Deleting saved messages on one device does not delete them on others

Using the Android version, 1.14.5, deleting saved messages on one device where DC tells me that they will be deleted from the server as well, does not delete them from Saved Messages on the other devices.

The reasonable expectation is that they would be deleted on /all/ devices, not just the device the action was taken on and the server. Server deletions should sync to all devices.

1 Like

Thanks for your feedback!

The problem with this is that there is a feature “Delete messages from server” that automatically deletes messages from the server after a given time (may be instant), but keeps them on the device.

So, unfortunately, it is currently impossible to do this due to technical restrictions.

Multi-device-usage needs quite some polishing anyway, maybe we will find a solution when we tackle the other multi-device-issues.

2 Likes

I am not sure why that precludes the ability to add the feature I proposed? The user could choose between: (1) the current behavior thus retaining messages on the device which have been manually/automatically deleted from the server and (2) automatically syncing messages on the device to reflect what is on the server. I am not seeing why this would be technically impossible? I think it would be possible to simply extend one of the current IMAP settings from two choices to include this third choice thus encompassing current operations as well as the suggested one.

In fact, what I have proposed is consistent with how IMAP (mostly works), ie syncing what is on the server to the device automatically. I write (mostly) because on my Android devices I can further restrict those messages on the device to a max number but that does not affect what is on the server, it serves to not unnecessarily clog device memory.

The main problem is resynchronizing after a period of staying offline. Full sync requires downloading full message list with their flags from all watched folders.

If you have two devices, and both have downloaded a message, then device 1 went offline and device 2 deleted one of the messages or marked it as read, device 1 will not receive any notification of this event. It will have to download all messages after reconnection or rely on QRESYNC extension which is usually not available.

See my reply here:

This is not impossible, but it’s completely different compared to how DeltaChat operates today.

Reading your comment I think that sounds reasonable, ie that the device that has been off-line resyncs, or? After all, is that not how IMAP e-mail works? I have computers that have not been online for days/weeks/months and when turned on again syncs all the mail accounts - which is exactly what I expect them to do, regardless of how long they have been off-line. This is using Thunderbird on multiple computers and K-9 mail on multiple Android devices. It does not matter which device I pick up to check my e-mail on, they are all in sync.

From my perspective, this is how I would also expect DC to work (and Telegram is already working).

After all, if you have multiple devices one or more of them would always be expected to be off-line for any reason, however short or long time, eg turned off intentionally, battery run down, not able to sync because not on WiFi/cell service etc. etc.

perhaps an alternative is to send a message with the IDs of all manually deleted messages, so that deleted messages can be synchronized across all devices.

This would be done only if synchronization is active

I am not an expert on e-mail protocols, including IMAP, but since IMAP handles syncing of new and deleted messages across devices perfectly, would not DC be able to utilize this functionality?

is that it is not the same, and not so simple at first glance

I see. Complete syncing across devices is very important for me as a user, and, I would think, other users who move between different devices and are used to e.g Telegram or IMAP e-mail.

I would like to throw something out, in case the developers may not be using K-9 Mail on Android. K-9 syncs all e-mail accounts across devices perfectly but the user has the ability to limit the number of messages in eg Inbox. This is useful if you have a large number of messages in your e-mail account but only want eg the most recent 500 on your device. Quite useful if you do not need all of them on the device and it does not affect messages older than the ones you opt to download to the device.

Might be a useful feature for DC as well.

Look, right here the first problem appears, while a regular email can be limited to downloading only the latest messages, Delta needs to download all the new messages, for example looking for configuration changes, photos or profile names in the groups and other details, which would be ignored by Delta if it only downloaded the latest messages.

We’d all like a full synchronization in Delta but that’s going to take time and a lot of work, I don’t think it can be done right away.

OK, thank you for clarifying.

that is optional in K-9 Mail, and I would like to delete stuff a device and server but keep it in another device, so if something like this is added for sure people will want an option to disable “sync mode”

I use IMAP and it K-9 mail syncs as expected but I have the same settings on all three phones and one tablet.

Are you perhaps using POP3? I know it is possible to customize some settings in K-9 mail even when you used IMAP but I like to be able to pick up any device knowing they have the same information on them.

Hope you all are doing great. I came here searching for this same issue. Is there any plan to introduce this feature? Thanks.

I’ve had the need/want to delete messages from all my devices as well. Meanwhile, there is “sync” support for contact creation, chat-muting/pinning etc. so communicating “delete the following messages: …” can be done relatively easily. I don’t know how much work it would be on all platforms UI-wise first to sort out exactly what are the choices, then how to show them while minimizing user-confusion – it’s a sensitive topic to accidentally delete messages. Just started a quick related questions via our fediverse account: chaos.social – to see if there is an overwhelming leaning into what the “delete messages” means without any choices.

When I delete a message from Android version I am asked to delete the message from lokal and from server (it is more a hint). On Desktop there is no hint. Therefore my question: is the message on Desktop also deleted on the server?