Upgraded to kmail2--mostly successful but that unpleasant

[O. Sinclair]

On 23/09/2012 04:37, Michael Hirsch wrote:
>
> On Sep 15, 2012 1:22 AM, "O. Sinclair" <o.sinclair at gmail.com
> <mailto:o.sinclair at gmail.com>> wrote:
>  >
>  > On 14/09/2012 08:15, Michael Hirsch wrote:
>  >>
>  >> So I finally upgraded kubuntu this week.  I went from 11.04 to 11.10 to
>  >> 12.04.  In the middle I only booted long enough to start the upgrade--I
>  >> didn't test to see if everything worked.
>  >>
>  >> It seems to have gone fairly smoothly, except for kmail.  kmail wouldn't
>  >> start, and would tell me to run the upgrader interactively, but when I
>  >> ran it it would say it had already run.  I
>  >> deleted ~/.kde4/share/config/kmail-migratorrc and it ran, supposedly
>  >> successfully, but then kmail would not run.
>  >>
>  >> Following some internet sleuthing, I deleted ~/.kde/share/apps/akonadi
>  >> and ~/.config/akonadi and my .kmail2rc and it finally ran, and even
>  >> figured out some of my email accounts.  But all my mail is missing!
>  >>
>  >> There is a File->Import Messages menu item that looks promising.  Maybe
>  >> I can import all my emails and then I will be able to read them.  There
>  >> is a likely sounding "Import KMail Maildirs and Folder Structure" item
>  >> in a drop-down.  Of course, it warns me not to import ~/Mail, which is
>  >> where my mail is, but I think it is just confused.  Why should it worry
>  >> about infinitely looping on importing mail when kmail now stores my mail
>  >> in a mysql database?
>  >>
>  >> There is a funny warning that I don't really understand: "Since it is
>  >> possible to recreate the folder structure, the folders will be stored
>  >> under: "KMail-Import" in your local folder."  Should that be "Since it
>  >> is impossible..."?  I still don't understand, but oh well.  I'll try it.
>  >>
>  >> So I click the button below "Please select the folder to import to" and
>  >> choose to import to a subfolder in my local email.
>  >>
>  >> The next part is a disaster.  I have hundreds of email folders, and the
>  >> dialog makes me start over for each one.  So I have to pick where to
>  >> import to, then navigate to a folder and select it.  Ultimately I find
>  >> that I can multi-select all my mbox folders at once and do a big import.
>  >>   They get imported into folders named MBOX-oldname.  Why they developer
>  >> thinks I care that they used to be in mbox format I can't imagine.  Now
>  >> I have to go rename them all, but at least they loaded quickly.
>  >>
>  >> Now I still have lots of slightly newer maildir folders to import.  It
>  >> takes me a long time to realize that if never actually lets me select a
>  >> maildir folder and say okay.  If I select a folder the dialog enters
>  >> that folder showing the sub-folders.  Finally, I just give up and I
>  >> click "okay" when I've entered the folder in question with nothing
>  >> inside selected.  Wow, it actually starts importing all my folders.
>  >>
>  >> Moronically, it is putting every folder into a KMail-import folder, but
>  >> I guess I was warned.  I still don't understand why it would do that.
>  >>
>  >> So, I guess the upshot is that it worked, mostly.  I still get the
>  >> heebie-jeebies at the thought of keeping all my mail in mysql instead of
>  >> easily to read mbox and maildir folders, and I have all my folders named
>  >> stupidly, but it looks like I haven't lost my mail.  That's good.
>  >>
>  >> This has probably been the worst upgrade experience I've had in my
>  >> almost 20 years of running Linux.  I can't believe that anyone thought
>  >> this was a good idea, or that it was ready to use.  Since I got past the
>  >> kmail crashing instantly it has only crashed twice--but I've only been
>  >> running it a couple of hours.
>  >>
>  >> Let's hope that no more big changes are coming.
>  >>
>  >> Michael
>  >>
>  >>
>  > Well, did you read the - by now old - kubuntu advise to not upgrade
> but do a "move/backup your email, set up new kmail and then import your
> stuff" advise?
>  >
>
> Yes, I did see that advise, but I trends to like to sees things for
> myself.  Maybe not the smartest approach, sometimes.
>
>  > I tried "migrate" at least twice and then gave up. Moved my mails
> away, created fresh KMail and imported mails. Worked way better though I
> also had to move all folders from "KMail-imported" to where I wanted
> them in "Local Folders".
>  >
>  > And yes, though 4.9 is the best KMail2 this far it still unstable if
> you ask me. Accidentally moved a folder with subfolders to another
> folder (hate clickpads, give me touchpad with clickbuttons any day) and
> moving it back caused some sort of database total hickup. I eventually
> sorted it, though it took me literally hours and CPU nearly burnt out.
>  >
>  > But this is why my wife use Thunderbird and not KMail - she would
> just have sat there and "where the h..l did all the mails disappear to"?
>
> I think your wife I'd right.  I'm going to switch to thunderbird as soon
> as I figure out how to import my maildir folders.
>
Well, it was not meant as an advise to migrate to Thunderbird, not at 
all. I consider KMail far better but at times wonder why the ... the 
decision to migrate to Akonadi was made when the app clearly was not, 
and in some ways still is not, ready for that move.

The other part to complain about is that the whole chain of 
Nepomuk-Akonadi-MySQL and the connection to physical mailfolders is, put 
mildly, poorly documented so if (when) the shit hits the fan you are in 
the dark.

I use Thunderbird for mailing lists and some other stuff but I am 
considering migrating almost all of that to KMail actually.. not the 
other way around.

Now what you can do is to create new subfolders in mbox format, move 
your mails to these and then you are ready to import these to 
Thunderbird no problems.

Best
Sinclair