SPARK MAIL - Issues

[jaypeewhy]

Hi

I quite like the Spark Mail app. I use it on both iPhone and Mac. But there seems to be some issues that are so easily overcome in other mail apps I can't help but assume I am missing something.

If you can help with any please let me know.

1. The search is simply awful. The so called Smart Search is also terrible. It also appears I need to click on every different folder to search within it, there is no global search across, for example, 'Archive, Trash and Inbox'. Even when I search within a folder, using an email address suggestion that it provides it doesn't;t find stuff that I can find manually in that folder anyway.
2. Nesting. Is there a way to 'un-nest' a conversation. I have an initial email with info in it. There are a couple of benign back and forward replies that I don't want ... if I delete the reply it kills the entire nest of emails, including the initial one with the pertinent info in it. This is a huge issue if I send out multiple emails to different addresses with the same subject as it nests all responses in the same thread meaning some get missed.
3. The email thread places new messages at the bottom , but it displays email threads from the top down. Meaning that you always have to scroll down to see the emails.

The search alone leaves me wondering whether I need to go back to using plain old Apple Mail. \\\

Any assistance gratefully received.
James

 

[pacorob]

1. The search is simply awful. The so called Smart Search is also terrible. It also appears I need to click on every different folder to search within it, there is no global search across, for example, 'Archive, Trash and Inbox'. Even when I search within a folder, using an email address suggestion that it provides it doesn't;t find stuff that I can find manually in that folder anyway.
2. Nesting. Is there a way to 'un-nest' a conversation. I have an initial email with info in it. There are a couple of benign back and forward replies that I don't want ... if I delete the reply it kills the entire nest of emails, including the initial one with the pertinent info in it. This is a huge issue if I send out multiple emails to different addresses with the same subject as it nests all responses in the same thread meaning some get missed.
3. The email thread places new messages at the bottom , but it displays email threads from the top down. Meaning that you always have to scroll down to see the emails.

The search alone leaves me wondering whether I need to go back to using plain old Apple Mail.

To answer your questions:

1) I'm currently using another e-mail app (Email by Easylido) but search in that app isn't the best thing to be honest but Airmail is pretty good at it though. To come back to Spark I can say that I didn't use the Smart Inbox but only the Inbox. When I use the search button in my Inbox I can in fact see e-mails that are also stored in archived folders and not my inbox and are from e.g. June 2016 from the person I looked for 'Patrick' and selected 'All Accounts' in search in (automatically did that). This is for my Gmail account. Not sure if that has to do with it. It also works fine when I search there with e.g. 'Patrick PDF' to get all e-mails from Patrick where there was a PDF attachment. I just tried earlier and it still works fine here on my iPhone 5s running iOS10.2.1 and the latest Spark version.

2) I agree with you there. It's a good suggestion that it would be great if you could remove one e-mail out of the conversation without deleting the complete conversation. I would definitely suggest you to reach out Readdle (developer of the app) to have this updated in a future version or at least give us the option to do so.

3) I agree with you that it would make a lot more sense if the newest e-mail would show as first and then all older e-mails. It would also be great to see the time aside of the date in the preview window. I would definitely suggest you to reach out Readdle (developer of the app) to have this updated in a future version or at least give us the option to do so.

I also suggest numerous features months ago but unfortunately the majority of those features haven't been implemented yet. One of those is the option to show attachments above a message instead of below it so you have to scroll all the way down. That was also the reason why I chose to switch over to Email by Easylido. Is that perfect? Definitely not I'm afraid. See also my comparison from a while ago but overall it's still pretty accurate except for TouchID which is now also supported by Email by Easylido.

 

[jaypeewhy]

I also suggest numerous features months ago but unfortunately the majority of those features haven't been implemented yet.

I haven't heard of people having much luck with support, which is a shame. You would think that a company like that would set up some decent kind of forum to at least keep an eye on the public views on their products. I haven't found one.

As much as I like Spark I might have to swap to something else. It's preferences are simply too limiting. They seem to have 'an' idea of how everyone should use Spark and if that doesn't;t work then there are no other options. All of their preferences seem to affect how the app looks and feels rather than what it actually does. 90% of the time I just need to read email. The other 10% should be interacting with previous mail but that, due to the programs foibles, ends up being more like 25% to 30% and can be incredibly frustrating. Overall - pretty but inefficient.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[pacorob]

Yea

I haven't heard of people having much luck with support, which is a shame. You would think that a company like that would set up some decent kind of forum to at least keep an eye on the public views on their products. I haven't found one.
Thanks for the reply.

