Frequently Asked Questions ()
Why aren't my filters applied to incoming messages of IMAP accounts?
Because currently doesn't support this. You should use server-side filtering (ask your admin for how to install filters on the server and in which format), since IMAP is all about managing your emails on the server. Unfortunately, although there exists a mail filter language (Sieve, defined in RFC3028), there is no standardized access protocol for installing or editing server-side Sieve scripts. If such a protocol becomes available in the future, will most probaly include support for it.
I cannot add addresses to my address book after upgrading to KDE 3.0.
You probably copied your old kmailrc file manually. That's not necessary, there's a script that will do such things when you run KDE 3.0 for the first time. To fix the problem, remove the complete [AddressBook] group and the addressbook option in group [General] in your kmailrc file. However, chances are you'll also encounter other problems that the config update script was to solve.
Can I use together with a different mail client, ⪚ mutt?
If you're using the mbox format for your folders it's not possible to use a different mail client while is running. With mutt there may also be problems even if both programs are not running at the same time. We recommend to use the maildir format in this case, this should solve all problems.
How can I convert my mailboxes from mbox to maildir?
There's no automatic way to do that. You'll have to create a new folder in maildir format and copy the messages from the mbox folder into this new folder. Remember to adapt any filter rules connected with the old folder before you delete it.
How can I use a different browser than Konqueror to open links in messages?
Change the File Associations for HTML files using .
How can I remove attachments from messages without removing the message itself?
This is currently not supported. As a workaround, move the message to the drafts folder, double click on it in order to open it in the composer, remove the attachments, save the message again to the drafts folder, move it back to its folder. The disadvantage of this workaround is that the date will be changed to the current date. Some other headers might also be changed.
How can I make to check for new messages at startup?
Start with kmail --check.
Why does get slow / stop working when I try to send big attachments?
is known to have problems with large attachments. We are working on a solution for this problem for 3.1 but currently it temporarily consumes virtual memory of about 10-15 times the size of the attachment. That means that if you attach a 2MB file might temporarily need about 20-30 MB of virtual memory (= RAM + swap space). If you don't have enough virtual memory this will lead to problems.
Where does save my settings?
All settings are stored in $KDEHOME/share/config/kmailrc, where $KDEHOME is typically ~/.kde.
Where can I get a list of changes between the versions of ?
The welcome screen lists all important changes for your version. It is displayed when you start a new version of the first time. You can always look at it again by selecting the root element of the folder list, Mail.
Can I configure the location of my mail directory?
Exit , make a backup of ~/.kde/share/config/kmailrc, then open it with an editor and add ⪚ folders=/home/username/.mail to the [General] section. Then move all your existing folders (including the hidden index files) to the new location. The next time you start it will use /home/username/.mail instead of /home/username/Mail. Note that will lose its filters if you change the mail directory's location but forget to move your existing folders.
How can I use mail folders that are not in ~/Mail/?
Simply create a symlink in your ~/Mail directory using ln -s /somewhere/Mail/mymailboxfile ~/Mail/remote. When you start you will see a new folder with the name remote that contains the messages in your remote folder. If you want to add a whole remote mail directory use ln -s /somewhere/Mail/.remotedir.directory ~/Mail/.mymailboxfile.directory.
The button to sign messages is not enabled anymore, it was enabled some time ago.
Select your OpenPGP Key in the Identity section of 's configuration dialog. Otherwise can't know which key should be used to sign your messages.
I'm one of those people whose mails consist of 100 quoted lines and one line written by myself. For some reason this annoys other people. Can help me and make everyone's life better?
Sure. Just select a short relevant part of the original mail with the mouse before you reply. Only this part will then be quoted in your reply.
For some messages the value in the Date field is unknown or it's not correct.
Probably the Date: header of these messages is broken, maybe it lacks the time zone information. For this case we've added a workaround to mimelib. Mimelib is part of the kdenetwork package, you should make sure that 's mimelib is used and not a different one on your system. If that doesn't help, the Date: field is really broken and cannot interpret it. That's not a bug in but in the software that sent the mail.
My signature has two dashes above it. What's up?
Separating the signature from the message body with two dashes and a space on a single line is a common standard. If your signature does not already have this separator, will automatically add it.
fetches the same messages over and over again.
This happens if you have Delete mail from server deselected and your POP3 server doesn't support the UIDL command. There's currently no workaround besides selecting Delete mail from server. A more detailed explanation can be found in this mailing list post.
Are there any known bugs in ?
You can find a list of submitted bugs at bugs.kde.org. Note that not all these bugs are valid. All in all we think that is now a very robust piece of software.
However, you should not run while another mail client is already accessing the files in ~/Mail. If you try to do so, you might lose messages. Note that you should make backups of your messages anyway.
My folders keep growing even when I delete messages.
To really remove deleted messages from disk, you have to compact your folders using File Compact all folders (by default this will also happen every time you exit - note that it does not work when leaving via 's session management).
doesn't display HTML mail as HTML, I can only see plain text.
Select Folder Prefer HTML to plain text. For security reasons you should only do so for trusted messages. Note that plugins (like Macromedia Flash), and JavaScript will not be displayed in for security reasons and there's no way to activate them.
Can I use two different versions of at the same time? Can I go back from a current version of to an older one?
You can only run one instance of at once. We also recommend to stick to a certain version and not switch back and forth between different versions. Downgrading to an older version will probably cause problems, ⪚ because the index file formats might have changed. Upgrading should never be a problem.
Does support uuencoded files?
