Bug 257136

Summary:	kmail triggers extremely high amount of disk activity
Product:	[Unmaintained] kmail	Reporter:	Parameshwara Bhat <peebhat>
Component:	general	Assignee:	kdepim bugs <kdepim-bugs>
Status:	RESOLVED UNMAINTAINED
Severity:	normal	CC:	neitzke
Priority:	NOR
Version:	1.13.5
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	openSUSE
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Parameshwara Bhat 2010-11-17 12:43:43 UTC

Version:           1.13.5 (using KDE 4.4.4) 
OS:                Linux

Actually the summary explains it all.

There is not much customisation in my OS.This is stock OpenSUSE 11.3, with some updates. If my memory serves me right, just after installation, the experience was not at all this bad.

There is no specific action which triggers disk activity.Switching to kmail, navigating in kmail, opening a composer, all trigger it.In one session, there are many triggers.You switch to kmail, you start seeing the disk activity.For some moments, I just cannot navigate.While navigating, I move to a new mail, there is disk activity and movement takes time.Then I start writing a mail, after some writing, heavy disk activity begins such that typing stops, mouse stops.

Now I need to sit out a few seconds or sometimes minutes between two actions in kmail.

I have confirmed the disk activity is from kmail from iotop.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
Just use kmail in Opensuse 11.3 

Actual Results:  
No special step is needed.


OS: Linux (i686) release 2.6.34.7-0.3-default
Compiler: gcc

Comment 1 Parameshwara Bhat 2010-11-20 12:06:24 UTC

The above bug-file is actually big understatement.One opens kmail program and it spends a few minutes in disk-reading before anything can be done.Once disk activity stops, you navigate to a mail, frenzy disk activity begins again.A few minutes before it can stop.You reply to a mail, write a new mail, frenzy disk activity of basically disk read.One sends mail, another round of frenzied disk activity of a few minutes.

disk activity which is basically disk read as displayed by iotop, is so severe that running another program or doing another task in another program too is not possible.Even typing withing kmail composer itself stops.

Finally, having enough of it, now I am moving to Evolution.I am not sure I will like it, because previously I did not like it, but kmail has become unusable itself and has done my Laptop unusable too.

Comment 2 Andy Neitzke 2011-08-06 17:14:07 UTC

I have experienced this problem too.  

Possible distinguishing characteristic of my setup:  I use fairly large IMAP folders, around 10000 total messages, 4000 of which are in a single folder.

There is a similar report at 

http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=552041

which contains a suggested workaround:

rm ~/.kde/share/apps/kmail/search/Last\ Search

I can say that after a day or two this does seem to have made a big difference for me.

Comment 3 Laurent Montel 2015-04-12 10:10:05 UTC

Thank you for taking the time to file a bug report.

KMail2 was released in 2011, and the entire code base went through significant changes. We are currently in the process of porting to Qt5 and KF5. It is unlikely that these bugs are still valid in KMail2.

We welcome you to try out KMail 2 with the KDE 4.14 release and give your feedback.