Si tienes alguna pregunta, por favor comprueba primero las preguntas frecuentes. [En la parte inferior](https://github.com/M66B/FairEmail/blob/master/FAQ.md#user-content-get-support), puedes averiguar cómo hacer otras preguntas, solicitar características, y reportar errores.
Wenn Sie eine Frage haben, überprüfen Sie bitte zuerst die nachstehenden häufig gestellten Fragen (FAQ). [Ganz unten erfahren Sie](https://github.com/M66B/FairEmail/blob/master/FAQ.md#user-content-get-support), wie Sie weitere Fragen stellen, Funktionen anfordern und Fehler melden können.
If the quick setup wizard fails, you'll need to manually set up an account (to receive email) and an identity (to send email). For this you'll need the IMAP and SMTP server addresses and port numbers, whether SSL/TLS or STARTTLS should be used and your username (mostly, but not always, your email address) and your password.
In some cases, you'll need to enable external access to your account and/or to use a special (app) password, for instance when two-factor authentication is enabled.
* Cambiar contraseña: Configuración, configuración manual y más opciones, toque Cuentas, toque cuenta, cambiar contraseña
* Establecer una firma: Configuración, configuración manual y más opciones, identidades de toque, identidad de toque, identidad de toque, firma de edición.
* Añadir dirección CC y CCO: toque el icono de la persona al final del asunto
* Ir al mensaje siguiente/anterior en archivar/eliminar: en la configuración de comportamiento desactive *Cerrar conversaciones automáticamente* y seleccione *Ir a la siguiente/anterior conversación* para *Al cerrar una conversación*
* Añadir una carpeta a la bandeja de entrada unificada: mantenga presionada la carpeta en la lista de carpetas y marque *Mostrar en la bandeja de entrada unificada*
* Añadir una carpeta al menú de navegación: mantenga presionada la carpeta en la lista de carpetas y marque *Mostrar en el menú de navegación*
* Eliminar un mensaje, omitiendo la papelera: en el menú de 3 puntos justo encima del texto del mensaje *Eliminar* o, alternativamente, desmarque la carpeta de la papelera en la configuración de la cuenta
* ~~Un [error en Android 5.1 y 6](https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/37054851) hace que las aplicaciones muestren a veces un formato de hora incorrecto. Cambiar la configuración de Android *Usar formato de 24 horas* podría resolver temporalmente el problema. Una solución fue añadida.~~
* ~~~Un [error en Google Drive](https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/126362828) hace que los archivos exportados a Google Drive estén vacíos. Google ha corregido esto.~~
* ~~Un [error en AndroidX](https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/78495471) hace que FairEmail ocasionalmente se cierre al mantener presionado o deslizar. Google ha corregido esto.~~
* ~~Un [error en AndroidX ROOM](https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/138441698) causa a veces un cierre con "*... Excepción al computar datos en vivo de base de datos ... No se pudo leer la fila...*". Se añadió una solución alternativa.~~
* Un [error en Android](https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/119872129) hace que FairEmail falle con "*... Notificación errónea publicada ...*" en algunos dispositivos una vez después de actualizar FairEmail y pulsar en una notificación.
* Un [error en Android](https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/62427912) ocasiona a veces un error con "*... ActivityRecord no encontrado para ...*" después de actualizar FairEmail. Reinstalando ([fuente](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/46309428/android-activitythread-reportsizeconfigurations-causes-app-to-freeze-with-black)) podría solucionar el problema.
* Un [error en Android](https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/37018931) ocasiona a veces un error con *... InputChannel no está inicializado ...* en algunos dispositivos.
* ~~Un [error en LineageOS](https://review.lineageos.org/c/LineageOS/android_frameworks_base/+/265273) causa a veces un error con *... java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException: length=...; index=... ...*.~~
* Un error en Nova Launcher en Android 5.x hace que FairEmail falle con un *java.lang.StackOverflowError* cuando Nova Launcher tiene acceso al servicio de accesibilidad.
* ~~El selector de carpetas a veces no muestra carpetas por razones desconocidas. Esto parece estar arreglado.~~
* ~~Un [error en AndroidX](https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/64729576) hace difícil agarrar el desplazamiento rápido. Una solución fue añadida.~~
* ~~El cifrado con YubiKey resulta en un bucle infinito. Esto parece ser causado por un [error en OpenKeychain](https://github.com/open-keychain/open-keychain/issues/2507).~~
* Desplazar a una ubicación vinculada internamente en mensajes originales no funciona. Esto no se puede arreglar porque la vista original del mensaje está contenida en una vista de desplazamiento.
* La vista previa del texto de los mensajes no aparece (siempre) en los relojes de Samsung porque [setLocalOnly](https://developer.android.com/reference/androidx/core/app/NotificationCompat.Builder.html#setLocalOnly(boolean)) parece ser ignorado. Se sabe que los textos de vista previa de los mensajes se muestran correctamente en los wearables Pebble 2, Fitbit Charge 3, Mi band 3 y Xiaomi Amazfit BIP. Ver también [estas Preguntas Frecuentes](#user-content-faq126).
* Un [error en Android 6.0](https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/37068143) causa un error con *... Offset inválido: ... El rango válido es ...* cuando el texto está seleccionado y se toca fuera del texto seleccionado. Este error ha sido corregido en Android 6.0.1.
* Los enlaces internos (anchor) no funcionarán porque los mensajes originales se muestran en una WebView embebida en una vista de desplazamiento (la lista de conversaciones). Esta es una limitación de Android que no se puede arreglar o eludir.
* ~~Seleccionar imágenes locales para firmas~~ (esto no se añadirá porque requiere administración de archivos de imagen y porque las imágenes no se muestran por defecto en la mayoría de los clientes de correo electrónico)
* ~~Mostrar mensajes que coincidan con una regla~~
* ~~[ManageSieve](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5804)~~ (no hay librerías Java mantenidas con una licencia adecuada y sin dependencias y, además, FairEmail tiene sus propias reglas de filtro)
* ~~Buscar mensajes con/sin archivos adjuntos~~ (esto no puede ser añadido porque IMAP no soporta la búsqueda de archivos adjuntos)
* ~~Buscar una carpeta~~ (filtrar una lista jerárquica de carpetas es problemático)
* ~~[Mensaje de configuración de autocifrado](https://autocrypt.org/autocrypt-spec-1.0.0.pdf) (sección 4.4)~~ (en mi opinión no es una buena idea permitir que un cliente de correo electrónico maneje claves de cifrado sensibles para un caso de uso excepcional mientras que OpenKeychain también puede exportar claves)
* ~~Carpetas unificadas genéricas~~
* ~~Nuevo programa de notificación de mensajes por cuenta~~ (implementado añadiendo una condición de tiempo a las reglas para que los mensajes puedan ser pospuestos durante los periodos seleccionados)
* ~~Copiar cuentas e identidades~~
* ~~Zoom via pellizco~~ (no es posible en una lista de desplazamiento; la vista completa del mensaje puede ser agrandada en su lugar)
* ~~Vista de carpetas más compacta~~
* ~~Componer listas y tablas~~ (requiere un editor de texto enriquecido, vea [estas FAQ](#user-content-faq99))
The design is based on many discussions and if you like you can discuss about it [in this forum](https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/apps-games/source-email-t3824168) too. The goal of the design is to be minimalistic (no unnecessary menus, buttons, etc) and non distracting (no fancy colors, animations, etc). All displayed things should be useful in one or another way and should be carefully positioned for easy usage. Fonts, sizes, colors, etc should be material design whenever possible.
* [(58) ¿Qué significa un icono de correo electrónico abierto/cerrado?](#user-content-faq58)
* [(59) ¿Pueden abrirse mensajes originales en el navegador?](#user-content-faq59)
* [(60) ¿Sabía que ...?](#user-content-faq60)
* [(61) ¿Por qué algunos mensajes se muestran atenuados?](#user-content-faq61)
* [(62) ¿Cuáles métodos de autenticación están soportados?](#user-content-faq62)
* [(63) ¿Cómo se redimensionan las imágenes para mostrarlas en pantalla?](#user-content-faq63)
* [~~(64) ¿Puedes añadir acciones personalizadas para deslizar hacia la izquierda/derecha?~~](#user-content-faq64)
* [(65) ¿Por qué algunos archivos adjuntos se muestran atenuados?](#user-content-faq65)
* [(66) ¿Está FairEmail disponible en la Biblioteca de la Familia de Google Play?](#user-content-faq66)
* [(67) ¿Cómo puedo posponer las conversaciones?](#user-content-faq67)
* [~~(68) ¿Por qué el lector Adobe Acrobat no puede abrir archivos adjuntos PDF / aplicaciones de Microsoft no pueden abrir documentos adjuntos?~~](#user-content-faq68)
* [(69) ¿Puedes añadir desplazamiento automático hasta arriba en un nuevo mensaje?](#user-content-faq69)
* [(70) ¿Cuándo se expandirán automáticamente los mensajes?](#user-content-faq70)
* [(71) ¿Cómo uso las reglas de filtro?](#user-content-faq71)
* [(72) ¿Qué son las cuentas o identidades principales?](#user-content-faq72)
* [(73) ¿Es seguro/eficiente mover mensajes a través de cuentas?](#user-content-faq73)
* *tiene acceso a la red completa* (INTERNET): para enviar y recibir correo electrónico
* *ver conexiones de red* (ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE): para monitorizar los cambios de conectividad a Internet
* *ejecutar al inicio* (RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED): para iniciar la monitorización al iniciar el dispositivo
* *servicio de primer plano* (FOREGROUND_SERVICE): para ejecutar un servicio de primer plano en Android 9 Pie y posterior, ver también la siguiente pregunta
* *evitar que el dispositivo duerme* (WAKE_LOCK): para mantener el dispositivo despierto mientras sincroniza los mensajes
* *facturación in-app* (BILLING): para permitir compras en la app
* Opcional: *lee tus contactos* (READ_CONTACTS): para autocompletar direcciones y para mostrar fotos
* Opcional: *lee el contenido de tu tarjeta SD* (READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE): para aceptar archivos de otras aplicaciones desactualizadas, consulta también [este FAQ](#user-content-faq49)
* Opcional: *usar hardware de huella dactilar* (USE_FINGERPRINT) y usar *hardware biométrico* (USE_BIOMETRIC): para usar autenticación biométrica
* Opcional: *encontrar cuentas en el dispositivo* (GET_ACCOUNTS) para seleccionar una cuenta cuando se utiliza la configuración rápida de Gmail
* Android 5. Lollipop y antes: *usar cuentas en el dispositivo* (USE_CREDENTIALS): para seleccionar una cuenta al usar la configuración rápida de Gmail (no solicitada en versiones posteriores de Android)
* Android 5. Lollipop y antes: *usar cuentas en el dispositivo* (USE_CREDENTIALS): para seleccionar una cuenta al usar la configuración rápida de Gmail (no solicitada en versiones posteriores de Android)
[Optional permissions](https://developer.android.com/training/permissions/requesting) are supported on Android 6 Marshmallow and later only. On earlier Android versions you will be asked to grant the optional permissions on installing FairEmail.
FairEmail will keep a list of addresses you receive messages from and send messages to and will use this list for contact suggestions when no contacts permissions is granted to FairEmail. This means you can use FairEmail without the Android contacts provider (address book). Note that you can still pick contacts without granting contacts permissions to FairEmail, only suggesting contacts won't work without contacts permissions.