No. However, you can handle them using a filter, which is described in this posting to the mailing list.
crashed while I was writing a mail. So this mail is lost now?
tries to save your mail to ~/dead.letter in case of a crash. The next time you start the mail composer should appear with your mail again. If it doesn't, try to open ~/dead.letter with an editor. If it doesn't exist, the crash was so bad that couldn't save your mail.
When I try to set a folder to be mailing list-aware, it does not do anything when receiving an email from the list.
Associating a folder with a mailing list has nothing to do with filtering the mailing list messages. You have to add a new filter rule manually. However, once you associated a folder with a mailing list you can use Message Reply List... or Message New Message... and the mailing list address will be set in the To: field.
My SMTP server requires authentication. Does support it?
There are two common techniques used for SMTP authentication: SMTP after POP3 and SMTP Auth. SMTP Auth can be set in the General tab of the SMTP configuration dialog. To use SMTP after POP3 you have to collect all your messages in the outbox and send them just after you have fetched new mail.
Can I use and procmail?
Yes, but it's important to do it the right way or you might lose mail. In order to use procmail and you need to set up so that it will fetch new mail from the spoolfiles in which procmail drops your mail. Do not set up procmail to deliver mail in a folder, this cannot work.
For each procmail spoolfile, you then need to create an account from which will fetch new mail. You also need to make sure you specify the right lockfile name for this account. When setting up an account, will do some minimal parsing on your .procmail file, and will try to list every spoolfile it has found, and also the lockfiles next to the procmail lockfile item. procmail lets the user specify lockfiles in three different ways, so there's no way to establish a correspondence between the spoolfiles and lockfiles. So it's really up to you to make sure you specify the right lockfile for each spoolfile.
What should I know if I want to use PGP/GnuPG with ?
provides a simple and easy to use interface for basic functions of these programs. Still you should understand how these programs work and what might make their use insecure. Some important issues:
You really should test if encryption works before you use it. partly relies on PGP/GnuPG's error strings, which often change between different versions.
will not encrypt messages with an untrusted (unsigned) public key. If you want to encrypt to such a key you should check the identity of the key owner and only then sign the key with your secret key. If you don't want to or can't check the identity of the key owner but nevertheless want to encrypt the message then please sign the key locally with gpg --lsign keyID.
Trusting a foreign public key without checking it is no good idea.
As most other mail clients, can encrypt your messages, but not your attachments. You have to encrypt them manually before you attach them.
Starting with GnuPG 1.0.7 you have to set your own key to ultimate ownertrust. It's no longer implicitly done for you.
Spellchecking doesn't recognize non-English characters.
Before you can use spellchecking the first time, you have to configure it. You can do so in the composer window's menu under Settings Spellchecker.... You can set the dictionary and the encoding there.
How do I use my Eudora//Outlook/... mail folders in ?
See the section Using other Mailbox files With .
Can I use encryption with my normal (non-SSL) POP3 account?
If your POP3 server runs an ssh daemon, you can use ssh to tunnel your POP3 connection using the following command:
ssh -L 11000:127.0.0.1:110 user@host
Modify your configuration to fetch the mail via POP3 from localhost and ssh will tunnel the connection for you.
If non-encrypted messages have already been sent via Internet, the only advantage of using ssh is that your password will be sent encrypted to the POP3 server.
Does lock the folders it uses?
does not lock the files in ~/Mail.
To avoid the risk of losing mail if using a local account it is necessary to ensure that uses the same type of locking as your mail delivery agent.
There are five different locking options you can use:
Procmail lockfile
Mutt dotlock
Mutt dotlock privileged
FCNTL (default)
none (use with care)
Procmail lockfile will use a small utility that comes with procmail called lockfile. You can use this if your mail folder is in a directory where you have write permission. This will not work on your /var/spool/mail/user file in most cases. It will create .lock files on your account when is checking for new mail. Please note that this will only work if procmail is installed on your system.
Mutt dotlock and Mutt dotlock privileged will both use a small utility that comes with mutt called mutt_dotlock. Mutt dotlock can be used in the same way as the Procmail lockfile option, with the same limitation with regards to the /var/spool/mail/ folders. However, the Mutt dotlock privileged option can create lock files in the /var/spool/mail directory. mutt_dotlock is a setgid program and this option will run it in setgid mode. Please note that these options will only work if mutt is installed on your system.
FCNTL will use the fcntl() system call.
If you don't want to use any locking, the none option is what you want. However, there are risks of losing mail when no locking is used.
How do I leave messages on the server?
See the Download filters chapter. If you want to leave all messages on the server: open up the Settings Configure ... window. Click on the Network page. Select your account from the account list and click the Modify... button. This dialog contains the Delete mail from server setting which you must not select.
How do I automatically insert a text footer within my messages?
The text footer is called a signature file. Select Settings Configure ... Look in the Identity page for the Signature tab and add your signature there.
Why does keep asking me for the location of my signature file?
will ask you for the location of your signature file if you have checked the option Automatically append signature in the Composer page of the Configure ... dialog, but you have not specified a valid signature file in the Identity page. You should either specify a signature file that really exists or deselect Automatically append signature.
How do I set up to work with if I have a dial-up connection?
First you should check if your /BSD/whatever distribution can do this for you. It probably has already been set up during installation.
If that's not the case, you may want to have a look at the Mail Queue HOWTO or at UCT Linux User's group page on configuring sendmail for Dial-up connections.
I've seen demonstrations of remote control behavior with . Is there any documentation on the available interfaces?
You can get a list of functions by using this command in a shell: dcop kmail KMailIface. Some documentation is also available in kdenetwork/kmail/kmailIface.h and kdenetwork/kmail/mailcomposerIface.h.