AquaMail Forum
English - Android => How do I... => Topic started by: guitareth on July 30, 2018, 04:21:13 pm
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I am about to install Aquamail on a new phone and I had to remind myself how to make a copy of my account settings to import to my new phone. I went to the relevant item on the FAQs page "How can I make a backup of my mail accounts?" and it states:
Please use the Menu on the app’s main window and choose “Backup and Restore”.
However, I've done that and for the life of me I cannot see that option. Has it been moved since a recent update?
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OK I found it. I see you have to go to the "Accounts" option and then access the menu from there. It would help if you'd make that clearer in the FAQs. Sorry, but this is something that's always bugged me about Aquamail. The app is fantastic, but I wish you could tidy up the settings options, so they can ALL be found in one place. It's incredibly confusing as it is. :'(
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OK I found it. I see you have to go to the "Accounts" option and then access the menu from there. It would help if you'd make that clearer in the FAQs. Sorry, but this is something that's always bugged me about Aquamail. The app is fantastic, but I wish you could tidy up the settings options, so they can ALL be found in one place. It's incredibly confusing as it is. :'(
The item "Backup and Restore" you could find in the app's Main window (Account list), but not in the 'Message list view' (after expanding an account's Folder)
BTW:
Do you know that the settings have a search function?
-> the 'magnifying glass' on the top right of the 'Settings window'
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OK I found it. I see you have to go to the "Accounts" option and then access the menu from there. It would help if you'd make that clearer in the FAQs. Sorry, but this is something that's always bugged me about Aquamail. The app is fantastic, but I wish you could tidy up the settings options, so they can ALL be found in one place. It's incredibly confusing as it is. :'(
The item "Backup and Restore" you could find in the app's Main window (Account list), but not in the 'Message list view' (after expanding an account's Folder)
BTW:
Do you know that the settings have a search function?
-> the 'magnifying glass' on the top right of the 'Settings window'
Thanks MikeOne but when you are within any account, and you select the settings option from there, the menu it takes you to is very prominently labelled "AquaMail Settings", not Account Settings. So it's my contention that this leads users to believe they are in the main settings view for Aquamail, which is where I would expect to find ALL settings. This is the way it works with pretty much all other software I have ever used i.e. a single Settings menu. But for some reason the AquaMail developers have chosen to have ANOTHER settings menu which is only available from the Main Window /Accounts List. I believe this just confuses things. Why not have all settings available from just ONE settings menu?
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@guitareth
I'm talking about the Menu (= 3-dots icon at the top right edge) in the app's Main window (= Account list view)
-> see screenshot
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@guitareth
I'm talking about the Menu (= 3-dots icon at the top right edge) in the app's Main window (= Account list view)
-> see screenshot
Mikeone you are missing my point. Yes, as I said I did eventually find the menu containing the backup and restore option. My issue is that it's easy to miss that you have to go into that separate "Settings" menu, and why complicate things by having more than one Settings menu within the app. Or... if the developers feel they have good reasons for keeping the two seprate settings menus, why not simply add links from each to the other. For example, in the settings menu within accounts (Currently labelled Aquamail Settings" they could add a menu option at the bottom called something like "Additional Aquamail settings" which takes you to the settings menu which is currently in the Main/Accounets view, and similarly that latter menu could include a link to "Account settings" which takes you back to the other menu.
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Re: the settings menu which is currently in the Main/Accounets view
That's a menu not a settings screen. Two completely different things.
Just like Message View has a Menu with things like "Mark Unread" and app's Settings screens do not.
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Re: the settings menu which is currently in the Main/Accounets view
That's a menu not a settings screen. Two completely different things.
Just like Message View has a Menu with things like "Mark Unread" and app's Settings screens do not.
Call it what you will - I still find it very confusing that a major option "Backup/Restore" is not include in your main settings screen then. As I said, I think your app is fantastic, but the one thing that has always got me confused is that certain "key" settings are contained in different parts of the app.
