User Rating3.53/5K-9 Mail Android App is an open source email client for Android with multi-folder sync, email signatures, Bcc-to-self, return-address configuration, keyboard shortcuts, Exchange Support, message flagging, IMAP deletes, saving attachments, configurable notifications and more.
Price: Free
K9 Mail Android App is one of the best email clients for Android. It’s loaded with every email feature you could think of except ActiveSync (Push email, however IMAP integration syncs almost as fast as ActiveSync). By far a better replacement over the default email client created by Google (if you’ve read my gripe about the default email client deleting my inboxes article, you’ll know why). I personally like the iMAP folder synchronization, signatures and the ability to multi-manage several emails inboxes from a mobile device. Here is the complete list of features:
K9 Mail Android App is extremely useful, especially for those who are dependant on email.
Once you have your IMAP, POP3, and/or WebDAV (Exchange) accounts; everything else is typical of a mobile email client. Be sure to set your email preferences such as notifications and sync options. One usability perk K9 Mail offers over Gmail is the Previous/Next buttons, which makes browsing through emails convenient versus viewing a message then going back to the entire list every time.
If you use K9 Mail Android App as your default email client, then it is used probably daily.
The user interface recently has the added option of light background or classic dark. Gripe Alert: when viewing an email list in landscape mode (keyboard open), the email items are very small, could be difficult to read the small fonts.
(4.1 out of 5)
Should you Download K9 Mail? Yes! An Essential App for Email on Android aside of Gmail!
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I was really quite surprised with the latest update to K9 Mail. In the past I had tried it numerous times but kept deleting because my email messages would disappear right in front of my eyes. Pop Pop Pop and they were all gone.
I have not had this problem with the new update. My only complaint is the size of the type when you are looking at a list of the email in your in box.
Really enjoy the new K9 Mail, almosy ready to switch with a bit more testing.
Don
Don, I just dnloaded k-9, I use Bellsouth.net I am having consistency problems. I set up the servers incoming outgoing, works sometime sometime not. Do u know if this is just on my end or a on going problem. I love the phone but this email is driving me crazy. My Blackberry would sync with outlook express, or bellsouth servers without a problem. Hope I can get this thing working. Also, do not see option for saving email you would like to go back to later. Any help would be nice.
Steve,
It’s working really well for me, and certainly a whole lot better than the default native email client.
Once they fix reply-to and the multipart message bug, it’ll be awesome. But it’s good enough to use 100% of the time for me, except for mailing-list mail.
Great app… It´s my favorite mail-client. But I have a problem deleting a mail-account. How can I do this?
@karsten have you tried going the list of “Accounts”, long-press the account you want to delete, tapp “Remove Account”.
I’ve gone back and forth with K9. used it, then got rid of it for another email client and now i’m back to using it because it seems to work ok for the most part. definitely one of the better open source clients out there.
“The user interface recently has the added option of light background or classic dark.”
Where can I change this? I’ve installed the latest version of k9mail which uses the light background as default (which I don’t like) and I haven’t found an option to change it yet …
@Bapf For some reason on in another update the developer removed the themes feature and only offered the light background theme.
Does anyone else have the problem where a read message on your server shows as new when it comes back into the message view? Meaning: You can say choose to show only 10 messages at a time (for this example they are all read), a new message comes in at the top of the list and pushes message 10 out of view, you delete the new message, and now message 10 comes back into view at the bottom of the list but as a new message.
Other than this quirk, I love the application.
I just loaded this on my My Touch 3G. I set up an exchange account to our remote server access and it completed the set up process, but my email box isn’t showing anything. I even sent a test email and then hit check email and still nothing. It’s just an empty white box.
Anyone have any ideas?
Got it to work as a pop 3 instead.
I’m having this same problem with the moto droid, how to fix it?
Hi-
Absolutely fantastic application. So much better than the previous version. I can’t seem to get the keyboard shortcuts to work at all on a G1 – I should read further (and I have) through the documentation, but I can’t seem to figure out if I am doing something wrong?
Thank you!
