Since yesterday the accountlist on the left side is no more available. Now I have to tap on the top in the pulldown the account and then I must tap to get inti Inbox. That’s boring. Formerly there was the accountlist on the left side, I saw with one view, where new mails arrived and with one tap I reached the Inbox. How can I change it back?
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Some problem. This makes one of my most frequent interactions with the app (identifying accounts with new messages and quickly going through the inboxes of such accounts) much more time-consuming.
I would appreciate a solution.
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Same with me. I just went to K-9 14.0 on my Chromebook, and now it takes extra taps to get the account list. This is a bother.
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Same Problem. Please fix it, back to the good old system!
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Same here - please, please change it back!
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Yes – this is a big problem for those of us with many email accounts: if I have counted correctly, this has doubled the number of taps required to change to another inbox. Please consider efficiency in the design and reinstate the ability to see all the accounts at once. (Even better would be a view that surfaces the accounts with new messages in them to the top.) Having to open menus, scroll around, etc, is a pain, and this is a big step backwards.
Thanks for the app, and thanks for considering!
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This happened a few versions back and then the function was restored. Please restore the option again.
To quote the developer’s feedback on github …
We’re open to suggestions on how to improve the dropdown drawer. While the side-rail drawer was generally well-liked in principle, it ultimately failed because many users found it hard to discover and understand — the rail could be hidden from view, and the pattern itself isn’t widely recognized.
With the new dropdown approach, the main feedback we’ve received is that it feels slower and requires too many clicks compared to the side rail, especially for users who switch between folders frequently or manage many accounts.
Our goal is to find a solution that avoids the discoverability issues of the side rail while still delivering fast navigation.
We’d appreciate any ideas that help reduce interaction steps, and make the overall experience more efficient for both single-account and multi-account users.
I personally like the new account drawer however recognize it’s a pain point for others.
Maybe the developers could provide an extra button on the message list toolbar that opens straight into the new account list view (same as pressing hamburger menu + down arrow)
1. This would provide single click access to the accounts list and count of new emails.
2. Reduce the clicks required to switch accounts.
I think these are the main points of concern raised by the community and would seem to provide the same function as the old side rail.
Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions?
One observation: With 4 accounts and 6 folders per account, both would actually fit into the side menu. The new design wastes a lot of space for me.
So why not show both the accounts and folders for the active account while they fit?
And for people with more accounts/folders: One option would be to make the menu swipable vertically. Another would be to allow the user to choose favorites below the drop down - that could e.g. be directly the Inbox for each account, optionally filtered by “only with new items”
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Not sure why there can only be one way to navigate. A simple toggle in the settings would suffice
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I strongly support the position that i need the old side-view back, to have a usable experience with multiple mailboxes in K-9. Was thinking about deinstallation and try to find old version and stop doing updates.
Is it enough that i registered an account here to feedback this, or does it need more feedback on Microsoft-GitHub to make the developers see the impact? Just deleted all accounts on Big Tech and don’t want back to them personally.
I was happy with K-9 for years, thanks for your work, but please don’t do gui-changes without an option to opt-out [at update time?].
I really miss the old workflow.
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Add me to the list of users that want the side rail back. I frequently use K9 one-handed (left hand) when commuting. The new UX for changing servers is impossible to use with one hand and requires more clicks. I get too much email for the Unified Inbox to be practical most of the time (one account gets substantially more messages than the other two, but that account has the least important message content of the three accounts).
An alternative might be to allow us to choose which server folders are included in the Unified Inbox (so I could exclude the least important email server), but I really want the side rail back for choosing the server to view.
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Thanks, I did not know that! That will help, but I still prefer the side rail UX for selecting servers.
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This might be a solution for a few users, but I (and I think most of the users) want to see with one look, in which account there are new mails. It is boring to tap so much times to have a overview, where are new mails.
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I am well aware and actually agree with that.
My point was simply that the alternative he mentioned is already available 
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To make it short: I realy need the old side-rail drawer back!
Changing accounts by first dropping a dropdown list doubles the number of taps and time. The side-rail drawer was a ginius idea to get a quick overview and the main reason for me to choose k-9 and to suggest it to a lot of other people.
If you think there are users who don’t like it, just make it switchable in settings.
More over I have a wish for a future release: please make it possible to create different ‘Unified Inboxes’ for different roles (Personal, Work, Family, …)
Beside that, thank you for this realy great E-Mail client.
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The developers have advised the old side rail will not return (See comment here and here)
Quote:
Thanks everyone for the feedback — we know the transition away from the side-rail drawer hasn’t been smooth for all workflows. While we won’t be bringing the side-rail drawer back, we’ve been carefully reviewing your comments. Across user reviews, support channels, and all the feedback we’ve collected so far, the dropdown drawer has been performing slightly better overall. Still, we recognize that this doesn’t reflect everyone’s experience, and we’re taking your concerns seriously.
In the upcoming Beta 16.0b2 we’ve already made a few improvements based on your reports:
The account list open/close animation is now faster.
Clicking the account avatar will now let you cycle through your accounts directly.
These are small changes, but they should help reduce some of the friction you’ve been feeling.
Next up on our side is improving the Unified Account. In its current form it’s not as useful as it should be, so we’re adding support for unified
Outbox,Drafts,Sent,Spam, andTrashas well. We’ll continue iterating on the design, interaction patterns, and feature set with your feedback in mind.Thanks again for taking the time to share your concerns.
No — the side-rail won’t be returning. I understand this is frustrating for some of you, and I hear the feedback. We’re continuing to improve the current design, including the recent updates in 16.0b2, and more refinements are on the way.
On the Unified Inbox suggestion, a similar type suggestion was made (here) which you might wish to add your feedback to.
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How do I revert and prevent this from updating? There’s little I hate more than opening an app on my phone to see it changed from what I expected. An email client only has to be made once. Why all the updates?
Hi @Davi_d
You can download the apk for your desired version from various sources. F-Droid & GitHub being two examples. I’d recommend the GitHub releases since you don’t wish any auto update. They have a different signing key from the Play Store and F-Droid and won’t auto update.
To downgrade.
- Download the apk file of your desired app version.
- Export your K-9/TBA setting to a backup file.
- Uninstall your current version.
- Install the downloaded APK using a file manager app.
- Import your settings from the backup file.
1 Like