A low priority permanent status bar notification with the number of accounts being monitored and the number of operations pending (see the next question) is shown to prevent Android from killing the service that takes care of continuous receiving email. This was [already necessary](https://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/Service.html#startForeground(int,%20android.app.Notification)), but with the introduction of [doze mode](https://developer.android.com/training/monitoring-device-state/doze-standby) in Android 6 Marshmallow this is more than ever necessary. Doze mode will stop all apps when the screen is off for some time, unless the app did start a foreground service, which requires showing a status bar notification.
Most, if not all, other email apps don't show a notification with the "side effect" that new messages are often not or late being reported and that messages are not or late being sent.
Android shows icons of high priority status bar notifications first and will hide the icon of FairEmail's notification if there is no space to show icons anymore. In practice this means that the status bar notification doesn't take space in the status bar, unless there is space available.
* Android 8 Oreo y posteriores: toque el botón *Canal de recepción* y desactive el canal a través de la configuración de Android (esto no deshabilitará las notificaciones de nuevos mensajes)
* Android 7 Nougat y antes: habilite *Usa el servicio de segundo plano para sincronizar mensajes*, pero asegúrese de leer el comentario debajo de la configuración
You can switch to periodically synchronization of messages in the receive settings to remove the notification, but be aware that this might use more battery power. See [here](#user-content-faq39) for more details about battery usage.
Android 8 Oreo might also show a status bar notification with the text *Apps are running in the background*. Please see [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/7vw7l4/psa_turn_off_background_apps_notification/) about how you can disable this notification.
Some people suggested to use [Firebase Cloud Messaging](https://firebase.google.com/docs/cloud-messaging/) (FCM) instead of an Android service with a status bar notification, but this would require email providers to send FCM messages or a central server where all messages are collected sending FCM messages. The first is not going to happen and the last would have significant privacy implications.
This can be caused by using an incorrect host name, so first double check the host name in the advanced identity/account settings (tap Manual setup and more options). Please see the documentation of the email provider about the right host name.
You should try to fix this by contacting your provider or by getting a valid security certificate because invalid security certificates are insecure and allow [man-in-the-middle attacks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man-in-the-middle_attack). If money is an obstacle, you can get free security certificates from [Let’s Encrypt](https://letsencrypt.org).
Note that older Android versions might not recognize newer certification authorities like Let’s Encrypt causing connections to be considered insecure, see also [here](https://developer.android.com/training/articles/security-ssl).
*... java.security.cert.CertPathValidatorException: Trust anchor for certification path not found ...* means that the default Android trust manager was not able to verify the server certificate chain.
Your username and password and all messages will be sent and received unencrypted, which is **very insecure** because a [man-in-the-middle attack](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man-in-the-middle_attack) is very simple on an unencrypted connection.
If you still want to use an invalid security certificate, an empty password or a plain text connection you'll need to enable insecure connections in the account and/or identity settings. STARTTLS should be selected for plain text connections. If you enable insecure connections, you should connect via private, trusted networks only and never via public networks, like offered in hotels, airports, etc.
* *Bandeja de entrada unificada*: para desactivar la bandeja de entrada unificada y para listar las carpetas seleccionadas para la bandeja de entrada unificada en su lugar
* *Mostrar detalles de dirección por defecto*: para expandir la sección de direcciones por defecto
* *Mostrar automáticamente el mensaje original para los contactos conocidos*: para mostrar automáticamente los mensajes originales para los contactos en su dispositivo, por favor lea [estas Preguntas Frecuentes](#user-content-faq35)
* *Mostrar automáticamente el mensaje original para los contactos conocidos*: para mostrar automáticamente los mensajes originales para los contactos en su dispositivo, por favor lea [estas Preguntas Frecuentes](#user-content-faq35)
Note that messages can be previewed only when the message text was downloaded. Larger message texts are not downloaded by default on metered (generally mobile) networks. You can change this in the connection settings.
If you use the Play store or GitHub version of FairEmail, you can use the quick setup wizard to easily setup a Gmail account and identity. The Gmail quick setup wizard is not available for third party builds, like the F-Droid build because Google approved the use of OAuth for official builds only.
If you don't want to use an on-device Gmail account, you can either enable access for "less secure apps" and use your account password (not advised) or enable two factor authentication and use an app specific password. To use a password you'll need to set up an account and identity via the manual setup instead of via the quick setup wizard.
This Google security check is triggered more often with *less secure apps* enabled, less with an app password, and hardly when using an on-device account (OAuth).
**Important**: Gsuite accounts authorized with a username/password will stop working [in the near future](https://gsuiteupdates.googleblog.com/2019/12/less-secure-apps-oauth-google-username-password-incorrect.html).
See [here](https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/6010255) about how to enable "less secure apps" or go [directy to the setting](https://www.google.com/settings/security/lesssecureapps).
If you use this method, you should use a [strong password](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Password_strength) for your Gmail account, which is a good idea anyway. Note that using the [standard](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3501) IMAP protocol in itself is not less secure.
When "less secure apps" is not enabled, you'll get the error *Authentication failed - invalid credentials* for accounts (IMAP) and *Username and Password not accepted* for identities (SMTP).
You might get the alert "*Please log in via your web browser*". This happens when Google considers the network that connects you to the internet (this could be a VPN) to be unsafe. This can be prevented by using the Gmail quick setup wizard or an app specific password.
See [here](https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7126229) for Google's instructions and [here](https://support.google.com/mail/accounts/answer/78754) for troubleshooting.
Sent messages are normally moved from the outbox to the sent folder as soon as your provider adds sent messages to the sent folder. This requires a sent folder to be selected in the account settings and the sent folder to be set to synchronizing.
Some providers do not keep track of sent messages or the used SMTP server might not be related to the provider. In these cases FairEmail, will automatically add sent messages to the sent folder on synchronizing the sent folder, which will happen after a message have been sent. Note that this will result in extra internet traffic.
~~If this doesn't happen, your provider might not keep track of sent messages or you might be using an SMTP server not related to the provider.~~ ~~In these cases you can enable the advanced identity setting *Store sent messages* to let FairEmail add sent messages to the sent folder right after sending a message.~~~~Note that enabling this setting might result in duplicate messages if your provider adds sent messages to the sent folder too.~~~~Also beware that enabling this setting will result in extra data usage, especially when when sending messages with large attachments.~~
~~If sent messages in the outbox are not found in the sent folder on a full synchronize, they will be moved from the outbox to the sent folder too.~~ ~~A full synchronize happens when reconnecting to the server or when synchronizing periodically or manually.~~~~You'll likely want to enable the advanced setting *Store sent messages* instead to move messages to the sent folder sooner.~~
The Microsoft Exchange Web Services protocol [is being phased out](https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Exchange-Team-Blog/Upcoming-changes-to-Exchange-Web-Services-EWS-API-for-Office-365/ba-p/608055). So, it makes little sense to add this protocol anymore.
You can use a Microsoft Exchange account if it is accessible via IMAP, which is mostly the case. See [here](https://support.office.com/en-us/article/what-is-a-microsoft-exchange-account-47f000aa-c2bf-48ac-9bc2-83e5c6036793) for more information.
Note that the desciption of FairEmail starts with the remark that non-standard protocols, like Microsoft Exchange Web Services and Microsoft ActiveSync are not supported.
Please see [here](https://support.office.com/en-us/article/pop-imap-and-smtp-settings-for-outlook-com-d088b986-291d-42b8-9564-9c414e2aa040) for the Microsoft documentation about configuring an email client. There is also a section about common connection errors and solutions.
Some older Exchange server versions have a bug causing empty message and corrupt attachments. Please see [this FAQ](#user-content-faq110) for a workaround.
Some providers allow you to have multiple aliases. You can configure these by setting the email address field of an additional identity to the alias address and setting the user name field to your main email address.
Alternatively, you can enable *Allow editing sender address* in the advanced settings of an existing identity to edit the username when composing a new message, if your provider allows this.
~~The error message *UIDPLUS not supported* means that your email provider does not provide the IMAP [UIDPLUS extension](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4315). This IMAP extension is required to implement two way synchronization, which is not an optional feature. So, unless your provider can enable this extension, you cannot use FairEmail for this provider.~~
~~Besides that any decent email provider supports [IMAP](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Message_Access_Protocol) these days,~~ ~~using [POP](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_Office_Protocol) will result in unnecessary extra battery usage and delayed new message notifications.~~~~Moreover, POP is unsuitable for two way synchronization and more often than not people read and write messages on different devices these days.~~
~~Basically, POP supports only downloading and deleting messages from the inbox.~~ ~~So, common operations like setting message attributes (read, starred, answered, etc), adding (backing up) and moving messages is not possible.~~
~~For example [Gmail can import messages](https://support.google.com/mail/answer/21289) from another POP account,~~ ~~which can be used as a workaround for when your provider doesn't support IMAP.~~
Communication with email servers is always encrypted, unless you explicitly turned this off. This question is about optional end-to-end encryption with PGP or S/MIME. The sender and recipient should first agree on this and exchange signed messages to transfer their public key to be able to send encrypted messages.
To sign/encrypt a message, just select the appropriate method in the send dialog. You can always open the send dialog using the three-dots overflow menu in case you selected *Don't show again* before.
The first time you send a signed/encrypted message you might be asked for a sign key. FairEmail will automatically store the selected sign key in the used identity for the next time. If you need to reset the sign key, just save the identity or long press the identity in the list of identities and select *Reset sign key*. The selected sign key is visible in the list of identities. If need to select a key on a case by case basis, you can create multiple identities for the same account with the same email address.
In the encryption settings you can select the default encryption method (PGP or S/MIME), enable *Sign by default*, *Encrypt by default* and *Automatically decrypt messages*, but be aware that automatic decryption is not possible if user interaction is required, like selecting a key or reading a security token.
The to be encrypted message text/attachments and the decrypted message text/attachments are stored locally only and will never be added to the remote server. If you want to undo decryption, you can use the *resync* menu item in the three-dots menu of the message action bar.
You'll need to install and configure [OpenKeychain](https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.sufficientlysecure.keychain/) first. FairEmail was tested with OpenKeychain version 5.4. Later versions will most likely be compatible, but earlier versions might not be.
**Important**: the OpenKeychain app is known to (silently) crash when the calling app (FairEmail) is not authorized yet and is getting an existing public key. You can workaround this by trying to send a signed/encrypted message to a sender with an unknown public key.
**Important**: if the OpenKeychain app cannot find a key (anymore), you might need to reset a previously selected key. This can be done by long pressing an identity in the list of identities (Settings, tap Manual setup and more options, tap Identities).
**Important**: to let apps like FairEmail reliably connect to the OpenKeychain service to encrypt/decrypt messages, it might be necessary to disable battery optimizations for the OpenKeychain app.
**Important**: on some Android versions / devices it is necessary to enable *Show popups while running in background* in the additional permissions of the Android app settings of the OpenKeychain app. Without this permission the draft will be saved, but the OpenKeychain popup to confirm/select might not appear.
FairEmail will send the [Autocrypt](https://autocrypt.org/) header for use by other email clients, but only for signed and encrypted messages because too many email servers have problems with the often long Autocrypt header. Note that the most secure way to start an encrypted email exchange is by sending signed messages first. Received Autocrypt headers will be sent to the OpenKeychain app for storage on verifying a signature or decrypting a message.