There is a FAQ and that is about it. Unfortunately no forum or feature suggestion option other then sending them e-mails and response via Twitter is also lacking in most cases although I get that they get loads of tweets, e-mail and suggestions. I did receive a response though from a few people from Readdle that they would try to implement my suggestions in future versions.

Airmail (forum/feedback) do that a lot better although I'm still waiting on this (attach multiple files in one ego) and this (show attachments above a message) to be implemented and it's bizar that this phone clicking 'feature' still isn't in Airmail. Outlook also have a similar way of handling requests although that's only available via your app and then you get the forum.
I still hope Email by Easylido will also offer such a forum/feature on their website. They do offer a beta access for early access features.

 

[BoyfromOz]

Hi

I quite like the Spark Mail app. I use it on both iPhone and Mac. But there seems to be some issues that are so easily overcome in other mail apps I can't help but assume I am missing something.

If you can help with any please let me know.

1. The search is simply awful. The so called Smart Search is also terrible. It also appears I need to click on every different folder to search within it, there is no global search across, for example, 'Archive, Trash and Inbox'. Even when I search within a folder, using an email address suggestion that it provides it doesn't;t find stuff that I can find manually in that folder anyway.
2. Nesting. Is there a way to 'un-nest' a conversation. I have an initial email with info in it. There are a couple of benign back and forward replies that I don't want ... if I delete the reply it kills the entire nest of emails, including the initial one with the pertinent info in it. This is a huge issue if I send out multiple emails to different addresses with the same subject as it nests all responses in the same thread meaning some get missed.
3. The email thread places new messages at the bottom , but it displays email threads from the top down. Meaning that you always have to scroll down to see the emails.

The search alone leaves me wondering whether I need to go back to using plain old Apple Mail. \\\

Any assistance gratefully received.
James

Late response so hope you have alerts and haven't moved on from Spark - I can help a little on iPhone.

On iPhone
1. Search seeems to help ok
2. You can view the threaded emails together. Any operation at that level seems to apply to the whole thread. Within the thread you can click on each message and when you do a little symbol appears in the top right. Click on that an you get a bunch of actions you can apply to that specific email, including delete. So can be done. I think this is kinda clunky and a "clean-up" button that deletes the rest of the thread and leaves the latest email would be fantastic functionality that I haven't seen outside of the Outlook Windows client.
3. The iphone compresses all but the bottom email into a couple of lines (click on each to toggle open / close) - so it is a compact display, a quick scroll.

Hope that helps.

 

[alatorre]

I kind of like this email client too... but there are some drawbacks

1) Smart inbox is not, I have to switch to regular inbox
2) Everything is threaded, I can perform some individual actions BoyrFromOZ said, but I the move/archive individual email is not allowed, so I need to go over each individual email and delete it (which is chunky), sometimes I've sort of 20-30 responses to a single email, most of the responses are not important, if I want to archive, I've to delete manually or archive the whole thread
3) Search is kinda ok, but does not search within my deleted (which in spark it is very easy to delete an important message)
4) if your thread has new emails in your inbox and some older -important- emails archived or in your sent folders, if you hit delete while on inbox... it deletes the whole thread, including your send and archived messages.

 

[pacorob]

I still hope that they can come up with a way:
* show attachments above a message.
* instantly show the e-mails in the app that were indicated as such due to the number notification on the app icon

 

[tosbsas]

Try Astro. Looks very promising

 

[pacorob]

Try Astro. Looks very promising

Thanks for the tip on Astro Mail. I also added it now to my overview here (although not yet in the sheet).
I wasn't aware that this new e-mail app existed on iOS. I love the fact that they do show the attachments above the e-mail message! I just downloaded it and tested it and will keep it on my homescreen for a while to test and compare it to see if I can switch to it.

For now I've send these suggestions to the developer:

* option for multiple signatures in iOS app. I suppose HTML is supported?

* add supports to attach multiple files in one go from the cloud (e.g. Dropbox)

* add support to download and save multiple attachments in one go from an e-mail to a cloud source

* option to remove the bot icon in the app and instead show some quick features (favorite user selected folder(s), calendar if this is added at one point)

* option to either show user icons (gmail) when you show an e-mail conversation or have the option to not show any icons (currently it indicates yellow letters from the first name of the sender/receiver

* search in e-mails older then 1 year and 8 months (if there is an exact limit there or more on the amount of e-mails about a certain subject?) I've noticed with searches there seems to be a limitation so I can't find e-mails from a certain person older then April '16 while I do have these e-mails in my Gmail account in a save folder

* add a calendar and have an option to quickly access it

I'm also not 'liking' the fact that they store my e-mails on Amazon Web services (AWS) as is writen in the security and privacy policies.

