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Old 19 Sep 2017, 12:36 PM   #16
FortyTwo
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sebwills View Post
Fastmail support replied to my follow-up. They say:



As well as suggesting using the web interface, they also pointed out that if you change the settings to compose plain text rather than rich text messages then the issue doesn't occur. (Settings -> Mail Preferences screen, under the Writing section.). Useful to know.
Thanks. Good to know that FM have identified the issue as relating to their Crosswalk framework.

Also, Moto and Pixel phones both use pure Android (well, close to it for Moto). Whereas Samsung has a heavy skin. Could this be why Samsung people not getting the mangled text? So I wonder what tweak Samsung has done to Android that prevents the mangled text, when FM suggest that Crosswalk is the problem?
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Old 19 Sep 2017, 12:57 PM   #17
FortyTwo
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Using the webapp on my Android browser was working well. However, for the last few weeks I have been using an open-source app on F-Droid, called "WebApps Version v2.12.1".

Only works with https sites. You can save or remove any WebApp to the app's bookmarked list. You can also create shortcuts for use on the home screen. The app blocks 3rd party requests by default (can be changed on a site by site basis). You can choose what User Agent you want and change the font size, both specifically for each webapp.

I have created separate webapps for my Calendar, Inbox, Folders other than Inbox, Files and Notes.

Some Android launchers allow you to specify swipe actions. Eg my dock has a shortcut for my Inbox webapp. I set a swipe down action on this shortcut to open Notes from FM. In my app list, I set a swipe action for my File Manager icon, which opens the FM Files webapp.

Not suitable for those who want notifications of emails arriving!!

This app allows me to get an FM-app-like experience but with more customisation + shortcuts.
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Old 20 Sep 2017, 08:23 AM   #18
sebwills
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Originally Posted by FortyTwo View Post
Yes, I tried using plain text (a while back) when I was using the FM app. The text was still getting mangled on my Moto.
When I switched to plain text (on Moto) the mangling behaviour seems different in exactly when it occurs, but I agree it still happens.
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Old 22 Sep 2017, 02:05 AM   #19
fmett
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On Google/LG Nexus 5, this mangling of text happens all the time and has been a constant curse since I have used the Android Fastmail app, years now.

When replying, or when composing a new email, it makes text corrections and insertions a nightmare. For anyone who hasn't actually seen this buggy behaviour, it is hard to describe how bizarre and unpredictable it is. Character insertions happen at unexpected places away from where you are typing, words get oddly mangled, lines get broken, and there is no way to undo the corrupted changes. I frequently have to abandon the message and start again.

This combined with the fact that the app takes 10 seconds of displaying wavy patterns to start up, and frequently another 10 seconds to access and display an updated inbox, makes it the slowest app on the handset.

Another oddity is that the Fastmail Android app, both via mobile connection and wifi connection, is frequently inexplicably unable to connect to its server. I get "cannot connect to server - retryring" ALL the time while other apps on the handset can connect and function perfectly normally. The "cannot connect" can persist for as long as minutes at a time.

In comparison, the Gmail app opens in about a second and the inbox updates a second or two after that.

The final curse of the Fastmail Android app is that, in marginal signal areas, it erroneously reports that the login password is wrong and demands I re-enter it. This happens all the time when driving in marginal signal areas, and what fun it is to be at some rural truckstop trying to enter a 30-character master password on the handset. It assumes that a failure to log in means that the password (which has been correct for ages) is suddenly wrong. Gmail never does this, not once.

I don't often speak up and I have one very specific use case which keeps me using the Fastmail service for a small proportion of email tasks, but frankly I suffer and fume all the time. I can see that the FM team tries and does a lot of work, but the overall functionality is just way behind the big providers and that's what we need to accept in order to use it.
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Old 22 Sep 2017, 08:52 AM   #20
gardenweed
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fmett View Post
......

This combined with the fact that the app takes 10 seconds of displaying wavy patterns to start up, and frequently another 10 seconds to access and display an updated inbox, makes it the slowest app on the handset.

