RB7 some usability issues identified for this user

I am a supporter of Runbox and have found that your customer service is second to none. I also like RB6 a lot.

I like others have been trying your RB7 Beta model. My comments below are there to help and explain why as a user I think it still has a way to go before it reaches a point I could use it as a stand alone and I hope they are useful when looking at fixes.

I have gone through each point on my email to make sure the issues have not been resolved.

Issues Identified

  1. Sometimes when I log in to a directory items do not always show up immediately and occasionally I have to do a refresh. Other times i cannot change directory despite clicking on another directory and clicking and clicking.
  2. When I press compose all my other drafts suddenly appear under my new draft.
  3. When I press reply (similar to compose) my other drafts suddenly appear under my reply draft. I find this confusing and unnecessary.
  4. When I want to send a reply message and tick the HTML box the original message sometimes disappears so I don’t have the information at hand to reply.
  5. When I want to reply sometimes (but not always) the original message does not show up when I am starting to type. This is especially the case when I press HTML
  6. I do a huge amount of sorting by name, size Sender etc and this is not available on RB7 and is a must have factor for me.
  7. When deleting it can sometime take quite a few seconds for the command to be enacted. (I can often press delete and count to 4 before RB7 shows it is deleted, occasionally 9 seconds, other times nothing happens and deletion does not delete. This does not occur for me on RB6.
  8. Moving a message from one directory to another can take a few seconds or not happen at all. When using the vertical view two sets of icons appear, one in each box and when RB7 is playing up neither will work. I find having two sets of icons doing the same thing particularly in the horizontal view a bit confusing.
  9. Drag and drop does not function well or is very slow. I recently counted 9 seconds for a drag and drop to go from one directory to another (as this was happening directories near by where showing highlighted green). Basically I never use drag and drop in RB7. Sometimes a message will not delete or refuse to move to another folder.
  10. I notice occasionally that I can move a message to another folder but sometimes it just goes back to the original folder!!!
  11. Sometimes I need to click out and then click in to folder to get current status in a directory after deleting stuff. Sometimes when I do this it just shows blank.
  12. When I press the command for Print I get the first couple pages taken over by symbols on Firefox and a symbol covers part of the first page on explorer. This makes printing an email not viable. If I save to PDF it is the same
  13. Search field. Does not work well in RB7. In RB 6 if I put a name I want in the search field and folder RB6 will display results. RB7 will display none.

Hopefully these comments will assist to progress RB7 but I imagine they would be similar feedback to others

All the best with the project

I totally concur. There are many webmail programs out there and I don’t think it’s that difficult to match or function close to them. We’re not asking for special functions. I just want 7 to be consistently functioning like others.

Of the 13 nails you have hit on the head I’d have to say I too have hit at least 10 of them. I’m purposely trying not to have to revert to RB6 but I’m finding myself having to stop and back out and run RB6 to much! Frustrating to be sure when your trying to get something done!

Hello @kenfran and thank you for your support, and for the extensive feedback provided!

Some of the items you mention (1, 7, 8, 9, and 11) relate to updating the message list, and we would be interested in learning whether you are using index synchronization or not.

This can be determined by checking the bottom of the folder list, where a button will either say Synchronize index or Stop index synchronization.

Index synchronization is the default Runbox 7 mode and means that the message search index for your account is downloaded to your browser and maintained locally, which normally will significantly increase the speed at which Runbox 7 performs.

Without this local message index, which is used both to list messages and to perform actual searches, the app will downgrade to querying the servers directly. This may take a few moments (or seconds) depending on the size of your account and the folder in question, because Runbox 7 will attempt to show all the messages in a folder in one continuous list that you can easily scroll without interruption. (We are considering enhancements to this mode of operation to improve the performance when the local index is not utilized.)

I will comment on the other specific items you listed below:

2 and 3: The idea behind the Draft Desk is to organize the drafts you may be working on as tiles next to (or beneath) one another, similar to letters on a desk. We are planning to improve the display options for the Draft Desk and extend the concept to messages and other areas of Runbox 7.

4 and 5: Would you be able to provide an example of such a message (via Support) so that we may attempt to reproduce this issue?

6: Sorting by various message list headings is currently only supported when using the local/synchronized index, but we are considering ways to improve on this.

10: If you mean that the message you’re moving re-appears in the source folder then it sounds like the query to the server may have failed. We would be interested in any errors shown in the browser’s development console, if you are comfortable using that.

12: This issue should now be resolved as per https://github.com/runbox/runbox7/issues/889.

13: With the local message index in use, search results will be displayed immediately as you type into the search field.

Thanks again for your comments and your kind words! :slight_smile:

– Geir

Thanks for your reply Geir

I will work through your questions and get back to you in detail rather than do a rush reply so the information is useful for you.

regards