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indexing decrypted messages

#1484

It is possible to allow MailMate to index decrypted messages. This allows you to search within encrypted messages, but it also means that decrypted text is added to database files. Make sure you understand the implications of doing this. Note that if you change this setting then it only affects messages which have not yet been decrypted. Also note that attachments are saved in a decrypted state to disk if viewed. (https://manual.mailmate-app.com/preferences)

Is there a way to automatically open, decrypt, and index all the encrypted messages stored on the server? Or do I need to open every message by hand for them to be decrypted and added to the index file (obviously after enabling the "Index decrypted messages for searching" option)?

Is there a way to ensure that previously indexed decrypted messages are removed from the index (after disabling the "Index decrypted messages for searching" option)? Can I somehow ask for the index to be rebuilt or does the decrypted index data at least get removed when I remove the corresponding account?

Reported by Lars · June 12th, 2016 @ 03:52 PM

State: new
Milestone: none
Assigned to: benny benny

Activity

  1. Tobias A.
    Tobias A.

    I fear the situation of this feature is even worse than Lars describes because even the workaround he suggests above

    Or do I need to open every message by hand for them to be decrypted and added to the index file (obviously after enabling the "Index decrypted messages for searching" option)?

    does not work for me.

    It seems that MailMate somehow remembers a mail message, which means, that even if I completely remove a message from all IMAP server that MailMate knows about and then put it back in one of its managed inboxes the message will not be indexed. Completely removing and readding an IMAP account also doesn’t work. Only if an encrypted message gets received for the first time it will be indexed.

    I too think that it would be extremely handy to be able to reindex all of MailMate’s messages so that after a change of the “Index decrypted messages for searching” option one is able to create an index state that reflects this option. Otherwise accessing an already existing IMAP account with MailMate that contains a lot of already encrypted mails is quite useless.

    March 24th, 2017 @ 07:21 PM

  2. benny
    benny
    • State changed from new to accepted

    For individual messages then the workaround is to use “Message ▸ Reset Message” since that forces MailMate to refetch the email.

    I put a note in the preferences pane about it only affecting not already decrypted messages, but maybe it should simply state that it only affects not already known messages. This is of course not ideal, but it's also non-trivial to improve.

    If you want to reset everything after enabling/disabling this setting then the safest way is to force MailMate to refetch all emails. This is (currently) best done by quitting MailMate and then deleting the following folders:

    ~/Library/Application Support/MailMate/Database.noindex
~/Library/Application Support/MailMate/Attachments
~/Library/Application Support/MailMate/Messages
~/Library/Application Support/MailMate/Messages.noindex

    Caveat: If you have enabled spotlight custom location in the General prefs pane then you also need to remove the Messages folder in the alternative location.

    When relaunched MailMate are going to see all accounts as new accounts and start refetching all emails.

    I'll treat this ticket as an implicit request for the indexing setting to be more dynamic, that is, it should automatically re-index the related emails, but note that it's a non-trivial change and unlikely to happen soon (if ever).

    @Lars: Sorry about the very late reply.

    March 25th, 2017 @ 08:06 AM

  3. benny
    benny

    I should also warn that if you have any local messages not synchronized (uploaded) to the server then my instructions above would delete them. To find such emails: Select “All Messages”, enable the UID column and then look for any emails which do not have a UID.

    March 25th, 2017 @ 08:08 AM

  4. Lars
    Lars

    Caveat: All the links from smart mailboxes to IMAP folders will be destroyed.

    For example, I had a smart mailbox called Inbox that merged several, but not all inboxes from my accounts. This smart mailbox is now empty. Its settings still show the references to the IMAP inbox folders, but I am assuming those are linked by UID or similar, so they point nowhere. I now need to remove all those links and manually re-add them.

    This is especially unfortunate as there is no way to tell apart a broken link from a working link. All the referenced IMAP folders will need to be re-added by hand to the smart mailbox settings.

    (Side note: Please don't simply have MailMate remove those invalid IDs to "fix" this issue, otherwise I wouldn't even know what the links used to point to. But maybe add an exclamation mark to links that point nowhere valid.)

    April 2nd, 2017 @ 12:25 PM

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