.....
A fix/workaround that works for me (for this single problem only) is to close the App in Android, then re-open it. The hanging "trying to connect to server" goes away when I do this.
Might work for you - I'd be interested to know.
Galaxy S6, Android 7.0
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Old 23 Sep 2017, 03:12 AM   #21
fmett
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Originally Posted by gardenweed View Post
... close the App in Android, then re-open it. The hanging "trying to connect to server" goes away when I do this.
Might work for you - I'd be interested to know.
Galaxy S6, Android 7.0
Thanks for your suggestion. I do try that and sometimes it fixes it and sometimes not. I observe this "trying to connect" all the time and really cannot correlate the presence nor absence of this problem with anything else that's happening at the time. I frequently have to kill the Fastmail Android app - it often freezes and totally stops responding - sometimes I even reboot the handset. This app seriously needs replacement.

FM claims that the service is "fast". I never experience "fast", not in the app, not in the clunky webmail interface.
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Old 27 Dec 2017, 02:41 PM   #22
werewolf
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OK, i just found this - since the search function doesn't work here - and i just posted about the mangled email text when trying to correct too. What ive been forced to resort to is typing out my email elsewhere and then cut and pasting it into the fastmail app. As for using a different email app to get my fastmails, so far I've been unsuccessful in making any work. Try another keyboard like the default or blackberry (if i can find it)? Maybe. Or maybe I'll just go back to a free email.
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Old 27 Dec 2017, 02:51 PM   #23
werewolf
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I switched to the Samsung default keyboard. So far it seems OK.
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Old 9 Jan 2018, 09:47 AM   #24
eewanco
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Post me too!

I've been experiencing this problem, too, on an S8 using Google keyboard. (I find the Samsung keyboard of exceedingly poor quality.) I don't see this in other apps, though on a web page text form field, I did see behavior that reminded me of it but was fundamentally different (at least it seemed to me). Switching (long-press on spacebar) to the Samsung keyboard does resolve the problem. I suppose this is a workaround.

I've also seen the issue where the connection to the server inexplicably hangs, AND the issue where it demands a password (very annoying!) afterward.
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Old 10 Jan 2018, 02:47 AM   #25
werewolf
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Originally Posted by werewolf View Post
OK, i just found this - since the search function doesn't work here - and i just posted about the mangled email text when trying to correct too. What ive been forced to resort to is typing out my email elsewhere and then cut and pasting it into the fastmail app. As for using a different email app to get my fastmails, so far I've been unsuccessful in making any work. Try another keyboard like the default or blackberry (if i can find it)? Maybe. Or maybe I'll just go back to a free email.

Thread on same subject:

http://www.emaildiscussions.com/showthread.php?t=73230


I don't recall having a problem like this when Fastmail was free. I always used free emails before, up until now, including good old free Fastmail. Can someone remind me why I am now paying for email? I forgot.

As I mentioned before, the best email ever for me was the original old time Yahoo before they started messing with it. Free Fastmail seemed functional and simple and FAST too, but I only used to use it as a peripheral email, and now that one is gone. I was using Outlook email before and then I got mad at it and came here, but I'll probably go back to one of the free ones. Mostly I'm on Android these days.
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Old 12 Jan 2018, 10:37 PM   #26
Walter Eagle
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I'm not really contributing to any solution here, other than to say I find the FastMail mail editor really capricious (hey, there's a good word!). When composing or editing a mail, in a browser interface on my PC, I find it spontaneously throws in <CR><LF> between words, in the middle of words, anywhere. If I backspace to erase one of these, it will almost certainly insert another elsewhere in the text.

I'm sure it wasn't always as bad as this. I've certainly become much more conscious of these rogue <CR><LF>'s over the past 6 months or so.

It got so bad that I started composing emails in a text editor and then copy-and-paste to Fastmail. I've now reached the stage where I've bought a different mail client, simply to use as the front end to Fastmail's services. Now that is crazy! But it is rock-solid when editing, and offers a far greater flexibility for formatting and organising text than Fastmail's editor ever did.

I do very limited work with Fastmail in Android (mainly reading rather than writing) so I'm not aware of how well or badly it performs there.

I used to be a strong advocate of Fastmail, but somehow I get the impression that it's getting a little frayed at the edges and not keeping up development with sufficiently innovative ideas to maintain its reputation.
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