Although this shouldn't be necessary for most email clients, you can attach your public key to a message and if you use *.key* as extension, the mime type will correctly be *application/pgp-keys*.
Inline encrypted PGP in received messages is supported, but inline PGP signatures and inline PGP in outgoing messages is not supported, see [here](https://josefsson.org/inline-openpgp-considered-harmful.html) about why not.
* *Sin clave*: no hay ninguna clave PGP disponible para una de las direcciones de correo electrónico listadas
* *Falta la clave para el cifrado*: probablemente hay una clave seleccionada en FairEmail que ya no existe en la aplicación OpenKeychain. Restablecer la clave (ver arriba) probablemente solucione este problema.
Private keys are stored by Android and can be imported via the Android advanced security settings. There is a shortcut (button) for this in the encryption settings. Android will ask you to set a PIN, pattern, or password if you didn't before. If you have a Nokia device with Android 9, please [read this first](https://nokiamob.net/2019/08/10/a-bug-prevents-nokia-1-owners-from-unlocking-their-screen-even-with-right-pin-pattern/).
Note that certificates can contains multiple keys for multiple purposes, for example for authentication, encryption and signing. Android only imports the first key, so to import all the keys, the certificate must first be split. This is not very trivial and you are advised to ask the certificate supplier for support.
Note that S/MIMEsigning with other algorithms than RSA is supported, but be aware that other email clients might not support this. S/MIME encryption is possible with symmetric algorithms only, which means in practice using RSA.
The default encryption method is PGP, but the last used encryption method will be remembered for the selected identity for the next time. You might need to enable the send options in the three dots menu again to be able to select the encryption method.
To allow different private keys for the same email address, FairEmail will always let you select a key when there are multiple identities with the same email address for the same account.
Public keys are stored by FairEmail and can be imported when verifying a signature for the first time or via the encryption settings (PEM or DER format).
* *No se ha encontrado ningún certificado que coincida con targetContraints*: esto seguramente significa que está usando una versión antigua de FairEmail
* *incapaz de encontrar una ruta de certificación válida para el objetivo solicitado*: básicamente esto significa que uno o más certificados intermedios o raíz no fueron encontrados
* *La clave privada no coincide con ninguna clave de cifrado*: la clave seleccionada no puede utilizarse para descifrar el mensaje, probablemente porque es la clave incorrecta
* *No hay clave privada*: no se ha seleccionado ningún certificado o no hay ningún certificado disponible en el almacén de claves Android
In case the certificate chain is incorrect, you can tap on the little info button to show the all certificates. After the certificate details the issuer or "selfSign" is shown. A certificate is self signed when the subject and the issuer are the same. Certificates from a certificate authority (CA) are marked with "[keyCertSign](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5280#section-4.2.1.3)". Certificates found in the Android key store are marked with "Android".
Note that a certificate chain will always be invalid when no anchor certificate can be found in the Android key store, which is fundamental to S/MIME certificate validation.
If you are looking for a free (test) S/MIME certificate, see [here](http://kb.mozillazine.org/Getting_an_SMIME_certificate) for the options. Please be sure to [read this first](https://davidroessli.com/logs/2019/09/free-smime-certificates-in-2019/#update20191219) if you want to request an S/MIME Actalis certificate. If you are looking for a cheap S/MIME certificate, I had a good experience with [Certum](https://www.certum.eu/en/smime-certificates/).
You can start searching for messages on sender (from), recipient (to, cc, bcc), subject, keywords or message text by using the magnify glass in the action bar of a folder. You can also search from any app by selecting *Search email* in the copy/paste popup menu.
Searching in the unified inbox will search in all folders of all accounts, searching in the folder list will search in the associated account only and searching in a folder will search in that folder only.
Messages will be searched for on the device first. There will be an action button with a search again icon at the bottom to continue searching on the server. You can select in which folder to continue the search.
The IMAP protocol doesn't support searching in more than one folder at the same time. Searching on the server is an expensive operation, therefore it is not possible to select multiple folders.
Searching local messages is case insensitive and on partial text. The message text of local messages will not be searched if the message text was not downloaded yet. Searching on the server might be case sensitive or case insensitive and might be on partial text or whole words, depending on the provider.
Some servers cannot handle searching in the message text when there are a large number of messages. For this case there is an option to disable searching in the message text.
It is possible to use Gmail search operators by prefixing a search command with *raw:*. If you configured just one Gmail account, you can start a raw search directly on the server by searching from the unified inbox. If you configured multiple Gmail accounts, you'll first need to navigate to the folder list or the archive (all messages) folder of the Gmail account you want to search in. Please [see here](https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7190) for the possible search operators. For example:
* [sqlite](https://www.sqlite.org/), el motor de base de datos de Android tiene un límite de tamaño de registro, evitando que los mensajes de texto se almacenen en la base de datos
* Las aplicaciones Android tienen memoria limitada para trabajar, incluso si el dispositivo tiene suficiente memoria disponible
This means that searching for a message text requires that files containing the message texts need to be opened one by one to check if the searched text is contained in the file, which is a relatively expensive process.
In the *miscellaneous settings* you can enable *Build search index* to significantly increase the speed of searching on the device, but be aware that this will increase battery and storage space usage. The search index is based on words, so searching for partial text is not possible. Searching using the search index is by default AND, so searching for *apple orange* will search for apple AND orange. Words separated by commas result in searching for OR, so for example *apple, orange* will search for apple OR orange. Both can be combined, so searching for *apple, orange banana* will search for apple OR (orange AND banana). Using the search index is a pro feature.
Search expressions can be used for searching on the device via the search index and for searching on the email server, but not for searching on the device without search index for performance reasons.
To use an Outlook, Live or Hotmail account with two factor authentication enabled, you need to create an app password. See [here](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12409/microsoft-account-app-passwords-two-step-verification) for the details.
See [here](https://support.office.com/en-us/article/pop-imap-and-smtp-settings-for-outlook-com-d088b986-291d-42b8-9564-9c414e2aa040) for Microsoft's instructions.
The message header and message body are fetched separately from the server. The message text of larger messages is not being pre-fetched on metered connections and will be fetched on demand on expanding a message. The message text will keep loading if there is no connection to the account, see also the next question, or if there other operations, like synchronizing messages, are being executed.
You can check the account and folder list for the account and folder state (see the legend for the meaning of the icons) and the operation list accessible via the main navigation menu for pending operations (see [this FAQ](#user-content-faq3) for the meaning of the operations).
If FairEmail is holding off because of prior connectivity issues, please see [this FAQ](#user-content-faq123), you can force synchronization via the three dots menu.
So, check your account and folder settings and check if the accounts/folders are connected (see the legend in the navigation menu for the meaning of the icons).
Some Android versions stop apps and services too aggressively. See [this dedicated website](https://dontkillmyapp.com/) and [this Android issue](https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/122098785) for more information.
In case of successive connection errors, FairEmail will hold off increasingly longer to not drain the battery of your device. This is described in [this FAQ](#user-content-faq123).
Also note that most free apps will appear not to be sustainable in the end, whereas FairEmail is properly maintained and supported, and that free apps may have a catch, like sending privacy sensitive information to the internet.
I have been working on FairEmail almost every day for more than two years, so I think the price is more than reasonable. For this reason there won't be discounts either.
If a purchased pro feature doesn't work as intended and this isn't caused by a problem in the free features and I cannot fix the problem in a timely manner, you can get a refund. In all other cases there is no refund possible. In no circumstances there is a refund possible for any problem related to the free features, since there wasn't paid anything for them and because they can be evaluated without any limitation. I take my responsibility as seller to deliver what has been promised and I expect that you take responsibility for informing yourself of what you are buying.
Android 8 Oreo and later: please see [here](https://developer.android.com/training/notify-user/channels) about how to configure notification channels. You can use the button *Default channel* in the notification settings of the app to directly go to the right Android notification channel settings.
Sometimes it is necessary to disable the setting *Show message preview in notifications* or to enable the settings *Show notifications with a preview text only* to workaround bugs in Android. This might apply to notification sounds and vibrations too.
FairEmail will automatically try to connect again after a delay. This delay will be doubled after each failed attempt to prevent draining the battery and to prevent from being locked out permanently.
The error *... Authentication failed ...* or *... AUTHENTICATE failed ...* likely means that your username or password was incorrect. Some providers expect as username just *username* and others your full email address *username@example.com*. When copying/pasting to enter a username or password, invisible characters might be copied, which could cause this problem as well. Some password managers are known to do this incorrectly too. The username might be case sensitive, so try lowercase characters only. The password is almost always case sensitive. Some providers require using an app password instead of the account password, so please check the documentation of the provider. Sometimes it is necessary to enable external access (IMAP/SMTP) on the website of the provider first. Other possible causes are that the account is blocked or that logging in has been administratively restricted in some way, for example by allowing to login from certain networks / IP addresses only.
The error *... Too many bad auth attempts ...* likely means that you are using a Yahoo account password instead of an app password. Please see [this FAQ](#user-content-faq88) about how to set up a Yahoo account.
The errors *... invalid greeting ...*, *... requires valid address ...* and *... Parameter to HELO does not conform to RFC syntax ...* can likely be solved by changing the advanced identity setting *Use local IP address instead of host name*.
The error *... Couldn't connect to host ...* means that there was no response from the email server within a reasonable time (20 seconds by default). Mostly this indicates internet connectivity issues, possibly caused by a VPN or by a firewall app. You can try to increase the connection timeout in the connection settings of FairEmail, for when the email server is really slow.
The error *... Connection refused ...* means that the email server or something between the email server and the app, like a firewall, actively refused the connection.
The error *... Network unreachable ...* means that the email server was not reachable via the current internet connection, for example because internet traffic is restricted to local traffic only.
The error *... Host is unresolved ...*, *... Unable to resolve host ...* or *... No address associated with hostname ...* means that the address of the email server could not be resolved into an IP address. This might be caused by a VPN, ad blocking or an unreachable or not properly working (local) [DNS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System) server.
The error *... Software caused connection abort ...* means that the email server or something between FairEmail and the email server actively terminated an existing connection. This can for example happen when connectivity was abruptly lost. A typical example is turning on flight mode.
The errors *... BYE Logging out ...*, *... Connection reset ...* mean that the email server or something between the email server and the app, for example a router or a firewall (app), actively terminated an existing connection.
The error *... Connection closed by peer ...* might be caused by a not updated Exchange server, see [here](https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/pki/2010/09/30/sha2-and-windows/) for more information.
The errors *... Read error ...*, *... Write error ...*, *... Read timed out ...*, *... Broken pipe ...* mean that the email server is not responding anymore or that the internet connection is bad.
The error *... Connection dropped by server? ...* means that the email server unexpectedly terminated the connection. This sometimes happen when there were too many connections in a too short time or when a wrong password was used for too many times. In this case, please make sure your password is correct and disable receiving in the receive settings for about 30 minutes and try again. If needed, see [this FAQ](#user-content-faq23) about how you can reduce the number of connections.
The warning *... Unsupported encoding ...* means that the character set of the message is unknown or not supported. FairEmail will assume ISO-8859-1 (Latin1), which will in most cases result in showing the message correctly.
