Mailbird/InScribe/I.Scribe

Has anyone any experience of any of these email clients please? I've been going off Thunderbird for ages, and now it has completely fallen over on two different machines, both modern with decent spec.

Mailbird looks good, with InScribe a paid-for possibility. I.Scribe is only in the Subject as views on that will largely apply to InScribe. I'm not considering it as I need multiple accounts and SMTP settings. I will be using IMAP for incoming.

Thanks in advance.

I've been using TheBat! for a while. It has a few quirks and it isn't free but it does the job.

Windows Live Mail?

Thunderbird is fine for me, I've used it for several years since having to use Outlook (dreadful). In what sense has it 'fallen over'?

I use a Macbook pro and hence Mac email at work, although the actual mail server is gmail so I can use web-based or phone-based gmail if necessary.

I use TB on four Linux machines and we have not had any problems.
Put a post on the Mozilla forum https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/products/thunderbird
to find the problem.

'You do not buy a new house because the door needs painting' !

It updated to 38.2.0, then the next time I loaded it, it wouldn't read any new emails from the servers.

I went back to my previous machine and re-enabled TB. It updated, then downloaded from all accounts on both servers, including emails that the newer machine was not reading.

Turned that off at night, and next day the same as the newer one - not reading any new mails.

Stuff going to find out what the problem is in their forums (@APTMAN ) - it's been annoying me as a product for ages. I'm sort of managing with webmail (Roundcube) to read the incoming, but it's a pain involving two accounts open in IE and one in Chrome. (Two browsers needed as two servers involved, and I can't get two accounts open simultaneously open on the same server and browser).

Edited by RobertoS (Tue 29-Sep-15 16:23:32)

That's never been satisfactory for me I'm afraid Oliver. I help a couple of people who use it, and for simple usage it isn't bad. For me it just seems horribly messy.

It was the demise of Outlook Express and the rise of its successors that sent me to Thunderbird in the first place, on advice in a long thread on these forums from others, after trying all the popular ones at the time.

I gather no-one so far knows anything about the ones I'm choosing between.

In reply to a post by Andrue:

I've been using TheBat! for a while. It has a few quirks and it isn't free but it does the job.

I'm going to try Mailbird I think, then InScribe if I don't like it. But I'll bear TheBat! in mind if neither lives up to their hype.

Edited by RobertoS (Tue 29-Sep-15 16:23:58)

Hmm just checked mine and am on 17.0.5 which still works fine. I guess updating is not a good idea!

Sounds like a bug:

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1195043

Fortunately as I increasingly use a Macbook, have seen no problems there...

Thanks Keith. That's a very informative thread you found.

That poor guy Bill isn't half getting some stick, but I agree with every word he says. The thread is confused by several others with a similar but non-identical problem.

For a start, a manual get doesn't work either, and restarts have no effect. In my case it is completely dead - always loading to the point where it stopped working on the individual machine.

I have seen the occasional popup in the notification area of a couple of emails, but never caught them to see if they are new or "recent at the time of dying". Even that hasn't happened for a couple of days, so I suspect the latter.

The general attitude in that thread is very anti-complainer. Once I have something working I shall email that Bill fellow, but don't feel like registering to post there.

I expect I am registered somewhere for it, but that thread has convinced me getting away from it is probably the best option, seeing as things like the dreadful search system have irked me for years.

I've just started using this.


Edit: the free version is limited to just 2 email accounts, not so good, will try something else.

Edited by Apprentice (Tue 29-Sep-15 21:41:09)

A couple of hours ago I downloaded Mailbird. For the first 30 days you get the full ($9pa but I looked for a UK price) product. Then it drops to Lite, which has a 3-account limit and a couple of unnecessary but nice features missing.

Currently 3 accounts (that absorb several domain emails using redirection on the servers) will do for me but a crucial missing function is message filtering/folderisation. Some of that I already achieve on the servers but adding new ones is messy - at least on Tsohost - as I haven't found a option on the server-side filters to apply retrospectively.

A lot of it looks good. (I have ignored/Skipped all the auto-links to social media and google calendar - though if I stay with it I do use google calendar for inter-device sync). It makes Thunderbird look very Noah'ish.

Go on Bob, get a Mac, you know you want to.

LOL.

How would that solve the TB problem? The Mail app on my iPad doesn't appeal.

Get a Macbook pro?

Or revert to an earlier version of Thunderbird, and disable updates. Both work for me...

I don't intend to buy a Mac machine because of a Thunderbird cockup thank you . Nor do I have any idea how a MacBook Pro would solve the problem, nor a strong desire to find out.

Particularly as I am using an almost new 15.6" touchscreen laptop with an i7-5500U processor and 16GB RAM.

You saw in the post you replied to that TB has annoyed me for years - it was the best of a poor selection when I started using it and has got messier and buggier ever since.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

The general attitude in that thread is very anti-complainer. Once I have something working I shall email that Bill fellow, but don't feel like registering to post there.

I expect I am registered somewhere for it, but that thread has convinced me getting away from it is probably the best option, seeing as things like the dreadful search system have irked me for years.

I have seen others complain in the past about the Thunderbird is perfect and you are an idiot brigade, but not seen it myself on a problem I too have.

Sorry, didn't meant any offence. I still use a Win 7 PC most of the time, and my old version of Thunderbird works fine for me and has done for years. If it doesn't work for you then get something else. Please don't attack me for other companies faults.

Go pay for Outlook and see what you get...

Nor did I mean my post to be an attack. In fact, it quite puzzles me that you took it as such.

