How do I... do anything?

[enchant]

I've searched around, but for the life of me, I can't find any basic documentation - a user manual or something.  I've just installed Aqua mail on my android and I suspect it'll do what I need, but I have absolutely no idea how to use it.  The only things I see in the way of help are a FAQ (none of my questions are answered there) and this forum.  If there is no guide at all, I'll post my list of what are certainly VERY stupid questions.

[enchant]

Ok, let's start with these.

The icon has a number (37) in an orange circle.  What is that telling me?

When I open Aquamail, that same number is to the right of "Smart Folder", my email address, and "Inbox".
Again, what does it indicate?  I could only guess that it indicates the number of messages, unread messages, threads...
It'd be wrong on each of those, so it can't be that.

In my inbox:
Some messages have a white background, some grey. What's the difference?
Why are some bold?

Near the left of each message is a large letter in a circle.  The letter appears to be the initial of the person sending the message.
Does the color have any significance?  They seem pretty useless. Can they be removed to give everything else more space?

A few messages have a number on the very left edge.  What's that?

On the right, above the date is a star.  Clicking this seems to select it.  What can I do with this?

My inbox on the server has nearly 1000 messages.  Can I somehow delete all (or old) messages from this list on Aquamail without altering what's on the server?  So that when I refresh, I get only new messages?
If that's possible, is it also possible for me to force all of the messages on the server to redownload if I need an old one?

[enchant]

To better understand your expectations: what's your device? Where are you living and how old are you? How many accounts do you have?

Android phone - Galaxy S6
Massachusetts
66
How many accounts?  That's a tough question.  Only one that I'll be using with my phone, though.

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Thanks for the answers to many of my other questions.  Sounds like a lot of answers can be found by me going in and playing with the settings and seeing what I screw up.

My primary purpose for installing Aquamail is just to get a heads up about what mail I'm getting.  I don't plan on doing anything terribly complex.  I won't be sending mail.  I'm on a PC a lot every day, but I'm going to be taking a 10-day vacation where I'll frequently have no access to wifi or PC.  I just want to be able to check from time to time to see that the world isn't burning down while I'm incommunicado.

[enchant]

A followup...

I played a little with the settings.  Got rid of the stars and also the circled letters.  Yay. Also found "Mark all read" which got rid of the number. So I've got many hundreds of "read" messages in the list. In the 3-dot menu on the upper right, there's a "Select All" (and then delete) which got me pretty excited for a moment, but it only selects all on that screen.  I've probably got 50 screens of messages.  Is there a way to Select ALL?

If that circle holds a picture from my contact list, then I definitely don't need that.  My phone contacts (mostly friends) text me.  Customers and potential customers email me.  I'll likely never meet them and/or get their picture.

Like I said, my needs are simple and I'm 95% there.  Thanks again for your help!

[enchant]

Ok.  I guess I just have to go through all the screens the one time.  Thanks again for the help.

[Kostya Vasilyev]

Re: - not possible to select ALL (absolutely all), to prevent a user from definitely deleting all messages by error.

But you can select more than one screen worth if you adjust

- App settings -> message list -> Select "all" means -> change from "visible" to "all loaded"

[enchant]

Oh, nice!  Thank you!