I recently switched back to kmail from a period in thunderbird exile. I miss very few things, one of them is communication. During fetching mail, kmail does absolutely not do anything to tell about the progress but show a progressbar inside the statusbar. No "connecting to..." or reports. No indication that filtering is done, no "# new messages" or anything. I can observe that the function that cleans up does provide information, like "removed # old messages from foldername", so it must be possible for other components too ;) Some communication is available as system notifications, but kmail itself is lacking communication. Reproducible: Always
While syncing, a click on the arrow reveals more details. So kmail /does/ communicate. Therefore this should be closed as invalid. Thanks for reporting this issue, anyway. While the syncing feedback is certainly not yet optimal, more specific suggestions are necessary on how users expect this to be. Please search for existing tickets or file a new ticket per suggestion.
Kmail communicates very little. The syncing thing is merely a blink, and adds no valuable communication except during fetching - and even then only little so. You can only click the arrow for long lasting operations - and if you do, and the operation finishes, you are stuck with the widget open for next operation (but that is another issue).
(In reply to comment #1) >... more specific suggestions are necessary on how > users expect this to be. Using Kmail 4.10.2, I also am unhappy with the reporting of diwnloading of messages (from POP3 servers). The 'blue arrow' appears inconsistently, and I cannot find an option to always have the extra information (shown after clicking on the up arrow, which does not persist over restarts.). Also, when accessing only a Gmail POP server, the blue up arrow seldom appears, so the user is left wondering (after clicking on 'Check Mail') if the Check Mail actually 'took', as KMail just displays 'Ready' at bottom left, with no indication that a fetch has been requested. (On the SMTP side, I much appreciate having the 'Message sent successgfully' popup, and wish the POP side would communicate similarly.) Where is the setup control for the blue arrow popup?