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Call it what you will - I still find it very confusing that a major option "Backup/Restore" is not include in your main settings screen then. As I said, I think your app is fantastic, but the one thing that has always got me confused is that certain "key" settings are contained in different parts of the app.
'Actions' you will find usually in an app's menu. 'Options', on the other hand, are individual settings (to customize an app) which can be accessed via a special entry in the menu.
"Backup / Restore" is clearly an action (not an "option"), which you should find in the menu (not in the 'Settings')
-> See attached screenshots created from MailDroid
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Completely agree that all settings should be in one place. Most other software would call a backup/restore a "setting", especially if you are backing up or restoring your, um, settings.
A search for "backup" using the magnifying glass in settings returns no results. Fortunately, I can search for it here....
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Completely agree that all settings should be in one place. Most other software would call a backup/restore a "setting", especially if you are backing up or restoring your, um, settings.
A search for "backup" using the magnifying glass in settings returns no results. Fortunately, I can search for it here....
I will try to explain the difference again:
- A Setting is a setting
(set colors, general behavior of the app, etc. ...)
- An Action is an action
(e.g. mark messages as read/unread, move a message into a specific folder, delete a message, etc. ...)
'Backup/Restore' (of account data/credentials and/or app settings) is an explicit Action. Therefore you will not be able to find the Backup feature via the search function in the Settings menu. 😉
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Re: you are backing up or restoring your, um, settings
And if you're backing up or restoring your, um, accounts - then where?
That being said, we're going to move "backup and restore" into Settings under Storage (because of some other work we're doing).
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Under Data storage is only attachments settings. I have a new Note 9 and want to take Settings and Accounts to new phone, can't seem to find a procedure for it and Samsung smart switch only took the (Pro) App over. Can't find a backup option anywhere on Note 4, although the 9 is asking me to restore one.
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Sorry, but this menu thing beat me too. I am not expecting the three dots to morph into some other menu when I am in the settings menu but morph they did. So it seems I have backed up / restored and can take it from here...
Interesting that the backup clearly said accounts and settings, and ticked, but only the accounts seem to have made it as definitely many changed settings are on default and nothing listed in recent changes either, whereas the 4 has some there....
Edit: I am fully sorted now, but had to make another backup with just settings to get them to carry over, which the recent changes list didn't go but the changes did. I tried just selecting settings, or both. Got told settings had nothing to do and 8 accounts were duplicates so none created. Ok, so I made just a settings one and it worked. Using Dropbox if that is relevant.
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Re: Under Data storage is only attachments settings
That being said, we're going to move "backup and restore" into Settings under Storage.
We are going - in the future. Future - not present or past. We will. Soon. But not yet not in the version you have now.
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Why for the love of God did the developers move the backup and restore function from the main 3 dot Menu in the upper right hand corner of the interface? Why would you ever want to go from simple and easy to burying it three or four layers deep in the application settings. I would assume most people pretty often backup their settings or accounts. This is a major function of the application not some cosmetic preference. Instead of Simply click the three dot menu and you go immediately to backup and restore now you must click the three dot menu go to settings then under settings go to data storage and under data storage go to backup and restore holy crap I think if they had tried they might have actually been able to bury it a little deeper than that. I'll tell you what my solution is it is to uninstall the most recent version and reinstall an older version where everything was nicely placed and worked well maybe the developers will get their head out of their butt and realize that function over form is much more important. Please put the backup and restore function as well as the move to folder function back in the main three. Menu where it belongs. Also another gripe of mine is in the what's new portion of the Play Store app description a lot of things that are critically important are omitted so that when someone is trying to make the decision about whether to upgrade the app or not they often get something that they really don't want like this most recent change with the main menu come on guys you've been so great for so long why start screwing the application up now if it ain't broke don't fix it. Thanks for hearing me out.
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Do you know that AM has a search function for settings? It took me about three seconds to search for where the backup settings are.