Please [see here](#user-content-faq4) for the errors *... Untrusted ... not in certificate ...*, *... Invalid security certificate (Can't verify identity of server) ...* or *... Trust anchor for certification path not found ...*
Many public Wi-Fi networks block outgoing email to prevent spam. Sometimes you can workaround this by using another SMTP port. See the documentation of the provider for the usable port numbers.
If you are using a [VPN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_private_network), the VPN provider might block the connection because it is too aggressively trying to prevent spam. Note that [Google Fi](https://fi.google.com/) is using a VPN too.
SMTP servers can reject messages for [a variety of reasons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_SMTP_server_return_codes). Too large messages and triggering the spam filter of an email server are the most common reasons.
* El límite de tamaño del archivo adjunto para Gmail [es de 25 MB](https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6584)
* El límite de tamaño de archivo adjunto para Outlook y Office 365 [es de 20 MB](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2813269/attachment-size-exceeds-the-allowable-limit-error-when-you-add-a-large)
* El límite de tamaño del archivo adjunto para Yahoo [es de 25 MB](https://help.yahoo.com/kb/SLN5673.html)
* *554 5.7.1 Servicio no disponible; Host cliente xxxx.xx.xx.xxx bloqueado*, por favor [vea aquí](https://docs.gandi.net/en/gandimail/faq/error_types/554_5_7_1_service_unavailable.html)
* *501 Error de sintaxis - línea demasiado larga* es a menudo causada por el uso de un encabezado Autocrypt largo
* *503 5.5.0 Destinatario ya especificado* significa principalmente que una dirección está siendo utilizada como dirección A y CC
* *554 5.7.1 ... no se permite transmitir* significa que el servidor de correo electrónico no reconoce el nombre de usuario/dirección de correo electrónico. Por favor, compruebe el nombre de host y el nombre de usuario/dirección de correo electrónico en la configuración de identidad.
* *550 Spam message rejected because IP is listed by ...* means that the email server rejected to send a message from the current (public) network address because it was misused to send spam by (hopefully) somebody else before. Please try to enable flight mode for 10 minutes to acquire a new network address.
* *550 We're sorry, but we can't send your email. Either the subject matter, a link, or an attachment potentially contains spam, or phishing or malware.* means that the email provider considers an outgong message as harmful.
* *571 5.7.1 Message contains spam or virus or sender is blocked ...* means that the email server considered an outgoing message as spam. This probably means that the spam filters of the email server are too strict. You'll need to contact the email provider for support on this.
* Verifique su dirección de correo electrónico [aquí](https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#settings/accounts) (necesitará utilizar un navegador de escritorio para esto)
The authorization of Gmail accounts setup with the quick wizard needs to be periodically refreshed via the [Android account manager](https://developer.android.com/reference/android/accounts/AccountManager). This requires contact/account permissions and internet connectivity.
The error *... Authentication failed ... network error ...* means that the Android account manager was not able to refresh the authorization of a Gmail account due to problems with the internet connection
The error *... Authentication failed ... Invalid credentials ...* could be caused by changing the account password or by having revoked the required account/contacts permissions. In case the account password was changed, you'll need to authenticate the Google account in the Android account settings again. In case the permissions were revoked, you can start the Gmail quick setup wizard to grant the required permissions again (you don't need to setup the account again).
The eror *... ServiceDisabled ...* might be caused by enrolling in the [Advanced Protection Program](https://landing.google.com/advancedprotection/): "*To read your email, you can (must) use Gmail - You won’t be able to use your Google Account with some (all) apps & services that require access to sensitive data like your emails*", see [here](https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/7519408?hl=en&ref_topic=9264881).
An easy way to configure periodically checking for messages for all folders except the inbox is to use *Apply to all ...* in the three-dots menu of the folder list and to tick the bottom two advanced checkboxes.
The maximum number of simultaneous folder connections for Gmail is 15, so you can synchronize at most 15 folders simultaneously on *all* your devices at the same time. For this reason Gmail *user* folders are set to poll by default instead of synchronize always. When needed or desired, you can change this by long pressing a folder in the folder list and selecting *Edit properties*. See [here](https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7126229) for details.
When using a Dovecot server, you might want to change the setting [mail_max_userip_connections](https://doc.dovecot.org/settings/dovecot_core_settings/#mail-max-userip-connections).
Note that it will take the email server a while to discover broken connections, for example due to going out of range of a network, which means that effectively only half of the folder connections are available. For Gmail this would be just 7 connections.
Browse messages on the server will fetch messages from the email server in real time when you reach the end of the list of synchronized messages, even when the folder is set to not synchronize. You can disable this feature in the advanced account settings.
When a menu item to select/open/save a file is disabled (dimmed) or when you get the message *Storage access framework not available*, the [storage access framework](https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/providers/document-provider), a standard Android component, is probably not present. This might be because your custom ROM does not include it or because it was actively removed (debloated).
FairEmail does not request storage permissions, so this framework is required to select files and folders. No app, except maybe file managers, targeting Android 4.4 KitKat or later should ask for storage permissions because it would allow access to *all* files.
The storage access framework is provided by the package *com.android.documentsui*, which is visible as *Files* app on some Android versions (notable OxygenOS).
If you would like your name or alias to be included in the list of contributors in *About* the app, please [contact me](https://contact.faircode.eu/?product=fairemailsupport).
Note that downloading external images from a remote server can be used to record you did see a message, which you likely don't want if the message is spam or malicious.
On Android 8.0 Oreo and later you can manage the properties of the individual notification channels, for example to set a specific notification sound or to show notifications on the lock screen.
See [here](https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/notifiers/notifications#ManageChannels) for details on notification channels. In short: tap on the notification channel name to access the channel settings.
Just long press a folder, select *Edit properties*, and enable either *Show in unified inbox* or *Notify new messages* (available on Android 7 Nougat and later only) and tap *Save*.
Quick settings require Android 7.0 Nougat or later. The usage of settings tiles is explained [here](https://support.google.com/android/answer/9083864).
Identities are as expected matched by account. For incoming messages the *to*, *cc*, *bcc*, *from* and *(X-)delivered/envelope/original-to* addresses will be checked (in this order) and for outgoing messages (drafts, outbox and sent) only the *from* addresses will be checked. Equal addresses have precedence over partially matching addresses, except for *delivered-to* addresses.
Matching will be done only once on receiving a message, so changing the configuration will not change existing messages. You could clear local messages by long pressing a folder in the folder list and synchronize the messages again though.
It is possible to configure a [regex](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expression) in the identity settings to match **the username** of an email address (the part before the @ sign).
If you like to match the special purpose email addresses abc@example.com and xyx@example.com and like to have a fallback email address main@example.com as well, you could do something like this:
Matched identities can be used to color code messages. The identity color takes precedence over the folder and account color. Setting identity colors is a pro feature.
Viewing remotely stored images (see also [this FAQ](#user-content-faq27)) and opening links might not only tell the sender that you have seen the message, but will also leak your IP address. See also this question: [Why email's link is more dangerous than web search's link?](https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/241139/why-emails-link-is-more-dangerous-than-web-searchs-link).
Opening attachments or viewing an original message might load remote content and execute scripts, that might not only cause privacy sensitive information to leak, but can also be a security risk.
Note that reformatted messages are often better readable than original messages because the margins are removed, and font colors and sizes are standardized.
The Gmail app shows images by default by downloading the images through a Google proxy server. Since the images are downloaded from the source server [in real-time](https://blog.filippo.io/how-the-new-gmail-image-proxy-works-and-what-this-means-for-you/), this is even less secure because Google is involved too without providing much benefit.
All supported Android versions [encrypt all user data](https://source.android.com/security/encryption), so all data, including usernames, passwords, messages, etc, is stored encrypted.
If the device is secured with a PIN, pattern or password, you can make the account and identity passwords visible. If this is a problem because you are sharing the device with other people, consider to use [user profiles](https://www.howtogeek.com/333484/how-to-set-up-multiple-user-profiles-on-android/).
Recent Android versions by default report *app usage* as a percentage in the Android battery settings screen. **Confusingly, *app usage* is not the same as *battery usage* and is not even directly related to battery usage!** The app usage (while in use) will be very high because FairEmail is using a foreground service which is considered as constant app usage by Android. However, this doesn't mean that FairEmail is constantly using battery power. The real battery usage can be seen by navigating to this screen:
As a rule of thumb the battery usage should be below or in any case not be much higher than *Mobile network standby*. If this isn't the case, please turn on *Auto optimize* in the receive settings. If this doesn't help, please [ask for support](https://contact.faircode.eu/?product=fairemailsupport).
If you are comparing the battery usage of FairEmail with another email client, please make sure the other email client is setup similarly. For example comparing always sync (push messages) and (infrequent) periodic checking for new messages is not a fair comparison.
Reconnecting to an email server will use extra battery power, so an unstable internet connection will result in extra battery usage. Also, some email servers prematurely terminate idle connections, while [the standard](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2177) says that an idle connection should be kept open for 29 minutes. In these cases you might want to synchronize periodically, for example each hour, instead of continuously. Note that polling frequently (more than every 30-60 minutes) will likely use more battery power than synchronizing always because connecting to the server and comparing the local and remote messages are expensive operations.
[On some devices](https://dontkillmyapp.com/) it is necessary to *disable* battery optimizations (setup step 3) to keep connections to email servers open. In fact, leaving battery optimizations enabled can result in extra battery usage for all devices, even though this sounds contradictory!
Most of the battery usage, not considering viewing messages, is due to synchronization (receiving and sending) of messages. So, to reduce the battery usage, set the number of days to synchronize message for to a lower value, especially if there are a lot of recent messages in a folder. Long press a folder name in the folders list and select *Edit properties* to access this setting.
Note that you can set the number of days to *keep* messages for to a higher number than to *synchronize* messages for. You could for example initially synchronize messages for a large number of days and after this has been completed reduce the number of days to synchronize messages for, but leave the number of days to keep messages for. After decreasing the number of days to keep messages for, you might want to run the cleanup in the miscellaneous settings to remove old files.
In the receive settings you can enable to always synchronize starred messages, which will allow you to keep older messages around while synchronizing messages for a limited number of days.
Disabling the folder option *Automatically download message texts and attachments* will result in less network traffic and thus less battery usage. You could disable this option for example for the sent folder and the archive.
Synchronizing messages at night is mostly not useful, so you can save on battery usage by not synchronizing at night. In the settings you can select a schedule for message synchronization (this is a pro feature).
FairEmail will by default synchronize the folder list on each connection. Since folders are mostly not created, renamed and deleted very often, you can save some network and battery usage by disabling this in the receive settings.
FairEmail will by default check if old messages were deleted from the server on each connection. If you don't mind that old messages that were delete from the server are still visible in FairEmail, you can save some network and battery usage by disabling this in the receive settings.
Some providers don't follow the IMAP standard and don't keep connections open long enough, forcing FairEmail to reconnect often, causing extra battery usage. You can inspect the *Log* via the main navigation menu to check if there are frequent reconnects (connection closed/reset, read/write error/timeout, etc). You can workaround this by lowering the keep-alive interval in the advanced account settings to for example 9 or 15 minutes. Note that battery optimizations need to be disabled in setup step 3 to reliably keep connections alive.