-Alex
Hello,
would anybody tell me how to go to “K9 Mail Account Settings”. I have any more options except changing the theme.
Thanks
Tell me too plz. I was there but now I forgot how to get there :S That’s a bit counter-intuitive. Could dev change this?
So, I installed this today, but am having multiple issues… First off, I can’t figure out how to get to the main screen, where I can change preferences. If I am in one mail account, and click my back button, it goes to my home screen. Also, I set something wrong in my Sympatico server settings but I can’t figure out how to get into those settings to change them. Is there somewhere I can find a full set of instructions?
I’ve noticed the latest version of K9 Mail removed the menu option to go to all mail accounts, not a good move. As a work around, I close the app with TasKiller , then reopen to get to that screen.
That’s what I did too, but what a pain in the @ss. I uninstalled the beta and installed the latest before that.
I used task killer reopen k9 and still can’t get to the all email accounts..any suggestions
I am using a POP3 comcast account
Hi,
I just found it! Open k9mail, select menu, select list folders, select menu, select more and there you have it: Account Settings!
Easy as finding a needle in a haystack!
This mail client is better than the original android one. Of course after using a Palm and or Blackberry for so long you wouldn’t think that email to any application would be in the infancy stage. The only real problem that I am having is i receive pdf attatchments and then try to save to card and the app will not let me.?????
where to go now??
I also cannot get to the accounts menu to add another account. I tried killing and reopening the app as in discussed in the thread but I see no way to access the accounts screen. Is there a specific step I am missing after I kill the app ? I’m using a mytouch 3G.
thanks…
this is a terrible application…after installing and uninstalling numerous times, I thought is was finally working…there were just a few emails in the inbox, I hit refresh and all the emails disappeared even though they were still on my server…
How do I get to simply view a PDF attachment directly from the email, without saving it to memory card and then opening it (which is a large pain in the butt)? some other attachement (different file types than pDF) have the open option next to the save option, but pdf attachments only show thw save option…..anyone?
Tried to install on brand new droid, crashes every time I click on Manual Setup.. aarrghh!
Crashes every time on my droid when I try to set up an email account. Every time.
I figured out a way to get it to work. There is an app called “K9 Mail Beta” or something close, and that one will let you setup an account and seems to work. YMMV.
Just a follow-up – tried again today, and install works flawlessly. Finally a decent email client on the Droid! No complaints so far, will update again in a few days to let you know how it’s working out.
Running K-9 on a MyTouch, would like to be able to change the folder K-9 drops attachments in. Right now it drops them in the SD card root, I want them to go to SD/download.
I would like to be able to place mail in subfolders as I do in Thunderbird. It would be great if K9 could support folders other than Inbox, Sent, Drafts, and Trash. Another thing that is a real issue (I am not used to the capacitance screen, and am still trying to learn to type accurately on it). If I inadvertantly delete an e-mail message, it would be really great if there were some way to move it back to the Inbox.
Have you tried using IMAP versus POP3? IMAP will allow you to sync to all folder you create in your email client.
Downloaded K-9 in hopes of taking advantage of the ability to save attachments to the SD card. Using a Moto Droid, and this does not seem to work. Couldn’t save an audio attachment or an image (.jpg).
Was hesitant to try the K-9 Beta, but seems like there is no where else to go, as I have not found another IMAP client for Android.
Downloaded via Android Market to my new Motorola Droid. It’s my first totally non-functional app. Does a force close during setup. No luck getting anything configured before it crashes. Had to uninstall. The built-in Droid email has been trouble free, but doesn’t forward attachments. I thought K9 would be a lifesaver, but found it unuseable.
It seems the developer is working on that for DROID and released a Beta version… http://k9mail.googlecode.com/files/K9-1.993-beta.apk
…maybe this would work… if it does, can you post your success or failure back here
I want to use this K9 mail… but the text is WAY too small… how do I increase the text size so I can actually see it?
Right now the text size can’t be increased
I can’t seem get any notifications when I get any new mail on my Yahoo account on K9. It receives mail fine – but doesn’t give me any audible alerts or icon alerts (using Samsung Moment on Sprint).
