inbox that you have previously selected.
Expected behavior
For Issue 1, if the user comes from Unified Inbox and cancels a draft email, the back arrow should take the user back to the Unified Inbox, where they came from, not to a completely different folder.
For Issue 2, just because the user switches accounts, to check for the account's email address or a particular folder, if Unified Inbox was selected before, the selection should be retained, unless the user explicitly selects another folder.
Actual behavior
Whenever a draft email is cancelled, or a switch between accounts is made, the selection resets to the given account's own Inbox.
Logs
Don't think logs will be of any use here, but happy to provide them if needed.
@shamim-emon you've been looking into a related issue earlier, can you confirm this one?
@shamim-emon you've been looking into a related issue earlier, can you confirm this one? @kewisch I was able to reproduce both. But IMO 2nd issue(Repro2) seem like a normal behaviour
For Repro2 being normal behaviour, my take on this is that we should retain the customer's selection every time we can. Consider the user goes to the settings menu and then back to the drawer. If, before settings, they were in the Unified Inbox, they expect to land there again when they come out of settings.
With the exact same thought process, just because users switch to an account in the drawer, what makes us think that they wanted to go to the Inbox of that account? They might have wanted to see Sent Mails or Archived or just have a look at something. Automatically selecting the Inbox is an arbitrary choice.
In my opinion, we should only default to the Inbox of an account, if there's no previous user selection to reference, such as right after application start.
But if there is a reasonable explanation to this behaviour, I'm convinceable. What is your point of view @shamim-emon?
For Repro2 being normal behaviour, my take on this is that we should retain the customer's selection every time we can. Consider the user goes to the settings menu and then back to the drawer. If, before settings, they were in the Unified Inbox, they expect to land there again when they come out of settings.
With the exact same thought process, just because users switch to an account in the drawer, what makes us think that they wanted to go to the Inbox of that account? They might have wanted to see Sent Mails or Archived or just have a look at something. Automatically selecting the Inbox is an arbitrary choice.
In my opinion, we should only default to the Inbox of an account, if there's no previous user selection to reference, such as right after application start.
But if there is a reasonable explanation to this behaviour, I'm convinceable. What is your point of view @shamim-emon?
@drm-nz your suggestion makes sense too. I'm up for it if it's confirmed by @kewisch.
@kewisch Please let us know your comment on this.
Hi there, I agree, inbox should be a default, in cases where the user has not made a selection. My question is do you want to persist user selections for each account OR do you want selection in one account to carry over into another when you switch. For example, if you are in the outbox of account A, when you switch to account B, would you like to be in the outbox of B? Or would like to restore the account B user selection last time you were in account B?
I agree use case 2 is a bit on the edge, but I think we should keep the behavior as is there. If you switch the account at the top then you've already made a choice to go to that account, so it could be equally awkward if you then have to click again to move away from the unified Inbox.
We have some changes to the drawer layout planned that will make it a bit more clear when you are selecting the unified inbox
This seems like a good compromise. Let's scratch Issue 2 then and just fix Issue 1, where Unified Inbox is not remembered after a draft is cancelled.