Some providers send every two minutes something like '*Still here*' resulting in network traffic and your device to wake up and causing unnecessary extra battery usage. You can inspect the *Log* via the main navigation menu to check if your provider is doing this. If your provider is using [Dovecot](https://www.dovecot.org/) as IMAP server, you could ask your provider to change the [imap_idle_notify_interval](https://wiki.dovecot.org/Timeouts) setting to a higher value or better yet, to disable this. If your provider is not able or willing to change/disable this, you should consider to switch to periodically instead of continuous synchronization. You can change this in the receive settings.
If you got the message *This provider does not support push messages* while configuring an account, consider switching to a modern provider which supports push messages (IMAP IDLE) to reduce battery usage.
If your device has an [AMOLED](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMOLED) screen, you can save battery usage while viewing messages by switching to the black theme.
If auto optimize in the receive settings is enabled, an account will automatically be switched to periodically checking for new messages when the email server:
In addition, the trash and spam folders will be automatically set to checking for new messages after three successive [too many simultaneous connections](#user-content-faq23) errors.
If the connection to the email server is lost, FairEmail will always synchronize the messages again to make sure no messages were missed. If the connection is unstable, this can result in extra data usage. In this case, it is a good idea to decrease the number of days to synchronize messages for to a minimum (see the previous question) or to switch to periodically synchronizing of messages (receive settings).
By default FairEmail does not download message texts and attachments larger than 256 KiB when there is a metered (mobile or paid Wi-Fi) internet connection. You can change this in the connection settings.
The error '*Handshake failed ... WRONG_VERSION_NUMBER ...*' might mean that you are trying to connect to an IMAP or SMTP server without an encrypted connection, typically using port 143 (IMAP) and port 25 (SMTP), or that a wrong protocol (SSL/TLS or STARTTLS) is being used.
If your provider doesn't support encrypted connections, you should ask to make this possible. If this isn't an option, you could enable *Allow insecure connections* both in the advanced settings AND the account/identity settings.
The error '*Handshake failed ... SSLV3_ALERT_ILLEGAL_PARAMETER ...*' is either caused by a bug in the SSL protocol implementation or by a too short DH key on the email server and can unfortunately not be fixed by FairEmail.
The error '*Handshake failed ... HANDSHAKE_FAILURE_ON_CLIENT_HELLO ...*' might be caused by the provider still using RC4, which isn't supported since [Android 7](https://developer.android.com/about/versions/nougat/android-7.0-changes.html#tls-ssl) anymore.
The error '*Handshake failed ... UNSUPPORTED_PROTOCOL or TLSV1_ALERT_PROTOCOL_VERSION ...*' might be caused by enabling hardening connections in the connection settings or by Android not supporting older protocols anymore, like SSLv3.
Android 8 Oreo and later [do not support](https://developer.android.com/about/versions/oreo/android-8.0-changes#security-all) SSLv3 anymore. There is no way to workaround lacking RC4 and SSLv3 support because it has completely been removed from Android (which should say something).
You can use [this website](https://ssl-tools.net/mailservers) or [this website](https://www.immuniweb.com/ssl/) to check for SSL/TLS problems of email servers.
The EFF [writes](https://www.eff.org/nl/deeplinks/2018/06/announcing-starttls-everywhere-securing-hop-hop-email-delivery): "*Additionally, even if you configure STARTTLS perfectly and use a valid certificate, there’s still no guarantee your communication will be encrypted.*"
Show original, shows the original message as the sender has sent it, including original fonts, colors, margins, etc. FairEmail does and will not alter this in any way, except for requesting [TEXT_AUTOSIZING](https://developer.android.com/reference/android/webkit/WebSettings.LayoutAlgorithm), which will *attempt* to make small text more readable.
~~Contact photos and identicons are always shown for the sender because this is necessary for conversation threads.~~ ~~Getting contact photos for both the sender and receiver is not really an option because getting contact photo is an expensive operation.~~
You'll get the message *This key is not available. To use it, you must import it as one of your own!* when trying to decrypt a message with a public key. To fix this you'll need to import the private key.
If you see a 'spinner' at the top of the message list, the folder is still being synchronized with the remote server. You can see the progress of the synchronization in the folder list. See the legend about what the icons and numbers mean.
The speed of your device and internet connection and the number of days to synchronize messages for determine how long synchronization will take. Note that you shouldn't set the number of days to synchronize messages for to more than one day in most cases, see also [this FAQ](#user-content-faq39).
You'll get the error message *No primary account or no drafts folder* when trying to compose a message while there is no account set to be the primary account or when there is no drafts folder selected for the primary account. This can happen for example when you start FairEmail to compose a message from another app. FairEmail needs to know where to store the draft, so you'll need to select one account to be the primary account and/or you'll need to select a drafts folder for the primary account.
This can also happen when you try to reply to a message or to forward a message from an account with no drafts folder while there is no primary account or when the primary account does not have a drafts folder.
~~You'll get the error message *No primary account or no archive folder* when searching for messages from another app. FairEmail needs to know where to search, so you'll need to select one account to be the primary account and/or you'll need to select a archive folder for the primary account.~~
You likely selected or sent an attachment or image with an outdated file manager or an outdated app which assumes all apps still have storage permissions. For security and privacy reasons modern apps like FairEmail have no full access to all files anymore. This can result into the error message *An outdated app sent a file path instead of a file stream* if a file name instead of a file stream is being shared with FairEmail because FairEmail cannot randomly open files.
You can fix this by switching to an up-to-date file manager or an app designed for recent Android versions. Alternatively, you can grant FairEmail read access to the storage space on your device in the Android app settings. Note that this workaround [won't work on Android Q](https://developer.android.com/preview/privacy/scoped-storage) anymore.
See also [question 25](#user-content-faq25) and [what Google writes about it](https://developer.android.com/training/secure-file-sharing/share-file#RespondToRequest).
You can synchronize more or even all messages by long pressing a folder (inbox) in the folder list of an account (tap on the account name in the navigation menu) and selecting *Synchronize more* in the popup menu.
Folders are first sorted on account order (by default on account name) and within an account with special, system folders on top, followed by folders set to synchronize. Within each category the folders are sorted on (display) name. You can set the display name by long pressing a folder in the folder list and selecting *Edit properties*.
There is no reliable way to know if an account connection was terminated gracefully or forcefully. Trying to reconnect to an account while the account connection was terminated forcefully too often can result in problems like [too many simultaneous connections](#user-content-faq23) or even the account being blocked. To prevent such problems, FairEmail waits 90 seconds until trying to reconnect again.
The message action bar works on a single message and the bottom action bar works on all the messages in the conversation. Since there is often more than one message in a conversation, this is not possible. Moreover, there are quite some message specific actions, like forwarding.
Moving the message action bar to the bottom of the message is visually not appealing because there is already a conversation action bar at the bottom of the screen.
Note that there are not many, if any, email apps that display a conversation as a list of expandable messages. This has a lot of advantages, but the also causes the need for message specific actions.
You can use multiple select for this. Long press the first message, don't lift your finger and slide down to the last message. Then use the three dot action button to execute the desired action.
Note that if you switch back to the text editor that not all HTML might be rendered as-is because the Android text editor is not able to render all HTML. Similarly, if you use the text editor, the HTML might be altered in unexpected ways.
If you want to use preformatted text, like [ASCII art](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCII_art), you should wrap the text in a *pre* element, like this:
For security reasons the files with the original message texts are not accessible to other apps, so this is not possible. In theory the [Storage Access Framework](https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/providers/document-provider) could be used to share these files, but even Google's Chrome cannot handle this.
* Did you know that starred messages can be synchronized/kept always? (this can be enabled in the receive settings)
* Did you know that you can long press the 'write message' icon to go to the drafts folder?
* Did you know there is an advanced option to mark messages read when they are moved? (archiving and trashing is also moving)
* Did you know that you can select text (or an email address) in any app on recent Android versions and let FairEmail search for it?
* Did you know that FairEmail has a tablet mode? Rotate your device in landscape mode and conversation threads will be opened in a second column if there is enough screen space.
* Did you know that you can long press a reply template to create a draft message from the template?
* Did you know that you can long press, hold and swipe to select a range of messages?
* Did you know that you can retry sending messages by using pull-down-to-refresh in the outbox?
* Did you know that you can swipe a conversation left or right to go to the next or previous conversation?
* Did you know that you can tap on an image to see where it will be downloaded from?
* Did you know that you can long press the folder icon in the action bar to select an account?
* Did you know that you can long press the star icon in a conversation thread to set a colored star?
* Did you know that you can open the navigation drawer by swiping from the left, even when viewing a conversation?
* Did you know that you can long press the people's icon to show/hide the CC/BCC fields and remember the visibility state for the next time?
* Did you know that you can insert the email addresses of an Android contact group via the three dots overflow menu?
* Did you know that if you select text and hit reply, only the selected text will be quoted?
* Did you know that you can long press the trash icons (both in the message and the bottom action bar) to permanently delete a message or conversation? (version 1.1368+)
Messages shown dimmed (grayed) are locally moved messages for which the move is not confirmed by the server yet. This can happen when there is no connection to the server or the account (yet). These messages will be synchronized after a connection to the server and the account has been made or, if this never happens, will be deleted if they are too old to be synchronized.
SASL authentication methods, besides CRAM-MD5, are not supported because [JavaMail for Android](https://javaee.github.io/javamail/Android) does not support SASL authentication.
[Server Name Indication](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server_Name_Indication) is supported by [all supported Android versions](https://developer.android.com/training/articles/security-ssl).
Large inline or attached [PNG](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_Network_Graphics) and [JPEG](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JPEG) images will automatically be resized for displaying on screens. This is because email messages are limited in size, depending on the provider mostly between 10 and 50 MB. Images will by default be resized to a maximum width and height of about 1440 pixels and saved with a compression ratio of 90 %. Images are scaled down using whole number factors to reduce memory usage and to retain image quality. Automatically resizing of inline and/or attached images and the maximum target image size can be configured in the send settings.
If you want to resize images on a case-by-case basis, you can use [Send Reduced](https://f-droid.org/en/packages/mobi.omegacentauri.SendReduced/) or a similar app.
~~The most natural thing to do when swiping a list entry left or right is to remove the entry from the list.~~ ~~The most natural action in the context of an email app is moving the message out of the folder to another folder.~~~~You can select the folder to move to in the account settings.~~
~~Other actions, like marking messages read and snoozing messages are available via multiple selection.~~ ~~You can long press a message to start multiple selection. See also [this question](#user-content-faq55).~~
~~Swiping left or right to mark a message read or unread is unnatural because the message first goes away and later comes back in a different shape.~~ ~~Note that there is an advanced option to mark messages automatically read on moving,~~~~which is in most cases a perfect replacement for the sequence mark read and move to some folder.~~~~You can also mark messages read from new message notifications.~~
Inline (image) attachments are shown dimmed. [Inline attachments](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2183) are supposed to be downloaded and shown automatically, but since FairEmail doesn't always download attachments automatically, see also [this FAQ](#user-content-faq40), FairEmail shows all attachment types. To distinguish inline and regular attachments, inline attachments are shown dimmed.
The price of the few pro features is too low, lower than the price of most similar apps, and there are [too many fees and taxes](#user-content-faq19), to justify making FairEmail available in the [Google Play Family Library](https://support.google.com/googleone/answer/7007852). Note that Google promotes the Family libray, but lets developers pay for it.
