Just updated from 5.6 to 5.8 and all is good

#1

I have been using K-9 Mail for as long as I have had Android devices, which is roughly a decade. The panicked hysteria and rash of complaints about the latest version of K-9 Mail had me nervous about upgrading when 5.8 became the recommended version on F-Droid. I made a config backup prior to the upgrade just in case the sky was indeed falling as I had been promised by many on this forum. It turns out that it was much ado about nothing.

The upgrade was painless and, while the appearance had noticeably changed, it didn’t take long to get acquainted with the improved UI. I expected to not like having to access the account selection from the sidebar, but, again, it was a non-issue. Obviously some don’t share my appreciation of the new version, but as someone who has historically only been a reader here, I wanted to speak up in praise of the latest version.

I am grateful to see this project continue. K-9 Mail remains the ideal MUA for me on Android. Thanks for all the hard work.

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#2

Not sure I understand why you didn’t just switch to any other number of email clients that work better on android and support modern auth methods. K-9 as is offers nothing over the better written competition

#3

You are openly hostile to the recent changes and appear to no longer use K-9 Mail, but I’ll indulge you.

The chief reason I didn’t change to another application would be that I like K-9 Mail and I have no particular desire to switch to another MUA. K-9 Mail has been meeting my needs for a decade and continues to do so.

While I certainly would welcome the introduction of Modern Authentication for use with my Gmail accounts, they comprise a minority of the accounts I use with K-9 Mail. That makes the benefit non-negligible, but hardly critical.

I prefer to install my software from F-Droid, so the competing MUA that I suspect you are referencing wouldn’t have any OAUTH support for me anyway.

I posted here to provide an alternative perspective to anyone who may hold similar concerns to mine about the upgrade. While it has obviously left some users visibly upset, the changes had no negative impact for me.

For those interested in seeing for themselves how the changes may affect them, I recommend making a backup of your account configs before the update to make it easier to revert if you find it necessary. For those that determine that it is time they leave K-9 Mail for another application, do the rest of us a favor and leave, and I mean really leave. Sticking around the K-9 Mail forums to sow FUD and engage in toxic outbursts isn’t helpful to anyone.

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#4

There surely are many reasons behind the UI redesign. I don’t know them and I won’t flame them either.
I agree that there are users which benefit from the new UI to a higher or lesser degree. Good for them.
What I try to underline (and IMO others should also) is to respectfully describe how [at least] certain category of users are disadvantaged by these changes, some to the level of usability becoming unfeasible.

IMO developers should heed such feedback with all seriousness.

#5

If the new version works for you (and I would therefore imagine you don’t have lots of email accounts to manage), then good.

The issue is that a major reason why I used this client is because I could see at a glance all of my accounts and which had new mail.

The developers decided, without consultation or warning, to remove this essential and unique feature.

So that’s why I have downgraded to 5.6.

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#6

I’d argue the developer is openly hostile on these forums and on github towards their users, going back at least 6 years.

I looked on F-Droid, there were already a couple alternatives on there, don’t need k-mail to completely disregard it’s users.

#7

That’s the issue here, the developer is not only ignoring user feedback; they are actively dismissing all discussion that is against their view of the app.

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