How to "mount" subscribed folders as a regular mailbox?
Hello,
I am trying to setup a team mailbox such as sales@example.com for two users (let's say Alice and Bob).
I want Alice and Bob to retain a private "read status" in their Thunderbird so that Bob doesn't see an email as read if Alice has opened it before him (and vice-versa). Fortunately, Dovecot (our IMAP server) implemented a per-user \Seen flag for the shared mailboxes (see https://wiki.dovecot.org/SharedMailboxes/Shared).
But I don't like they way Thunderbird shows the shared mailboxes as "subscribed folders":
--- Thunderbird as IMAP client on Alice's computer ---
alice@example.com
|_Inbox
|_Drafts
|_Sent
|_Junk
|_Trash
|_Shared
|_sales@example.com
|_Drafts
|_Sent
|_Junk
|_Trash
--- Thunderbird as IMAP client on Bob's computer ---
bob@example.com
|_Inbox
|_Drafts
|_Sent
|_Junk
|_Trash
|_Shared
|_sales@example.com
|_Drafts
|_Sent
|_Junk
|_Trash
I would like Thunderbird to "mount" these shared folders as a regular mailboxes like:
--- Thunderbird as IMAP client on Alice's computer ---
alice@example.com
|_Inbox
|_Drafts
|_Sent
|_Junk
|_Trash
sales@example.com
|_Inbox
|_Drafts
|_Sent
|_Junk
|_Trash
--- Thunderbird as IMAP client on Bob's computer ---
bob@example.com
|_Inbox
|_Drafts
|_Sent
|_Junk
|_Trash
sales@example.com
|_Inbox
|_Drafts
|_Sent
|_Junk
|_Trash
So that I can use the unified view for example.
I know this would be very simple if both Alice and Bob log in as sales@example.com (like a single user does on his computer and on his phone) but I would lose the "private read status" capability. So I am obliged to share sales@example.com with alice@example.com and bob@example.com; so that Alice logs in as alice@example.com, Bob logs in as bob@example.com and Dovecot retains a separate \Seen flags private index for both.
Unfortunately, Dovecot doesn't support a "login as" feature like MS Exchange (see https://www.en.its.aau.dk/instructions/Mail/shared-mailbox-thunderbird/). So I tried many permutations of the settings in Account Settings->Server Settings->Advanced. I tried to setup the Shared directory path in IMAP server directory, I tried to replace the Personal namespace with "Shared/" (instead of ""), I disabled Allow server to override these namespaces, etc... but no luck. The documentation at https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/configuration-options-accounts isn't helping much either.
When I right-click on the shared folder and get the properties, the location is : imap://alice%40example.com@<ip>/Shared/sales%40example.com
So my question is simple: how can I get Thunderbird to "mount" this shared location as a regular mailbox (instead of subscribed folders)?
Thanks for any help!
Ilungisiwe ngu heyla
All Replies (6)
You can not specify mount points in Thunderbird. A folder is a sub folder of an account. Whatever it is dovecote does clearly offers them as folders of the users account, so that will be how they appear.
Hello and thanks for your quick answer.
Matt said
You can not specify mount points in Thunderbird. A folder is a sub folder of an account. Whatever it is dovecote does clearly offers them as folders of the users account, so that will be how they appear.
What is the point of IMAP server directory, and Personal namespace in Account Settings->Server Settings->Advanced then?
Ilungisiwe ngu heyla
imap server directory allow you to specify where the account is on the server. For instance specifying [Gmail] for a gmail account removes the gmail sub folder in account settings. Locating the data into the account level. It is not a folder mount point as you are trying to make it. ie the folder will always be part of the account, it will never be a top level account in it's own right. It is generally correctly detected and does not need to be set.
The other setting also specify namespaces. not account locations.
heyla said
So my question is simple: how can I get Thunderbird to "mount" this shared location as a regular mailbox (instead of subscribed folders)?
You can't.
Thanks Matt,
I better understand the IMAP server directory setting with your explanation. Also, the "Shared" folder is not a real directory within the server Maildir, so I understand why TB didn't take this setting now.
Matt said
The other setting also specify namespaces. not account locations.
I understand the content of each namespace is managed by the server. If TB asks "Shared/" as the Personal namespace, how come it doesn't retrieve the content of the Shared namespace and takes it as personal namespace?
Ilungisiwe ngu heyla
The top level is reserved for accounts. namespaces are not accounts. This is really going nowhere.
OK I see. I hoped I could "trick" TB but I guess the only solution is to tweak Dovecot to act like MS Exchange then.
I am surprised the setup I am trying to achieve is not more popular given the fact that unified view is really great when using many mailboxes.
Thanks again for all your help