Multiple select one of more conversations (long press to start multiple selecting), tap the three dot button and select *Snooze ...*. Alternatively, in the expanded message view use *Snooze ...* in the message three-dots 'more' menu or the timelapse action in the bottom action bar. Select the time the conversation(s) should snooze and confirm by tapping OK. The conversations will be hidden for the selected time and shown again afterwards. You will receive a new message notification as reminder.
~~Adobe Acrobat reader and Microsoft apps still expects full access to all stored files,~~ ~~while apps should use the [Storage Access Framework](https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/providers/document-provider) since Android KitKat (2013)~~~~to have access to actively shared files only. This is for privacy and security reasons.~~
~~You can workaround this by saving the attachment and opening it from the Adobe Acrobat reader / Microsoft app,~~ ~~but you are advised to install an up-to-date and preferably open source PDF reader / document viewer,~~~~for example one listed [here](https://github.com/offa/android-foss#-document--pdf-viewer).~~
The message list is automatically scrolled up when navigating from a new message notification or after a manual refresh. Always automatically scrolling up on arrival of new messages would interfere with your own scrolling, but if you like you can enable this in the settings.
There is one exception: the message was not downloaded yet and the message is too large to download automatically on a metered (mobile) connection. You can set or disable the maximum message size on the 'connection' settings tab.
New rules will be applied to new messages received in the folder, not to existing messages. You can check the rule and apply the rule to existing messages or, alternatively, long press the rule in the rule list and select *Execute now*.
All the conditions of a rule need to be true for the rule action to be executed. All conditions are optional, but there needs to be at least one condition, to prevent matching all messages. If you want to match all senders or all recipients, you can just use the @ character as condition because all email addresses will contain this character.
Matching is not case sensitive, unless you use [regular expressions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expression). Please see [here](https://developer.android.com/reference/java/util/regex/Pattern) for the documentation of Java regular expressions. You can test a regex [here](https://regexr.com/).
Note that [dot all mode](https://developer.android.com/reference/java/util/regex/Pattern#DOTALL) is enabled to be able to match [unfolded headers](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2822#section-3.2.3).
Rules are applied directly after the message header has been fetched, but before the message text has been downloaded, so it is not possible to apply conditions to the message text. Note that large message texts are downloaded on demand on a metered connection to save on data usage.
If you want to forward a message, consider to use the move action instead. This will be more reliable than forwarding as well because forwarded messages might be considered as spam.
Since message headers are not downloaded and stored by default to save on battery and data usage and to save storage space it is not possible to preview which messages would match a header rule condition.
Moving messages across accounts is safe because the raw, original messages will be downloaded and moved and because the source messages will be deleted only after the target messages have been added
Batch moving messages across accounts is efficient if both the source folder and target folder are set to synchronize, else FairEmail needs to connect to the folder(s) for each message.
Some providers, notably Gmail, list all messages in all folders, except trashed messages, in the archive (all messages) folder too. FairEmail shows all these messages in a non obtrusive way to indicate that these messages are in fact the same message.
Gmail allows one message to have multiple labels, which are presented to FairEmail as folders. This means that messages with multiple labels will be shown multiple times as well.
The folder menu *Clear local messages* removes messages from the device which are present on the server too. It does not delete messages from the server. This can be useful after changing the folder settings to not download the message content (text and attachments), for example to save space.
Depending on the speed of your device (processor speed and maybe even more memory speed) messages might be displayed with a small delay. FairEmail is designed to dynamically handle a large number of messages without running out of memory. This means that messages needs to be read from a database and that this database needs to be watched for changes, both of which might cause small delays.
Some convenience features, like grouping messages to display conversation threads and determining the previous/next message, take a little extra time. Note that there is no *the* next message because in the meantime a new message might have been arrived.
When comparing the speed of FairEmail with similar apps this should be part of the comparison. It is easy to write a similar, faster app which just displays a lineair list of messages while possible using too much memory, but it is not so easy to properly manage resource usage and to offer more advanced features like conversation threading.
FairEmail is based on the state-of-the-art [Android architecture components](https://developer.android.com/topic/libraries/architecture/), so there is little room for performance improvements.
In the receive settings you can enable scheduling and set a time period and the days of the week *when* messages should be *received*. Note that an end time equal to or earlier than the start time is considered to be 24 hours later.
Automation, see below, can be used for more advanced schedules, like for example multiple synchronization periods per day or different synchronization periods for different days.
It is possible to install FairEmail in multiple user profiles, for example a personal and a work profile, and to configure FairEmail differently in each profile, which is another possibility to have different synchronization schedules and to synchronize a different set of accounts.
It is also possible to create [filter rules](#user-content-faq71) with a time condition and to snooze messages until the end time of the time condition. This way it is possible to *snooze* business related messages until the start of the business hours. This also means that the messages will be on your device for when there is (temporarily) no internet connection.
Note that recent Android versions allow overriding DND (Do Not Disturb) per notification channel and per app, which could be used to (not) silence specific (business) notifications. Please [see here](https://support.google.com/android/answer/9069335) for more information.
Normally, FairEmail maintains a connection to the configured email servers whenever possible to receive messages in real-time. If you don't want this, for example to be not disturbed or to save on battery usage, just disable receiving in the receive settings. This will stop the background service which takes care of automatic synchronization and will remove the associated status bar notification.
~~The error message *Unable to load BODYSTRUCTURE* is caused by bugs in the email server,~~ ~~see [here](https://javaee.github.io/javamail/FAQ#imapserverbug) for more details.~~
~~The original message is shown as the sender has sent it, including all colors.~~ ~~Changing the background color would not only make the original view not original anymore, it can also result in unreadable messages.~~
Please see [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_beacon) about what a tracking image exactly is. In short tracking images keep track if you opened a message.
Another use is to generate [shortcuts](#user-content-faq31) on recent Android versions to quickly send a message to frequently contacted people. This is also why the number of times contacted and the last time contacted is being recorded and why you can make a contact a favorite or exclude it from favorites by long pressing it.
The error message *invalid credentials* means either that the user name and/or password is incorrect, for example because the password was changed or expired, or that the account authorization has expired.
If the account authorization has expired, you will have to select the account again. You will likely need to save the associated identity again as well.
The preferred way to set up a Yahoo account is by using the quick setup wizard, which will use OAuth instead of a password and is therefore safer (and easier as well).
By default FairEmail sends each message both as plain text and as HTML formatted text because almost every receiver expects formatted messages these days. If you want/need to send plain text messages only, you can enable this in the advanced identity options. You might want to create a new identity for this if you want/need to select sending plain text messages on a case-by-case basis.
FairEmail will automatically link not linked web links (http and https) and not linked email addresses (mailto) for your convenience. However, texts and links are not easily distinguished, especially not with lots of [top level domains](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_top-level_domains) being words. This is why texts with dots are sometimes incorrectly recognized as links, which is better than not recognizing some links.
Links for the tel, geo, rtsp and xmpp protocols will be recognized too, but links for less usual or less safe protocols like telnet and ftp will not be recognized. The regex to recognize links is already *very* complex and adding more protocols will make it only slower and possibly cause errors.
~~Synchronizing messages is an expensive proces because the local and remote messages need to be compared,~~ ~~so periodically synchronizing messages will not result in saving battery power, more likely the contrary.~~
Spam filtering, verification of the [DKIM](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DomainKeys_Identified_Mail) signature and [SPF](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sender_Policy_Framework) authorization is a task of email servers, not of an email client. Servers generally have more memory and computing power, so they are much better suited to this task than battery-powered devices. Also, you'll want spam filtered for all your email clients, possibly including web email, not just one email client. Moreover, email servers have access to information, like the IP address, etc of the connecting server, which an email client has no access to.
Spam filtering based on message headers might have been feasible, but unfortunately this technique is [patented by Microsoft](https://patents.google.com/patent/US7543076).
Recent versions of FairEmail can filter spam to a certain extend using a message classifier. Please see [this FAQ](#user-content-faq163) for more information about this.
Of course you can report messages as spam with FairEmail, which will move the reported messages to the spam folder and train the spam filter of the provider, which is how it is supposed to work. This can be done automatically with [filter rules](#user-content-faq71) too. Blocking the sender will create a filter rule to automatically move future messages of the same sender into the spam folder.
Note that you should not delete spam messages, also not from the spam folder, because the email server uses the messages in the spam folder to "learn" what spam messages are.
Also, FairEmail can show a small red warning flag when DKIM, SPF or [DMARC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMARC) authentication failed on the receiving server. You can enable/disable [authentication verification](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email_authentication) in the display settings.
FairEmail can show a warning flag too if the domain name of the (reply) email address of the sender does not define an MX record pointing to an email server. This can be enabled in the receive settings. Be aware that this will slow down synchronization of messages significantly.
If legitimate messages are failing authentication, you should notify the sender because this will result in a high risk of messages ending up in the spam folder. Moreover, without proper authentication there is a risk the sender will be impersonated. The sender might use [this tool](https://www.mail-tester.com/) to check authentication and other things.
FairEmail uses services and alarms, provides widgets and listens for the boot completed event to be started on device start, so it is not possible to store the app on external storage media, like an sdcard. See also [here](https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/data/install-location).
Messages, attachments, etc stored on external storage media, like an sdcard, can be accessed by other apps and is therefore not safe. See [here](https://developer.android.com/training/data-storage) for the details.
If you need to save on storage space, you can limit the number of days messages are being synchronized and kept for. You can change these settings by long pressing a folder in the folder list and selecting *Edit properties*.
The red/orange stripe at the left side of the header means that the DKIM, SPF or DMARC authentication failed. See also [this FAQ](#user-content-faq92).
For privacy and security reasons FairEmail does not have permissions to directly access files, instead the Storage Access Framework, available and recommended since Android 4.4 KitKat (released in 2013), is used to select files.
If an app is listed depends on if the app implements a [document provider](https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/providers/document-provider). If the app is not listed, you might need to ask the developer of the app to add support for the Storage Access Framework.
Android Q will make it harder and maybe even impossible to directly access files, see [here](https://developer.android.com/preview/privacy/scoped-storage) and [here](https://www.xda-developers.com/android-q-storage-access-framework-scoped-storage/) for more details.
After revoking contacts permissions Android does not allow FairEmail access to your contacts anymore. However, picking contacts is delegated to and done by Android and not by FairEmail, so this will still be possible without contacts permissions.
A [Rich text](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formatted_text) or [Markdown](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown) editor would not be used by many people on a small mobile device and, more important, Android doesn't support a rich text editor and most rich text editor open source projects are abandoned. See [here](https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=79061829&postcount=4919) for some more details about this.
You can use *Force sync* in the three-dots menu of the unified inbox to let FairEmail synchronize the folder list again and you can long press the folders to enable synchronization.
The dot shows the relative position of the conversation in the message list. The dot will be show orange when the conversation is the first or last in the message list, else it will be blue. The dot is meant as an aid when swiping left/right to go to the previous/next conversation.
Images will automatically be rotated when automatic resizing of images is enabled in the settings (enabled by default). However, automatic rotating depends on the [Exif](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exif) information to be present and to be correct, which is not always the case. Particularly not when taking a photo with a camara app from FairEmail.
Note that only [JPEG](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JPEG) and [PNG](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_Network_Graphics) images can contain Exif information.
