Apologies upfront for sending this from within Gmail web interface
instead of Mutt!
I have been using Mutt (v. 1.13.2, Linux Mint 20.1) off and on for a
few months now. Cameron Simpson was a great help in getting me
started. I can send and receive email via IMAP/SMTP with my Gmail
account. I have a cobbled together muttrc file and mailcap file that
seem to get the job (mostly) done, but I have a few things that are
keeping me from going whole-hearted Mutt. Of course whatever issues I
am having probably stem from my ignorance and lack of technical chops.
Here are some of the things that are bothersome that I have not been
able to solve:
1) Mutt erratically loses connection with Gmail and I have to
manually reconnect. Sometimes this happens rather frequently as in
multiple instances within an hour. I am confident it is not my
Internet connection, which is normally quite stable and fast. For
instance my streaming music is never interrupted, the family's TV
shows continue unimpeded, etc., but my connectivity to Gmail is
interrupted randomly. If I have both Mutt and the web interface open,
Mutt has its interruptions while the Gmail web interface appears to be
updating normally.
2) Read mail becomes inexplicably returned to a "new" status, both in
Mutt and in Gmail when I am using Mutt, but do not have the Gmail web
interface open or if I have both open. However, if I only use the
Gmail interface and keep Mutt deactivated this does not happen. And
this is somewhat random happening as well, but within the course of
each day it *will* happen. I can clear the "new" status and it will
reappear. It only happens to a few emails in my list at any given
time, but tends to be a similar contiguous block of emails.
3) I initially started trying to map my various Gmail folders to
Mutt, but Mutt seemed to put emails into Gmail folders unexpectedly.
For instance if I received emails from the aforementioned Cameron via
the Python Tutor list and replied to the Tutor list without cc'ing
Cameron, his future emails in that thread might appear in a Gmail
folder where I had kept other emails from Cameron. This was quite
puzzling to me. It only went away when I limited my muttrc to just
+INBOX and Trash.
4) Despite setting "mailboxes = +INBOX" and "set beep_new", I never
ever heard a beep when new mail arrived, though other system
notifications both popup and beep when those events happen, such as a
Google calendar notification.
5) I am able to view HTML emails via w3c, but I get weekly (and some
daily) emails from news aggregation services like Pycoders Weekly,
TLDR, etc., that have embedded links that never show up in the w3c
display. If I find I want to view an interesting article I have to
fire up the Gmail interface and click on it there. I have not been
able to resolve this one and it is quite annoying to seemingly have to
leave Mutt to access these articles in my browser. I'm sure this is a
lack of understanding on my part, but I have not figured it out yet.
Other explicit attachments like pdfs, image formats, etc. I have no
trouble opening up from within Mutt nor do I have trouble with
explicit links that do show up that I am able to open from within Mutt
and display in my browser.
These are the main troubles I am having. I would like to eventually
transition from Gmail to ProtonMail, but that adds another layer of
complexity as ProtonMail needs bridge software installed and
configured for Mutt. Until I solve my Gmail dilemmas it seems
pointless to attempt the potentially more complex ProtonMail
configuration to come.
Thanks in advance!
boB Stepp
