2 mo. ago • 94%

K-9 Mail is now Thunderbird

blog.thunderbird.net Frequently Asked Questions: Thunderbird Mobile and K-9 Mail

An evolving list of frequently asked questions about Thunderbird on Android, and K-9 Mail joining the Thunderbird family.

Libre Software @lemmy.ml Thunderbird is currently evaluating the development of an iOS app.

Apple @lemmy.ml Thunderbird is currently evaluating the development of an iOS app.

48 comments

67
- K9 isn't going anywhere. It's still K9, just rebranded and improved.
  
  45
- Its just a name changing
  
  21
  
  Nope. They initially added some data scraping parts, and apparently still use some form of telemetry without proper disclosure.
  
  10
- Facts.
  
  0
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).

40
- I was surprised when in update menu I saw Thunderbird. Thought I accidentally downloaded it
  
  15
  
  Same, oddly enough the app name and icon didn't change for me. Still K-9 in app settings too.
  
  6
  
  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.
  
  5
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.

25
- 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.
  
  12
  
  That might be it, Thunderbird works really well with auto configuration of domains that it doesn't know but has DNS entries.
  
  4
- Did you get any mismatched IDs from Obtainium? Think I have to reinstall.
  
  1
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?

19
- Apparently it's a metadata bug, K9 shouldn't be listed as Thunderbird. See comments ITT.
  
  7
Permanently Deleted

9
Why post an article from 2022? Did something happen lately about K9/Thunderbird?

8
- 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.
  
  7
- 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.
  
  3
Just a note that it's now also available on F-Droid

https://f-droid.org/packages/net.thunderbird.android/

7
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)

4
- Not yet. Anyway OP shouldn't have posted an article from 2022.
  
  2
- 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.
  
  2
- I'm not seeing it in my just-upgraded "Thunderbird Beta for Testers".
  
  2
So in confused. Do I need to install thunderbird or...?

3
Now that K-9 was killed by a for-profit corporation: What good mail clients are out there?

2
If only there was a automatic configuration export/import

1
Come to iOS 😍

0
- What is the deal with this anyway? Why has this not happened yet?
  
  3
  
  Mozilla is non-profit. I wish they could sell it as a one-time or something as I dont mind supporting them if they're doing useful capitalistic things like that. Very few actually private mail client apps for iOS. I only know of two and Canary is not one of them
  
  9
  
  K-9 is probably an Android only client? They'd have to either find an open source iOS app to build on, or build a new one from scratch.
  
  2
Rip.

-1

You've viewed 48 comments.