Hi, I installed the delta chat app on my android sunday at fosdem. I created an account with a test mail server and a second one with an existing email of mine.
I connected with some people via QRcode scan and was able to chat with them. But pretty soon I started getting messages in the chat application that were regular emails, not meant for delta chat. Even some older emails showed up in the app. I deleted the account associated with my email and found out later that some emails had gone missing from my mailbox.
Another person who tried at the same time with their personal email had similar problems, so I guess the problem is not with my email provider…
Is the application not yet ready to be used with my own email account?
Hello ,
in normal email accounts, DC creates a folder called “DeltaChat” and puts the chat emails in there. Maybe your missing emails are in this folder?
If you don’t want to see normal emails in DC, you can set this in the settings (Settings → Advanced).
Is it the setting “only fetch from delta chat folder”? Shouldn’ t that be the default setting, or at least be asked during setup? I didnt expect my emails going to a chat app.
The warning “If you change this option, make sure, your server and your other clients are configured accordingly. Otherwise things may not work at all” that comes with this setting is not encouraging to use this option.
It doesn’t say how the server and the other clients should be configured…
Did you delete these messages from Delta Chat when they appeared there? Delta Chat definitely should not delete normal email messages from your mailboxes without explicit user action. If it happens, it’s a bug.
When I saw emails showing up in DC (in an inappropriate layout for mails) I immediately deleted my DC account, to prevent other emails being pulled into DC. I assume that deleted the DC folder in the mail account, and the now missing emails with it.
I was quite upset that DC messed with emails, I thought the app would only touch mails that were meant for a DC conversations.
DC only moves chat mails and maybe replies to them into DeltaChat folder even if the setting to receive all emails is enabled. And deleting Delta Chat account from the phone does nothing on the email server, you should still have DeltaChat folder there with chat messages moved into it. Unless you delete mails in Delta Chat, it does not delete messages from the server, so all messages should still be there or in the inbox.
Which email provider do you use? It could actually be that the problem is with the email provider and maybe its special virtual folder layout or something like that. I use Delta Chat with some normal (non-chatmail) email accounts and it does not delete or move normal messages.
that is not the option you should use but “no, chats only” in Advanced > Show Classic Emails then you will see only chat messages in DC, in general it is not recommended to use DC + a classic email client with the same email account, the default is to show all emails in DC because 1. why not? and 2. it is supposed to be used as the only email app accessing that account so you want to read all emails with it or otherwise you will miss them
if you use other email client at the same time you will have constant problems with chat messages causing notifications in your email app or unread messages in DeltaChat folder polluting your unread counter in the classic email client, there are some more advanced setup using server-side sieve filters to move the messages out of the INBOX and that is what that other option you mentioned is about
This is a big dissappointment thou… I was hoping that DC would be the easyest answer for decentralized chatting for everybody, accessible with little explanation.
But not everybody has easy acces to an extra email account …
The DC servers for using random email accounts is not a solution I’d like to promote.
well the random email accounts or your own email server are a way better option than Gmail et al. besides privacy-wise, decentralization-wise and actually usability-wise without rate-limits and you should promote those not the later
registration doesn’t require phone numbers or any private data (ex. anonymous login)
free and open source, and I mean free as in freedom and with true FOSS community spirit, not fake FOSS barely “open source” but not really working as an open source project nor accepting contributions or allowing 3rd party clients
is simple and easy to use and onboard friends and family to, without a lot of technical terms and complicated questions
has good multi-device and multi-account support
is resilient, don’t depend on high inter-connectivity, offline-first, you don’t suddenly lose access to your data just because you are offline or the app is asking you / forcing you to upgrade
have private chats and groups that are ensured to be e2e encrypted and protected against MITM attacks (compromised servers)
you own your data
if you don’t find any app that fits the bill, then just realize you should promote Delta Chat
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