 

[nburwell]

Try Astro. Looks very promising

Indeed it does. I just downloaded it yesterday and been using it ever since (deactivated stock mail app). I do love Spark email, but I'm pretty impressed thus far with Astro. Not a huge fan of the app icon, but it certainly isn't a deal breaker.

 

[pacorob]

Indeed it does. I just downloaded it yesterday and been using it ever since (deactivated stock mail app). I do love Spark email, but I'm pretty impressed thus far with Astro. Not a huge fan of the app icon, but it certainly isn't a deal breaker.

I have that as well with the app icon but also I would like to get rid of the AI icon in the app itself as well or change it to something usefull for me like a quick access to a folder or calendar like Spark has.

I love the fact it shows the attachments above the messages like Edison Mail (Email by Easilydo) and Outlook do.

 

[TinaBelcher]

I used spark in the past but has since deleted it. I think it’s quite hideous, and I don’t like the card look. I don’t like that I have to click on the top left to view my mails and settings. I prefer to have it at the bottom. I also feel like I’m entering a website whenever I open the app because it has to go through the “Spark” logo with the blue background before actually opening your inbox. Where on others such as outlook simply shows your inbox as the first thing.

 

[ajhook]

Hi. First time asker here. I am using Spark Email and by and large like it. However, does anyone else get the spinning wheel of death when trying to reply to an email that has photos attached to it. It stalls and freezes the whole app when trying to write a reply. I only use it on my MacBook, not phone. This is super frustrating. No joy from contacting customer support at Spark itself.

 

[rjberger]

Hi. First time asker here. I am using Spark Email and by and large like it. However, does anyone else get the spinning wheel of death when trying to reply to an email that has photos attached to it. It stalls and freezes the whole app when trying to write a reply. I only use it on my MacBook, not phone. This is super frustrating. No joy from contacting customer support at Spark itself.

This is driving me mad. I really like Spark, mainly for the automatic grouping. But the spinning wheel death is happening so much that its constantly interrupting my flow. I have never heard anything back from the developers on this. I am seriously considering abandoning Spark for this even though I otherwise really like it.

 

[tbarazza]

Hi. First time asker here. I am using Spark Email and by and large like it. However, does anyone else get the spinning wheel of death when trying to reply to an email that has photos attached to it. It stalls and freezes the whole app when trying to write a reply. I only use it on my MacBook, not phone. This is super frustrating. No joy from contacting customer support at Spark itself.

I've the same problem and most of the time I've to switch to gmail online to see the attachment. Anyone solved this?

 

[ajhook]

I've the same problem and most of the time I've to switch to gmail online to see the attachment. Anyone solved this?

[doublepost=1548258759][/doublepost]Hey. It seems to have corrected itself over the last few updates. I've not noticed it happening as much recently. SO I don't know what fixed it, but it seems to have resolved. Cheers

 

[June Hills]

New to macrumors using Readdle Spark email which I really like. No problems until I updated to version 2.1.5 - now I get the spinning wheel of death. How can I load earlier version 2.1.4? That version had no problems for me.

 

[Apple_Robert]

New to macrumors using Readdle Spark email which I really like. No problems until I updated to version 2.1.5 - now I get the spinning wheel of death. How can I load earlier version 2.1.4? That version had no problems for me.

You can't downgrade from apps downloaded through the Mac App Store. Your best bet is to file a bug report with Readdle thorough the Spark Mail app. You should also contact them on Twitter.

 

[June Hills]

You can't downgrade from apps downloaded through the Mac App Store. Your best bet is to file a bug report with Readdle thorough the Spark Mail app. You should also contact them on Twitter.

Thanks! J

 

[v3cTor123]

Hello,

i have a problem with spark. I have the APP on Iphone and Ipad.

The badge Count doesnt syncronize. If i open the APP on my Iphone and read all emails, the APP on my Ipad doesnt syncronize. So on my Ipad the badge counts 1 unread mail. if i open the App on Ipad the App starts syncing and the unread mail is read and the badge updates.

i cant solve this.

 

[max2]

This is easy to fix but you won't like the solution.







Redo your iPad and iPhone.

 

[C DM]

This is easy to fix but you won't like the solution.







Redo your iPad and iPhone.

What does "redo" mean?

 

[max2]

What does "redo" mean?

Easy start with a fresh install of iOS.

 

[C DM]

Easy start with a fresh install of iOS.

That's certainly some first step in troubleshooting an app badge sync inconsistency.

 

[max2]

That's certainly some first step in troubleshooting an app badge sync inconsistency.

Oh it wasn't my first step. I tried everything.