Anyone else encounter this?
I’m a new user to K9, installed it on my Droid after a week of not getting mail using the default app. Seems to work great, I would like to read and user doc on how to use the app and make new folders and move mail between folds. Any info would be great.
Thx
Have new Motorola Droid. Built in email app has limitataions. Like this one but have found no way to multi select for delete. Maybe a sizing issue since it appears there are objects off to the left of the screen (edge of a green bar that disappears when you open the email). Is there a fix or no multi select?
I too wish K9 mail had multi select, I miss that when I go between that and Gmail
It really looks like a display issue, there may be check boxes, but they don’t appear on teh screen. Also when reading emails a letter or two is cut off the left side. (Motorola Droid)
my company (on Exchange) will not support K-9 because it does not allow for remote wiping, so that if the phone is lost, stolen or turned in, data can be erased by the home office. This will hinder broader adoption by security-conscious companies. Would be great if k-9 developers would add this, so those of us stuck with the dreadful Droid mail client can get some relief.
Have you tried Exchange by Touchdown http://www.androidtapp.com/exchange-by-touchdown/
Thanks. I started investigating that today. Do you know if the email client allows for sorting by sender, recipient, etc, and whether there is search within mail?
Just installed on my Droid. When I am notified of new mail, it says that I have many more than are actually in the inbox. The number continues to grow. I now check the folders tab and it says I have 14 messages in my inbox. I click the inbox and there are no messages. How can I get this cleared?
I am using K-9 for work email and it works great most of the time (more functional than the default email app). I like the small font and ability to see more emails on one page, as well as the ability to move emails from the in-box to sub-folders (which I could not figure out how to do on the default email app). The problem I am having is that it creates its own “Sent” and “Trash” folders for items sent and deleted from my Droid, as opposed to placing them in the original Outlook “Sent Items” and “Deleted Items” folders. Is that a common issue, or is there some setting I am overlooking?
You can fix this. Just go into account settings, then into “incoming server.” At the bottom, you can select which remote folders to use for Drafts, Sent mail, and trash.
Perfect – thanks!
hey Neall do you think the K9 is secured enough for bank emails? I can’t afford to give out customer info
K-9 is as secure as any other remote mail client, for the same given connection. That is, if your server supports SSL or TLS, then by all means enage them within K-9 because they are more secure than clear text. The same would be true of Outlook or any other remote email client. However, the fact that they are on your portable phone puts you at risk by the very fact that if you lose your phone, that data may be accessible to whomever finds your phone. That’s not K-9’s fault, however.
I’m having a strange issue with my KP app. I have it on a MyTouch 3G and for some reason, it loads duplicates of all my e-mails. when I try to delete one of the copies, it deletes both, PLUS the copy on my server.
What gives?
Are you using POP3 for email?
using IMAP for email…
What are your settings under deleting email?
I have it set to delete from Server, which is fine and what I want it to do, I just want to stop it from showing 2 copies of every e-mail I receive. It’s kind of confusing and somewhat annoying.
Bought the Droid last night. Installed K9. I’m using a yahoo email address. It worked fine for about 3 hours and then it stopped. It couldn’t connect to my server. Uninstalled and installed 3 times but now it won’t connect at all.
One question… can you edit an email before forwarding? Gmail app does not allow it. Anyone know of app that allows this if k9 doesnt do it.
Yes, you can edit email text and even signature text before forwarding an email with K9 Mail
Can this app be used with a gmail account? Trying to find one that is as both the email apps that came on the phone dont allow editing of emails at all.
Yes you can set K9 Mail to pull email from Gmail using either IMAP or POP3 protocols.
Am I missing something, or does this client not support secure IMAP (port 993 with SSL)? I can’t see a way to set it up, at least not on the version that I just downloaded to my Nexus One (version 2.000).
Thanks.
I’m using v 2403 (I believe that’s it) and secure IMAP works with no problems.
