Xfce Forum

teekey

Member

Registered: 2018-08-19

Posts: 4

Mail Watcher panel plugin - MBOX

Hello,

I want to use the mail watcher plugin to check on my local MBOX folder from Thunderbird. When I get a new mail, the icon shows correctly that there is a new message. However, when I read the message in Thunderbird, such that there are no unread messages, the icon does not change back to the original state. (I waited a few times the checking interval)

Is this the expected behavior? How can I get this working with local MBOX folders?

Thanks and regards.

alcornoqui

Member

Registered: 2014-07-28

Posts: 832

Re: Mail Watcher panel plugin - MBOX

Not sure if it'll help, but take a look at this 2014 thread:

It ends with:

I've checked the sources and the mystery is solved.

If anyone got stuck with the same problem, here is the answer: there is no POP3 support at all. The implementation fakes it by returning total number of messages in the mailbox. Hence on the first run Mail Watcher reports proper value (all messages are new) and it looks like it is working. But then it will be stuck in this state forever, occasionally reporting new mails every time number of messages changes because actually a new mail has arrived or old one was deleted.

MountainDewManiac

Member

From: Where Mr. Bankruptcy is Prez

Registered: 2013-03-24

Posts: 1,115

Re: Mail Watcher panel plugin - MBOX

I found this one. I didn't have time to do more than glance at the page, but I saw POP3 mentioned. And, since it also supports IMAP, maybe you could "do away with the middleman" and use it to check your mail accounts directly (if you have any interest in doing so). It appears to support multiple email accounts, along with multiple providers.

And it also states that it is compatible with Thunderbird.

I have never used this application, though, so I cannot give you any personal thoughts on it.

EDIT: Whoops. It might help if I post the link, lol. Apologies.
https://www.nongnu.org/mailnotify/

Regards,
MDM

Last edited by MountainDewManiac (2018-08-26 22:48:45)

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Mountain Dew Maniac

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teekey

Member

Registered: 2018-08-19

Posts: 4

Re: Mail Watcher panel plugin - MBOX

Thank you very much for your answers.

It seems, that MBOX files do not store the read/unread status. Thunderbird does this in an additional .msf file in the horrible "mork" file format.

I will try out mailnotify, thanks for the hint. However it comes with quite some dependecies on arch ...

Best regards.