FairEmail will check if the country code of the SIM card and the country code of the network are in the [EU roam-like-at-home countries](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_roaming_regulations#Territorial_extent) and assumes no roaming if the country codes are equal and the advanced roam-like-at-home option is enabled.
Please [see here](https://github.com/leolin310148/ShortcutBadger#supported-launchers) for a list of launchers which can show the number of unread messages.
Only *new* unread messages in folders set to show new message notifications will be counted, so messages marked unread again and messages in folders set to not show new message notification will not be counted.
Depending on what you want, the notification settings *Let the number of new messages match the number of notifications* needs to be enabled or disabled.
This feature depends on support of your launcher. FairEmail merely 'broadcasts' the number of unread messages using the ShortcutBadger library. If it doesn't work, this cannot be fixed by changes in FairEmail.
Some launchers display '1' for [the monitoring notification](#user-content-faq2), despite FairEmail explicitly requesting not to show a badge for this notification. This could be caused by a bug in the launcher app or in your Android version. Please double check if the notification dot is disabled for the receive (service) notification channel. You can go to the right notification channel settings via the notification settings of FairEmail. This might not be obvious, but you can tap on the channel name for more settings.
You can set a colored star via the *more* message menu, via multiple selection (started by long pressing a message), by long pressing a star in a conversation or automatically by using [rules](#user-content-faq71).
You need to know that colored stars are not supported by the IMAP protocol and can therefore not be synchronized to an email server. This means that colored stars will not be visible in other email clients and will be lost on downloading messages again. However, the stars (without color) will be synchronized and will be visible in other email clients, when supported.
Some email clients use IMAP keywords for colors. However, not all servers support IMAP keywords and besides that there are no standard keywords for colors.
~~When you delete messages from a folder the messages will be moved to the trash folder, so you have a chance to restore the messages.~~ ~~You can permanently delete messages from the trash folder.~~~~Permanently delete messages from other folders would defeat the purpose of the trash folder, so this will not be added.~~
~~Using *select account* to select and authorize Google accounts require special permission from Google for security and privacy reasons.~~ ~~This special permission can only be acquired for apps a developer manages and is responsible for.~~~~Third party builds, like the F-Droid builds, are managed by third parties and are the responsibility of these third parties.~~~~So, only these third parties can acquire the required permission from Google.~~~~Since these third parties do not actually support FairEmail, they are most likely not going to request the required permission.~~
~~Using *select account* in third party builds is not possible in recent versions anymore.~~ ~~In older versions this was possible, but it will now result in the error *UNREGISTERED_ON_API_CONSOLE*.~~
Empty messages and/or corrupt attachments are probably being caused by a bug in the server software. Older Microsoft Exchange software is known to cause this problem. Mostly you can workaround this by disabling *Partial fetch* in the advanced account settings:
After disabling this setting, you can use the message 'more' (three dots) menu to 'resync' empty messages. Alternatively, you can *Delete local messages* by long pressing the folder(s) in the folder list and synchronize all messages again.
OAuth for Gmail is supported via the quick setup wizard. The Android account manager will be used to fetch and refresh OAuth tokens for selected on-device accounts. OAuth for non on-device accounts is not supported because Google requires a [yearly security audit](https://support.google.com/cloud/answer/9110914) ($15,000 to $75,000) for this. You can read more about this [here](https://www.theregister.com/2019/02/11/google_gmail_developer/).
There are plenty of email providers to choose from. Which email provider is best for you depends on your wishes/requirements. Please see the websites of [Restore privacy](https://restoreprivacy.com/secure-email/) or [Privacy Tools](https://www.privacytools.io/providers/email/) for a list of privacy oriented email providers with advantages and disadvantages.
Some providers, like ProtonMail, Tutanota, use proprietary email protocols, which make it impossible to use third party email apps. Please see [this FAQ](#user-content-faq129) for more information.
If your device has a biometric sensor, for example a fingerprint sensor, you can enable/disable biometric authentication in the navigation (hamburger) menu of the settings screen. When enabled FairEmail will require biometric authentication after a period of inactivity or after the screen has been turned off while FairEmail was running. Activity is navigation within FairEmail, for example opening a conversation thread. The inactivity period duration can be configured in the miscellaneous settings. When biometric authentication is enabled new message notifications will not show any content and FairEmail won't be visible on the Android recents screen.
Biometric authentication is meant to prevent others from seeing your messages only. FairEmail relies on device encryption for data encryption, see also [this FAQ](#user-content-faq37).
The format of the settings files of most other email apps is not documented, so this is difficult. Sometimes it is possible to reverse engineer the format, but as soon as the settings format changes things will break. Also, settings are often incompatible. For example, FairEmail has unlike most other email apps settings for the number of days to synchronize messages for and for the number of days to keep messages for, mainly to save on battery usage. Moreover, setting up an account/identity with the quick setup wizard is simple, so it is not really worth the effort.
Email address [chips](https://material.io/design/components/chips.html) look nice, but cannot be edited, which is quite inconvenient when you made a typo in an email address.
Chips are not suitable for showing in a list and since the message header in a list should look similar to the message header of the message view it is not an option to use chips for viewing messages.
~~Contacts in the Android contacts list are considered to be known and trusted,~~ ~~unless the contact is in the group / has the label '*Untrusted*' (case insensitive).~~
First of all, a purchase will be available on all devices logged into the same Google account, *if* the app is installed via the same Google account too. You can select the account in the Play store app.
You can also try to clear the cache of the Play store app via the Android apps settings. Restarting the device might be necessary to let the Play store recognize the purchase correctly.
* If you get *ITEM_ALREADY_OWNED*, the Play store app probably needs to be updated, please [see here](https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/1050566?hl=en)
* Purchases are stored in the Google cloud and cannot get lost
* There is no time limit on purchases, so they cannot expire
* Google does not expose details (name, e-mail, etc) about buyers to developers
* An app like FairEmail cannot select which Google account to use
* It may take a while until the Play store app has synchronized a purchase to another device
* Play Store purchases cannot be used without the Play Store, which is also not allowed by Play Store rules
~~The widget is designed to look good on most home/launcher screens by making it monochrome and by using a half transparent background.~~ ~~This way the widget will nicely blend in, while still being properly readable.~~
New message notifications will be removed on swiping notifications away or on marking the associated messages read. Opening the app will not remove new message notifications. This gives you a choice to leave new message notifications as a reminder that there are still unread messages.
On Android 7 Nougat and later new message notifications will be [grouped](https://developer.android.com/training/notify-user/group). Tapping on the summary notification will open the unified inbox. The summary notification can be expanded to view individual new message notifications. Tapping on an individual new message notification will open the conversation the message it is part of. See [this FAQ](#user-content-faq70) about when messages in a conversation will be auto expanded and marked read.
FairEmail groups messages based on the standard *Message-ID*, *In-Reply-To* and *References* headers. FairEmail does not group on other criteria, like the subject, because this could result in grouping unrelated messages and would be at the expense of increased battery usage.
~~The recipient name and/or email address in the addresses section will be shown in a warning color~~ ~~when the sender domain name and the domain name of the *to* address do not match.~~~~Mostly this indicates that the message was received *via* an account with another email address.~~
If FairEmail cannot connect to an email server to synchronize messages, for example if the internet connection is bad or a firewall or a VPN is blocking the connection, FairEmail will retry two times after waiting 4 and 8 seconds while keeping the device awake (=use battery power). If this fails, FairEmail will schedule an alarm to retry after 15, 30 and eventually every 60 minutes and let the device sleep (=no battery usage).
Note that [Android doze mode](https://developer.android.com/training/monitoring-device-state/doze-standby) does not allow to wake the device earlier than after 15 minutes.
Sending messages will be retried on connectivity changes only (reconnecting to the same network or connecting to another network) to prevent the email server from blocking the connection permanently. You can pull down the outbox to retry manually.
Note that sending will not be retried in case of authentication problems and when the server rejected the message. In this case you can pull down the outbox to try again.
The message *Message too large or too complex to display* will be shown if there are more than 100,000 characters or more than 500 links in a message. Reformatting and displaying such messages will take too long. You can try to use the original message view, powered by the browser, instead.
Send a [Delivery Status Notification](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3464) (=hard bounce) via the reply/answer menu.
Hard bounces will mostly be processed automatically because they affect the reputation of the email provider. The bounce address (=*Return-Path* header) is mostly very specific, so the email server can determine the sending account.
Directly after the first step new messages will be notified. However, only until after the second step the message text will be available. FairEmail updates exiting notifications with a preview of the message text, but unfortunately wearable notifications cannot be updated.
Since there is no guarantee that a message text will always be fetched directly after a message header, it is not possible to guarantee that a new message notification with a preview text will always be sent to a wearable.
If you think this is good enough, you can enable the notification option *Only send notifications with a message preview to wearables* and if this does not work, you can try to enable the notification option *Show notifications with a preview text only*. Note that this applies to wearables not showing a preview text too, even when the Android Wear app says the notification has been sent (bridged).
If you want to have the full message text sent to your wearable, you can enable the notification option *Preview all text*. Note that some wearables are known to crash with this option enabled.
If you use a Samsung wearable with the Galaxy Wearable (Samsung Gear) app, you might need to enable notifications for FairEmail when the setting *Notifications*, *Apps installed in the future* is turned off in this app.
The error *... Syntactically invalid HELO argument(s) ...* means that the SMTP server rejected the local IP address or host name. You can likely fix this error by enabling or disabling the advanced indentity option *Use local IP address instead of host name*.
ProtonMail uses a proprietary email protocol and [does not directly support IMAP](https://protonmail.com/support/knowledge-base/imap-smtp-and-pop3-setup/), so you cannot use FairEmail to access ProtonMail.
Tutanota uses a proprietary email protocol and [does not support IMAP](https://tutanota.com/faq/#imap), so you cannot use FairEmail to access Tutanota.
The warning *No server found at ...* means that there was no email server registered at the indicated domain name. Replying to the message might not be possible and might result in an error. This could indicate a falsified email address and/or spam.
The error *... ParseException ...* means that there is a problem with a received message, likely caused by a bug in the sending software. FairEmail will workaround this is in most cases, so this message can mostly be considered as a warning instead of an error.
The error *...SendFailedException...* means that there was a problem while sending a message. The error will almost always include a reason. Common reasons are that the message was too big or that one or more recipient addresses were invalid.
The warning *Message too large to fit into the available memory* means that the message was larger than 10 MiB. Even if your device has plenty of storage space Android provides limited working memory to apps, which limits the size of messages that can be handled.
If you read from left to right, swiping to the left will show the next message. Similarly, if you read from right to left, swiping to the right will show the next message.
There is a bug in some Android versions causing [setOnlyAlertOnce](https://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/Notification.Builder#setOnlyAlertOnce(boolean)) to mute notifications. Since FairEmail shows new message notifications right after fetching the message headers and FairEmail needs to update new message notifications after fetching the message text later, this cannot be fixed or worked around by FairEmail.
The Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync protocol [is patented](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exchange_ActiveSync#Licensing) and can therefore not be supported. For this reason you won't find many, if any, other email clients supporting ActiveSync.
Note that the desciption of FairEmail starts with the remark that non-standard protocols, like Microsoft Exchange Web Services and Microsoft ActiveSync are not supported.
Since the IMAP protocol is meant to synchronize two ways, deleting a message from the device would result in fetching the message again when synchronizing again.