I've just had a go with the free version. I might have gone for it, in the Pro version, but it doesn't work well on my 3840 x 2160 15.6" screen. The menus etc. are fine, but the message displays are in tiny font. Even upping their font size doesn't affect them, only the writing window. Even then, the composition tools are tiny.

Similarly when I set up the two accounts, the password field is fine, but the username field is rendered as full width but extremely shallow slot with nothing showing except the low part of the descenders on letter such as g, p y and so on. Not that you use that very often.

In reply to a post by Andrue:

I've been using TheBat! for a while. It has a few quirks and it isn't free but it does the job.

It doesn't look too bad, though conflicting views from a few google results. The lack of a free trial killed it for me.

I have settled for now on Mailbird. I think I've solved the problem of there being no message filtering, (which by the way features high on the users' wish list), by setting them up in cPanel on the servers for the future then doing a search in Roundcube using the same filter. That lists them properly by simply replacing the header list with the subset, unlike the idiotic Thunderbird search. Click Select all, and a simple drag and drop to the Roundcube folder. Reflected within seconds in Mailbird.

I've played with the layout, giving myself my preferred old-style header and message panels.

Result!

One thing to watch out for if anyone tries it is I don't seem to be able to re-order the accounts in the folder column. It doesn't really matter, and it would be a cinch to delete the whole thing and set it up again if I want. Which is unlikely until I get a new machine anyway.

Looking good so far. Thanks for everyone's ideas.

Edited by RobertoS (Wed 30-Sep-15 23:48:15)

Dunno what you got against WLM. It's functionally the same as OE (with extensive filters & foldering).

My TB (v 12.0.1) still works perfectly. EDIT: Ah, it hasn't updated since 2013 altho' set to. Doesn't always do to follow the updates. It suits me as it is .

Edited by XRaySpeX (Thu 01-Oct-15 01:33:21)

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

Dunno what you got against WLM. It's functionally the same as OE (with extensive filters & foldering).

My TB (v 12.0.1) still works perfectly.

i agree WLM has similar and additional functionality to OE, but it is very different in use and not suitable.

What has TB v12.0.1 got to do with anything? I am not the only person hit by this bug they have just introduced!

How dare you dismiss my dislike of some features of TB, ones that I use frequently and find hugely badly designed and implemented? You have almost no idea of my requirements.

I suggest you dismount.

What's got into you? I never dismissed your feelings about TB at all, not like you just dismissed my knowledge of the requirements of both email clients and servers, having designed both. But I guess your requirements will be impossible to satisfy by any email client designer.

You get off your high horse or get out the other side of your bed. Don't be so rude!

Edited by XRaySpeX (Thu 01-Oct-15 02:37:05)

The problem with TB is that it doesn't have a designer.

Re my reply to your previous post, perhaps you didn't mean it in the way it came across . As the first reply to an opening post that baldly said "I don't like WLM or Thunderbird", with no further explanation by the OP, then it would not have caused offence. Coming where and when it did, it did.

Just to add to my previous reply to you Keith, when I seemed to upset you. Was it the italicised part to do with the Thunderbird is perfect? That was about the quote from my earlier post. I was referring to the Thunderbird forum rudeness to the poster who had raised the same problem. Not to you.

It was you who gave the link to that thread, and as I said at the time I appreciated that. It helped a lot.

Edited by RobertoS (Thu 01-Oct-15 09:05:04)

Not upset - just trying to offer some (hopefully) helpful tips. No offence intended.

In reply to a post by keith969:

Go pay for Outlook and see what you get...

I very much like Outlook, I currently use Outlook 2010 and I've never had any problems with it.

I used to use Outlook, it was a company requirement. But I didn't have to pay for it. Agree that it works well but costs... yearly subscriptions and all that stuff. And the gui with Office kept changing which was irritating. Maybe you can get it free these days, I have not looked.

Meanwile my Mac email is the same on Macbook, iPad, iPhone and is free. It has the benefit of threading mail messages.

On my PC Thunderbird works fine, I just don't have auto updates turned on - so still on a relatively old version.

Used to use Eudora in the (long distant) past which was nice, but I think discontinued now.

In reply to a post by keith969:

I used to use Outlook, it was a company requirement. But I didn't have to pay for it. Agree that it works well but costs... yearly subscriptions and all that stuff.

Oulook is a one-off cost of £80. Not cheap, but is very solid in my experience and trusted by many businesses. Although a new one comes out every few years there's no requirement to buy the latest each time; I know people who happily run Outlook 2007 on Windows 10.

I did look around for Outlook, this time and at the time I went with Thunderbird, but haven't been able to avoid getting 100% of the results being for outlook.com, which of course isn't what I want.

When I do find any hints, it seems to be in the full MS Office and it's implied you need to have Exchange Server available. I just got tired looking.

Mailbird is working well, though I have clearly messed up one of my server-side message filters.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

I did look around for Outlook, this time and at the time I went withThunderbird, but haven't been able to avoid getting 100% of the results being for outlook.com, which of course isn't what I want.

When I do find any hints, it seems to be in the full MS Office and it's implied you need to have Exchange Server available. I just got tired looking.

Microsoft are pushing subscription-based Office versions mainly now, but a one-off standalone version of Outlook is definitely available, and is also available as part of Office Home and Business (also one-off purchase).

Outlook is fully compatible with POP3 and IMAP, no Exchange server required, although many people do have that perception of it since it is heavily used with Exchange in corporate environments. All the emails, contacts, calendar data etc are stored in .pst files which are easy to backup.

I use stand alone Outlook - currently 2010 - and have used it at home for many years. It currently handles 7 email accounts for us.

Sounds like my next port of call , if Mailbird turns out not to be a panacea. Thanks both.

Edited by RobertoS (Thu 01-Oct-15 15:36:03)