Open the main menu (three dots on the upper right > tap the magnifying glass > type backup > and there it is.
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Yes I did know this. I think you guys are missing the point why would you make something harder to find rather than leaving it where it was in the main menu where it was very easy to access without having to do a search and then dig three levels deep in the settings to get to something where it used to be available with only one click that's my point. It seems to me that it would be the object of the development team to make the program easier-to-use not more difficult that is my point.
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@magus21
I understand your arguments, but would ask you to fully read this recent discussion with another user:
https://www.aqua-mail.com/forum/index.php?topic=6753.0
It is the dilemma of a developer that every decision in favor of one user is always a decision against another user.
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I'm not sure where the development of the interface is headed but it would appear just from stuff I've read peripherally that there may be major changes on the horizon so in light of making these changes since it seems to be moving more toward an icon driven menu bar how about a button on the menu bar for backup and restore surely that shouldn't be too hard to implement and it would make that function not buried three layers deep in the settings just a thought.
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Re: why would you make something harder to find rather than leaving it where it was in the main menu where it was very easy to access
Because the "main menu" may not be there at all - and the "main screen" may not be there at all anymore with the new option to hide the account list screen ("main screen") entirely.
And why did we add the option to hide the account list screen?
Because when you have just one or two accounts you don't really need it, it's just a lot easier to use if the app "launches into" a message list directly and exits when you tap Back there.
It is an option and it can be left disabled - but enabling it completely hides the "main screen" and "main menu" so we had to find a new home for Backup and Restore (and for "about" too, by the way).
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First of all two things number one I certainly do not mean any disrespect for any of the developers or any of the forum team or others who post year. And the second thing is I have indeed read the thread. I only have one email account but it's quite important to me and I use this application extensively every single day. I use Aqua mail for a reason because it fits my needs better than any other email program and I can figure it to perform in the way I want it to. The ability to configure the program in a number of ways is what appeals to me and I personally like the split screen view with the account and folders on one side of the screen and the messages displayed on the other side. But that's just me and what I like I may not need it that way but it's what I WANT and that was why I bought the program because that was what I WANTED . If you look in Play Store every single stinking email application there and I do mean everyone the interface looks exactly the same for the most part everybody wants their email program to look like either Blue Mail or Gmail it's very much like every cell phone manufacturer wants their product to look as much like an iPhone as possible hoping to attract some of Apples customers. It seems in this day and age that it's form over function and unfortunately that is beginning to creep into the software environment. For me it's not a cookie-cutter world and I don't want it to be that way but unfortunately it slips in that direction more and more every single day. I suppose it was too much to hope that Aqua Mail would continue to do what it does well, keep Pace with the latest version of Android and by and large keep the interface that so many of us love and have grown accustomed to. If I had wanted one big message list every time I open my email and General cookie cutter mediocrity I could have had that years ago with Blue Mail or any number of other email programs from Play Store. But instead I tried and bought Aqua Mail because it was just exactly the thing I WANTED . Having come from a background of Eudora email on my Windows machine I was looking something that to some degree emulated that experience and found it only in Aqua Mail . Oh well I guess those days are on the way out so it really won't matter which email program I use because by and large they'll all be pretty much the same just some will have more bugs than others. Hopefully you guys will retain enough of the old interface / time so that those of us who love it so much will still find something there that we want. It sure doesn't give you a warm and fuzzy feeling going forward though. So to sum up you don't necessarily HAVE to have a given thing but you may choose to WANT a certain thing and I think when it comes to any sort of purchase in our life we all tend to buy what we WANT even though sometimes we don't necessarily need IT. Thanks for hearing me out and I won't bug you in this thread anymore.
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Re: First of all two things number one...
The option to hide the account list view is OPTIONAL it's a SETTING that you don't have to enable if you don't want to.
Second, yes "backup and restore" has been moved, and you now know where it is and hopefully can use it again.