However, FairEmail supports hiding messages, either via the three-dots menu in the action bar just above the message text or by multiple selecting messages in the message list. Basically this is the same as "leave on server" of the POP3 protocol with the advantage that you can show the messages again when needed.
Individual messages will rarely be trashed and mostly this happens by accident. Showing trashed messages in conversations makes it easier to find them back.
You can permanently delete a message using the message three-dots *delete* menu, which will remove the message from the conversation. Note that this irreversible.
Similarly, drafts are shown in conversations to find them back in the context where they belong. It is easy to read through the received messages before continuing to write the draft later.
Calendar and contact management can better be done by a separate, specialized app. Note that FairEmail is a specialized email app, not an office suite.
Also, I prefer to do a few things very well, instead of many things only half. Moreover, from a security perspective, it is not a good idea to grant many permissions to a single app.
You are advised to use the excellent, open source [DAVx⁵](https://f-droid.org/packages/at.bitfire.davdroid/) app to synchronize/manage your calendars/contacts.
Most providers support exporting your contacts. Please [see here](https://support.google.com/contacts/answer/1069522) about how you can import contacts if synchronizing is not possible.
Displaying strange characters is almost always caused by specifying no or an invalid character encoding by the sending software. FairEmail will assume [ISO 8859-1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO/IEC_8859-1) when no character set or when [US-ASCII](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCII) was specified. Other than that there is no way to reliably determine the correct character encoding automatically, so this cannot be fixed by FairEmail. The right action is to complain to the sender.
To store draft messages a drafts folder is required. In most cases FairEmail will automatically select the drafts folders on adding an account based on [the attributes](https://www.iana.org/assignments/imap-mailbox-name-attributes/imap-mailbox-name-attributes.xhtml) the email server sends. However, some email servers are not configured properly and do not send these attributes. In this case FairEmail tries to identify the drafts folder by name, but this might fail if the drafts folder has an unusual name or is not present at all.
You can fix this problem by manually selecting the drafts folder in the account settings (Settings, tap Manual setup and more options, tap Accounts, tap account, at the bottom). If there is no drafts folder at all, you can create a drafts folder by tapping on the '+' button in the folder list of the account (tap on the account name in the navigation menu).
Some providers, like Gmail, allow enabling/disabling IMAP for individual folders. So, if a folder is not visible, you might need to enable IMAP for the folder.
That said, FairEmail is able to properly handle sent messages in the inbox. FairEmail will mark outgoing messages with a sent messages icon for example.
The best solution would be to enable showing the sent folder in the unified inbox by long pressing the sent folder in the folder list and enabling *Show in unified inbox*. This way all messages can stay where they belong, while allowing to see both incoming and outgoing messages at one place.
If this is not an option, you can [create a rule](#user-content-faq71) to automatically move sent messages to the inbox or set a default CC/BCC address in the advanced identity settings to send yourself a copy.
[POP3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_Office_Protocol) is a very limited protocol. Basically only messages can be downloaded and deleted from the inbox. It is not even possible to mark a message read.
Note that you can hide messages and search for hidden messages, which is similar to a local trash folder, without suggesting that trashed messages can be restored, while this is actually not possible.
Version 1.1082 added a local trash folder. Note that trashing a message will permanently remove it from the server and that trashed messages cannot be restored to the server anymore.
This requires a compatible audio recorder app to be installed. In particular [this common intent](https://developer.android.com/reference/android/provider/MediaStore.Audio.Media.html#RECORD_SOUND_ACTION) needs to be supported.
* Enable *Separate notifications* in the advanced account settings (Settings, tap Manual setup and more options, tap Accounts, tap account, tap Advanced)
* Long press the account in the account list (Settings, tap Manual setup and more options, tap Accounts) and select *Edit notification channel* to change the notification sound
Sometimes the server received date/time is incorrect, mostly because messages were incorrectly imported from another server and sometimes due to a bug in the email server.
In these rare cases, it is possible to let FairEmail use either the date/time from the *Date* header (sent time) or from the *Received* header as a workaround. This can be changed in the advanced account settings: Settings, tap Manual setup and more options, tap Accounts, tap account, tap Advanced.
This will not change the time of already synchronized messages. To solve this, long press the folder(s) in the folder list and select *Delete local messages* and *Synchronize now*.
There is **only support** on the latest Play store version, the latest GitHub release and the F-Droid build, but **only if** the version number of the F-Droid build is the same as the version number of the latest GitHub release.
The F-Droid version is built from the same source code, but signed differently. This means that all features are available in the F-Droid version too, except for using the Gmail quick setup wizard because Google approved (and allows) one app signature only. For all other email providers, OAuth access is only available in Play Store versions and Github releases, as the email providers only permit the use of OAuth for official builds.
Note that you'll need to uninstall the F-Droid build first before you can install a GitHub release because Android refuses to install the same app with a different signature for security reasons.
The unread message count widget shows the number of unread messages either for all accounts or for a selected account, but only for the folders for which new message notifications are enabled.
Cancelling calendar invites (removing calendar events) requires write calendar permission, which will result in effectively granting permission to read and write *all* calendar events of *all* calendars.
Given the goal of FairEmail, privacy and security, and given that it is easy to remove a calendar event manually, it is not a good idea to request this permission for just this reason.
Inserting new calendar events can be done without permissions with special [intents](https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/providers/calendar-provider.html#intents). Unfortunately, there exists no intent to delete existing calendar events.
An email client is meant to read and write messages, not to backup and restore messages. Note that breaking or losing your device, means losing your messages!
If you want to import an mbox file to an existing email account, you can use Thunderbird on a desktop computer and the [ImportExportTools](https://addons.thunderbird.net/nl/thunderbird/addon/importexporttools/) add-on.
~~Besides that a [favicon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Favicon) might be shared by many email addresses with the same domain name~~ ~~and therefore is not directly related to an email address, favicons can be used to track you.~~
A *winmail.dat* file is sent by an incorrectly configured Outlook client. It is a Microsoft specific file format ([TNEF](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_Neutral_Encapsulation_Format)) containing a message and possibly attachments.
If the wizard ends with *AUTHENTICATE failed*, IMAP and/or SMTP might be disabled for the account. In this case you should ask the administrator to enable IMAP and SMTP. The procedure is documented [here](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-in/exchange/troubleshoot/configure-mailboxes/pop3-imap-owa-activesync-office-365).
If you've enabled *security defaults* in your organization, you might need to enable the SMTP AUTH protocol. Please [see here](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/clients-and-mobile-in-exchange-online/authenticated-client-smtp-submission) about how to.
To record voice notes, etc, the audio recorder needs to support [MediaStore.Audio.Media.RECORD_SOUND_ACTION](https://developer.android.com/reference/android/provider/MediaStore.Audio.Media#RECORD_SOUND_ACTION). Oddly, most audio recorders seem not to support this standard Android action.
Tracking images will not be recognized when the domain is classified as '*Content*', see [here](https://disconnect.me/trackerprotection#trackers-we-dont-block) for more information.
Updating once a week will probably be sufficient, please see [here](https://github.com/disconnectme/disconnect-tracking-protection/commits/master) for recent lists changes.
Permanent deletion means that messages will *irreversibly* be lost, and to prevent this from happening accidentally, this always needs to be confirmed. Even with a confirmation, some very angry people who lost some of their messages through their own fault contacted me, which was a rather unpleasant experience :-(
Advanced: the IMAP delete flag in combination with the EXPUNGE command is not supportable because both email servers and not all people can handle this, risking unexpected loss of messages. A complicating factor is that not all email servers support [UID EXPUNGE](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4315).
From version 1.1485 it is possible to temporarily enable debug mode in the miscellaneous settings to disable expunging messages. Note that messages with a *\Deleted* flag will not be shown in FairEmail.
If I could, I would add a setting to select the primary and accent color right away, but unfortunately Android themes are fixed, see for example [here](https://stackoverflow.com/a/26511725/1794097), so this is not possible.
Yes, [IMAP NOTIFY](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5465) has been supported since version 1.1413.
IMAP NOTIFY support means that notifications for added, changed or deleted messages of all *subscribed* folders will be requested and if a notification is received for a subscribed folder, that the folder will be synchronized. Synchronization for subscribed folders can therefore be disable, saving folder connections to the email server.
**Important**: push messages (=always sync) for the inbox and subscription management (receive settings) need to be enabled.
**Important**: most email servers do not support this! You can check the log via the navigation menu if an email server supports the NOTIFY capability.
Message classification will attempt to automatically group emails into classes, based on their contents, using [Bayesian statistics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayesian_statistics). In the context of FairEmail, a folder is a class. So, for example, the inbox, the spam folder, a 'marketing' folder, etc, etc.
You can enable message classification in the miscellaneous settings. This will enable 'learning' mode only. The classifier will 'learn' from new messages in the inbox and spam folder by default. The folder property *Classify new messages in this folder* will enable or disable 'learning' mode for a folder. You can clear local messages (long press a folder in the folder list of an account) and synchronize the messages again to classify existing messages.
Each folder has an option *Automatically move classified messages to this folder* ('auto classification' for short). When this is turned on, new messages in other folders which the classifier thinks belong to that folder will be automatically moved.
The option *Use local spam filter* in the report spam dialog will turn on message classification in the miscellaneous settings and auto classification for the spam folder. Please understand that this is not a replacement for the spam filter of the email server and can result in [false positives and false negatives](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_positives_and_false_negatives). See also [this FAQ](#user-content-faq92).
A practical example: suppose there is a folder 'marketing' and auto message classification is enabled for this folder. Each time you move a message into this folder you'll train FairEmail that similar messages belong in this folder. Each time you move a message out of this folder you'll train FairEmail that similar messages do not belong in this folder. After moving some messages into the 'marketing' folder, FairEmail will start moving similar messages automatically into this folder. Or, the other way around, after moving some messages out of the 'marketing' folder, FairEmail will stop moving similar messages automatically into this folder. This will work best with messages with similar content (email addresses, subject and message text).
Classification should be considered as a best guess - it might be a wrong guess, or the classifier might not be confident enough to make any guess. If the classifier is unsure, it will simply leave an email where it is.
The message classifier calculates the probability a message belongs in a folder (class). There are two options in the miscellaneous settings which control if a message will be automatically moved into a folder, provided that auto classification is enabled for the folder:
* *Minimum class difference*: a message will only be moved when the difference in confidence between one class and the next most likely class is greater than this value (default 50 %)
Both conditions must be satisfied before a message will be moved.
Unfortunately, Android [does not support](https://stackoverflow.com/a/26511725/1794097) dynamic themes, which means all themes need [to be predefined](https://github.com/M66B/FairEmail/blob/master/app/src/main/res/values/styles.xml).
Since for each theme there needs to be a light, dark and black variant, it is not feasible to add for each color combination (literally millions) a predefined theme.
Yes, Android Auto is supported, but only with the GitHub version, please [see here](https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/app-5-0-fairemail-fully-featured-open-source-privacy-oriented-email-app.3824168/post-83801249) about why.
For notification (messaging) support you'll need to enable the following notification options:
FairEmail is supported on smartphones, tablets and ChromeOS only.
Only the latest Play store version and latest GitHub release are supported. The F-Droid build is supported only if the version number is the same as the version number of the latest GitHub release. This also means that downgrading is not supported.
There is no support on things that are not directly related to FairEmail.
There is no support on building and developing things by yourself.
