Frequently Asked Questions: Thunderbird Mobile and K-9 Mail
blog.thunderbird.net
An evolving list of frequently asked questions about Thunderbird on Android, and K-9 Mail joining the Thunderbird family.
  • 𝘋𝘪𝘳𝘬
    2·
    6 days ago

    Now that K-9 was killed by a for-profit corporation: What good mail clients are out there?

      • Krzd@lemmy.world
        133·
        2 months ago

        Nope. They initially added some data scraping parts, and apparently still use some form of telemetry without proper disclosure.

        • kixik
          2·
          2 months ago

          What telemetry is enabled? Is there a way to disable it?

          • fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.comEnglish
            3·
            2 months ago

            This hasn’t been proven in any way. Original op in link states it could be discovery for email domains.

            • kixik
              6·
              2 months ago

              What they’re saying there is that when trying to auto detect the server configurations, there are unexpected connections to cloudfare IPs, which didn’t usually happen with K9. Who posted the concern associated this to telemetry, but the answers are pointing a different direction. But at this point it just guesses, :(

              I guess some more formal traffic inspection needs to happen to understand if truly there’s unexpected traffic, where it is directed to, and hopefully infer somehow its purpose. The guesses about what’s happening suggest it’s just about the auto connection, but again, just guesses.

              I explored the configurations, and I didn’t find anything about telemetry, and so neither how to disable it. K9 does not have an about:config advanced configuration like desktop Thunderbird does, so if there’s truly telemetry or some other sort of information leakage, then after proving it, perhaps developers realize they can do better. But so far nothing really proving telemetry or information leakage.

              • 𝘋𝘪𝘳𝘬
                1·
                6 days ago

                The ONLY connection I want my mail client to make, is the one to my configured mail server.

                EVERY other connection it makes is to be seen as malicious.

              • BenEnglish
                1·
                1 month ago

                Are there any updates on this?

                • kixik
                  2·
                  1 month ago

                  Not sure what updates you are expecting to happen.

                  I’m not aware of any effort trying to identify the traffic going in and out on Thunderbird under android. The guesses from the one reporting about what happens when configuring a new email account is of no use since it’s easily associated to Thunderbird looking for ways to easy automation on new accounts settings.

                  Unless there’s a throughout analysis of the traffic, I’m not aware of anything to be expected. You can try reaching the one reporting his concern, and ask if he has looked into how to report an actual issue/bug to Thunderbird, or if someone else has done it

  • maniacalmanicmania@aussie.zone
    40·
    2 months ago

    FYI this is from 2022 but is relevant because Thunderbird (and K9 v8) just landed in F-Droid (and other android package managers I guess but I haven’t checked).

    The process of importing from K9 Mail worked without issue for me. There is also the option to import from desktop using a QR scanner (or some kind of scanner, again I didn’t go down that rabbit hole).

    • gerlen@suppo.fiOPEnglish
      15·
      2 months ago

      I was surprised when in update menu I saw Thunderbird. Thought I accidentally downloaded it

      • thingsiplay@beehaw.org
        61·
        2 months ago

        How did the K9 project never talked about this? Its public since 2 years or so that Thunderbird announced they are working on rebranding K9 as Thunderbird.

          • thingsiplay@beehaw.org
            2·
            2 months ago

            Edit: My bad English. I tried to rephrase this reply.

            But the blog post is 2 years old and not part of the application. Since then new users started using the app. Most people don’t read blog posts, if nothing big changes. Was there never a popup message, in example after a regular update, to inform about upcoming huge changes? So that people do not get surprised. The app description should have this information very clear and prominently on the top. No current user should be in a position that the app changes like this.

            • Ephera
              3·
              2 months ago

              Ah, yeah, I don’t think there was anything in the app. I guess, they could’ve mentioned it in the changelog, which gets shown in the app by default after an update.

              But yeah, I think we’ll have to excuse a bit of a bumpy ride here. I know, it says “Mozilla” on there now, but to my knowledge, it’s still just the one core dev…

        • maniacalmanicmania@aussie.zone
          7·
          2 months ago

          In F-Droid (not sure about Play or other app stores) K9 v8.0 (and above I guess) is now listed as Thunderbird Beta for Testers. I and possibly others thought that the K9 version of the app would keep it’s branding all the way through, including it’s listing name or title in various app stores. Perhaps it wont or perhaps it’s a listing error. We’ll see.

  • kyub@discuss.tchncs.de
    272·
    2 months ago

    Just FYI I installed the apk from the github repo (not the google play version) via Obtainium a few days ago and it tried to make a connection to 2 cloudflare IPs during setup of my account. Without prior consent or any mention. So just be aware that there is still some form of telemetry or unwanted connections happening, even though they removed the telemetry flowing to Mozilla’s own telemetry endpoint. K-9 had zero of this, it just spoke with your mail servers and that was it. So be careful and block outgoing app connections by default. I did not analyze the data being sent, just that there were those 2 unwanted connectiins happening.

    • jonne@infosec.pub
      12·
      2 months ago

      Isn’t this part of the auto configuration stuff? Basically there’s a standard where you can add some DNS records to your domain and/or a standard file on your website so e-mail clients can automatically prepopulate all the email settings so you only need to worry about entering your email and password.

      • ghen@sh.itjust.works
        4·
        2 months ago

        That might be it, Thunderbird works really well with auto configuration of domains that it doesn’t know but has DNS entries.

  • Handles@leminal.spaceEnglish
    19·
    2 months ago

    I think it’s weird that they insisted all along that K-9 would remain its own branded version of the joint app. Yet according to f-droid, my newly updated K-9 (same app I’ve used for a decade and a half) is now one of two “Thunderbird for beta testers” listed…

    It’s still K-9 in my local app menu, the icon is the same, but I guess the Thunderbird project are sort of working out how to manage two differently branded versions of the same app?

    • jonne@infosec.pub
      7·
      2 months ago

      Thunderbird is finally out of beta so you can get it through the play store or F-Droid. K-9 itself was also updated so it’s now basically a K-9 branded version of Thunderbird.

    • communism
      3·
      2 months ago

      Idk about other sources, but I get my apk directly from GitHub via Obtainium, and my app recently changed from K-9 Mail to Thunderbird. Icon, app name, and app theming changed. This has been in the works for a while but seems like they’re officially switched the apk.

  • thingsiplay@beehaw.org
    4·
    2 months ago

    Will I be able to sync my Thunderbird accounts with K-9 Mail?

    Yes. We plan to offer Firefox Sync as one option to allow you to securely sync accounts between Thunderbird and K-9 Mail. We expect this feature to be implemented in the summer of 2023.

    So is this sync functionality already available? (Edit: Citation corrected)

    • d0ntpan1c@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      2·
      2 months ago

      Its been in testing for a bit. It got bumped from the last major desktop Thunderbird release and since Thunderbird releases used to be synced to firefox ESR releases its been a slow turnaround to get their schedule moving faster.

    • Ephera
      2·
      2 months ago

      I’m not seeing it in my just-upgraded “Thunderbird Beta for Testers”.