Best setup for unified mailboxes?

anonymouse · 12 Dec 2011, 11:23 PM

I'm hoping to migrate our household to fastmail, but struggling with some of the basic concepts despite reading many posts here.

With our previous provider we have four "accounts" (or "mailboxes" as they call them). A large number of aliases then sort our domains and addresses into these accounts. On an iPhone (which is where we read mail most often) they appear as a structure under the unified inbox:
Inbox
- my mail
- business1
- other business
- wife's mail

With fastmail the approach seems to be to set up one account for me, one for my wife, and make the business accounts into folders under my account.

However I think that on IOS (and other mail clients with unified inboxes) this would appear as:
Inboxes
- my mailbox (empty)
- my wife's mailbox (contains incoming mail)
Accounts
- my mailbox
--- Inbox (empty)
--- Drafts
--- Sent
--- Trash
--- Inbox
------- my mail folder (contains incoming mail)
------- business mail folder (contains incoming mail)
------- other business mail folder (contains incoming mail)
--- Junk Mail
- wife's mailbox
--- Inbox (contains incoming mail)
etc

which is quite messy. Furthermore, if I understand correctly, unread mail in my three mail folders does not get counted in the unread mail indicator shown by IOS - that seems to look only at the INBOX.

Another option would be to set up my four mailboxes as separate accounts, but this requires fees for each account which doesn't seem appropriate.

How have others set this up to look and work better?

n5bb · 13 Dec 2011, 11:51 AM

Welcome to the EMD Forums, anonymouse!

The only iOS device I have is an iPhone 4S running iOS 5.0.1, and I have one corporate Exchange and two Fastmail IMAP accounts set up in the Mail app. Here is how it appears to work:

I can't find any way to subscribe or view only a subset of folders. I have a large number of folders and subfolders (and even one or two sub-subfolders), and they are all visible on the iPhone, with no way to hide them.
Although I am subscribed to several IMAP folders when I log in using Thunderbird, the iPhone only seems to know about new messages in one of two ways. IMAP IDLE does not seem to be supported (no instant notification, except for Exchange accounts).
- Inbox: If I open the Mail app to the Mailboxes screen, the Inbox of each configured account is checked for new messages. If any are found, they appear on the Mail app badge and in the Mailboxes screen count for each account.
- Other folders: New messages are ignored until I manually select the individual folder, when the display is updated for that one folder only.
The Mailboxes screen (main Mail top-level screen) shows:
- Inboxes
  - All Inboxes (shows all Inboxes in unified display)
  - Fastmail account 1
  - Fastmail account 2
  - Exchange account
- Accounts (shows all folders at each account when selecting one of these)
  - Fastmail account 1
  - Fastmail account 2
  - Exchange account

Also see the following Fastmail Weblog entry:
iOS 5 and mail application access patterns

Did that help any? I don't feel that I fully answered your question.

Bill

anonymouse · 13 Dec 2011, 02:46 PM

I think this confirms my suspicion: IOS works best when incoming mail goes to several accounts - and fastmail works best (and is priced best) when incoming mail goes to several folders.

I don't think I could handle incoming mail (in folders) not setting the unread count badge so I guess I will have to buy several accounts.

12 Dec 2011, 11:23 PM	#1
anonymouse Junior Member Join Date: Dec 2011 Posts: 11	Best setup for unified mailboxes? I'm hoping to migrate our household to fastmail, but struggling with some of the basic concepts despite reading many posts here. With our previous provider we have four "accounts" (or "mailboxes" as they call them). A large number of aliases then sort our domains and addresses into these accounts. On an iPhone (which is where we read mail most often) they appear as a structure under the unified inbox: Inbox - my mail - business1 - other business - wife's mail With fastmail the approach seems to be to set up one account for me, one for my wife, and make the business accounts into folders under my account. However I think that on IOS (and other mail clients with unified inboxes) this would appear as: Inboxes - my mailbox (empty) - my wife's mailbox (contains incoming mail) Accounts - my mailbox --- Inbox (empty) --- Drafts --- Sent --- Trash --- Inbox ------- my mail folder (contains incoming mail) ------- business mail folder (contains incoming mail) ------- other business mail folder (contains incoming mail) --- Junk Mail - wife's mailbox --- Inbox (contains incoming mail) etc which is quite messy. Furthermore, if I understand correctly, unread mail in my three mail folders does not get counted in the unread mail indicator shown by IOS - that seems to look only at the INBOX. Another option would be to set up my four mailboxes as separate accounts, but this requires fees for each account which doesn't seem appropriate. How have others set this up to look and work better?

13 Dec 2011, 11:51 AM	#2
n5bb Intergalactic Postmaster Join Date: May 2004 Location: Irving, Texas Posts: 8,929	Example of iPhone 4S iOS 5.0.1 Mail organization Welcome to the EMD Forums, anonymouse! The only iOS device I have is an iPhone 4S running iOS 5.0.1, and I have one corporate Exchange and two Fastmail IMAP accounts set up in the Mail app. Here is how it appears to work: I can't find any way to subscribe or view only a subset of folders. I have a large number of folders and subfolders (and even one or two sub-subfolders), and they are all visible on the iPhone, with no way to hide them. Although I am subscribed to several IMAP folders when I log in using Thunderbird, the iPhone only seems to know about new messages in one of two ways. IMAP IDLE does not seem to be supported (no instant notification, except for Exchange accounts). Inbox: If I open the Mail app to the Mailboxes screen, the Inbox of each configured account is checked for new messages. If any are found, they appear on the Mail app badge and in the Mailboxes screen count for each account. Other folders: New messages are ignored until I manually select the individual folder, when the display is updated for that one folder only. The Mailboxes screen (main Mail top-level screen) shows: Inboxes All Inboxes (shows all Inboxes in unified display) Fastmail account 1 Fastmail account 2 Exchange account Accounts (shows all folders at each account when selecting one of these) Fastmail account 1 Fastmail account 2 Exchange account Also see the following Fastmail Weblog entry: iOS 5 and mail application access patterns Did that help any? I don't feel that I fully answered your question. Bill

13 Dec 2011, 02:46 PM	#3
anonymouse Junior Member Join Date: Dec 2011 Posts: 11	I think this confirms my suspicion: IOS works best when incoming mail goes to several accounts - and fastmail works best (and is priced best) when incoming mail goes to several folders. I don't think I could handle incoming mail (in folders) not setting the unread count badge so I guess I will have to buy several accounts.