The latest update of the user interface in version 8.0 makes the email program unusable. I have several email accounts which I access with K9 mail and it worked very well before. With the new interface I no longer can distinguish these accounts, many of them I have with gmail. They are now only shown as “GM” instead of the whole email address or whatever account name I set it up with.
Is there a possibility that I can revert to the previous layout where the account was fully spelled out? This shortened version does not work having several email accounts. K9 mail was before the only Android mail software that worked so well with several email accounts.
The 2-letter circle for the different email accounts has been sorted in the latest Beta.
It now uses the first 2 letters of the account name, which means you can change the name in order to better show which account is which. I changed the display name for GMX to GX, so that way it doesn’t look the same as a GMail one.
I’d still prefer having the account pictures back, but this is a start at least
I had an analogous issue when I wanted to install K-9 on a new Android 14/15 smartphone with K-9 v6.804, which I have used successfully on a Chromebook capable of running Android applications. Another user here pointed me to the resource for finding “pre-8” versions of K-9, and v6.804 I am using successfully. Releases · thunderbird/thunderbird-android · GitHub .
Hi folks, if you want to give 9.0b1 a try, there is a fix that will take the initials from the account name that you can customize in the account settings.
I think it’s good because changing the text has become convenient.
I thought it would be nice to be able to toggle between accounts by tapping the email address in the top left. This is just an idea.
I’ve been in the beta program since the beginning, and 2 hours after your post, still seeing only 8.0b5. I’ll check again later today. Must be some weird graduated roll out.
C-h said it well. The change to the account view is crippling in terms of functionality. Why change the accounts view to show message folders? That functionality already exists under the account itself where it makes sense. Creating unique initials for my 12 email accounts that I then have to remember isn’t a solution for me. Switching email accounts should be as simple as showing a list of accounts and clicking the one I want. The program was much more functional the previous version.
A 2-letter customization doesn’t truly restore usability. I have several major accounts that I check regularly, along with a few minor ones I check occasionally. What I really need is to see the full account name and the number of unread emails at a glance, without having to make additional clicks on a small mobile phone screen. Would it be possible to provide an option to choose between different layout versions if you’d like to keep this new graphical solution?
This focus on beautification at the expense of functionality is a significant issue, and customizing just two letters will not resolve it. You have such a great project here with K9 (and Thunderbird); please avoid overengineering. Alternatively, kindly provide an option to display full account names.
The attached pictures shows how my mobile phone screen looks like
One additional note: There is also not enough space for “Gemeinsamer Posteingang” / unified inbox. This does not look good neither, it was better before.
I checked now the latest Thunderbird version, including 9.0b1. What changed there is that the first 2 letters of the account name are now picked as initials (as mentioned above). As most of the emails start with my name, they still look the same.
I could now go into each account and precede a 2-letter-code and find a unique acronym system to distinguish these multiple accounts?
I will not be happy with these two-letter alphabet bites and hope that sound engineering reasoning will prevail over this aesthetic-driven overcomplication.
BTW: In none of the Thunderbird version (8.1, 9.0b1) the “Gemeinsamer Posteingang” / unified inbox layout issue does occur.
I completely agree that a two-letter customization is not adequate. I have several dozen email accounts, some of them with very similar names. There is no logical mapping from two-letter codes to the account names. This isn’t a minor cosmetic issue; this is a major show-stopper!
In all the many years I have been online, over forty, I have never seen so many negative, even outrightly hostile, comments about a software upgrade. I am beginning to wonder, somewhat cynically, if K-9 was deliberately broken for some reason. I am keeping v8.04 on my Chromebook and was able to install v8.04 on my new Android 14/15 smartphone. I have no intention to upgrade to the broken v8 abomination.
Sounds like a online lynching. Not cool. AFAIK, there are just nearly full time 2 devs I think. More contributors.
Anyway, I have a guess, which is unconfirmed, that the style used that is so disliked is actually a Google Material You recommended design pattern. If that’s the case, you’ll see similar UIs in other Android apps.
I got 9.0b1 from the Google Play store today. I’m able to edit account names, and my first two characters appear in the disc. Reasonably suitable. I’m good. I was good before with the design too.