Maybe it’s a nice feature for any future update to have the email check frequency not just every 15 min/hour etc., but also the option to say every 15 min, between 8am and 8pm. I hate waking up in the middle of the night because my phone is yelling ‘You’ve got MAIL!’ to me.
Hi Guys,
I am having some troubles while installing Google app email account
when i pur the POP3 server settings and push “next” i get a message that says “Setup could not finish”
“Cannot connect to server.”
(Unable to open connection to POP server.)
Same thing happen when i try to install the account as IMAP account
For my Gmail settings everything work just great but I must have my Google app account on my mobile as well
thanks in advance for the help
1. Have you enabled your Google Apps account to accept POP3?
If not login and go to Settings > Forwarding & POP/IMAP > Check “Enable POP for all mail (even mail that’s already been downloaded)”
2. Have you correctly set your POP3 settings?
Here’s a guide how: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=86374
Does this help?
Hi There,
thank you for your help
I have “Enable POP for mail that arrives from now on” as i afraid that my outlook will download all the emails again…
you think that this is the problem?
if i will use your suggestion the outlook will download all the emails again?
I have my laptop setup to delete the emails on my pop account on the server when it downloads them. Those emails then disappear from K9 when they get deleted from the server. Is it possible for them to still appear in K9 until i delete them from my phone?
thanks
Ian
That won’t be possible if you have synced emails from your laptop first as it sets the rule to delete from the server.
If you use IMAP protocol (if available to you) you could have both laptop and K9 Mail synced when deletions happen. Does that help?
If I synced with the phone first and download an email. Then sync afterward with the laptop, the email disappears from the phone. Is there anyway to make the email stay on the phone at that point (other than using IMAP)?
What you just mentioned should work the way you want it. This is one of the reasons why I don’t prefer POP3 because it simply downloads email to the local client. Which means duplicate email management and cleanup. Strange why this is not working for you if you download with K9 Mail first then with laptop.
Is it possible to copy some text from an email??
Yes as a simple hack though. Forward the message, this will allow you to copy all the text from the email body. Then you can delete the unwanted portions.
Didn’t work for me. Could read emails but not send them. Uninstalled.
Tried K9 and it works on my Nexus. However, I wonder if there’s a mail size limit to limit the size download to my phone. Sometimes, I get big attachments where I don’t want to download to my phone.
What I’ve noticed with K9 Mail when you have an attachment, it will only download the header of the message (i.e. Subject, sender’s email, and show an icon representing an attachment present). As well as the email will been highlighted in a darker shade. Until you actually open emails with attachments is when K9 Mail starts to download it. All non-attachment emails tend to be downloaded right away.
Yes, I know that K9 will only download the email attachment when I open the mail. However, there’s a lot of chance that I only want to read the mail body, but not the attachment. E.g. someone may send me a big file (2M) with some comments, which I only want to read the comment, but not the file. I used WinMo phone before, which have an option for user to just download a fixed size of the email, e.g. 20K, first. After reading the mail, you can have a choice to read the remaining or not. I hope K9 can do the same.
Apart from this, K9 is a great app!
I just updated k-9 on my G1 to k9 2.4. Now it will not load- I keep getting “The application K-9 Mail (process com.fsck.k9) has stopped unexpectedly. Please try again”
I have tried multiple time and restarted the phone several time.
Anyone know what to do?
Thanks.
try an uninstall/reinstall. my update worked fine but I was using 2.0+
I have my Outlook client setup to delete from server after a day using pop3 (so my phone can also get a copy). K9 is working great, but after a day it’s deleteing what it downloaded (while the messages in Outlook stay put). I would like to keep copies of the emails on K9 if possible, then delete them from my Nexus one when need be. Is this possible? I’ve been in and out of settings looking for a save/keep option but not seeing any.
Using the latest K9 build 2.4 from yesterday.
Thanks,
Dustin
I searched high and low for another e-mail app for my Droid, I love this e-mail client, it is very fast. The one that came with the droid would never check my e-mail. This seems to work great with my Pop accounts.
My general setting are not saving. And it not pulling in my new msgs unless i select it to check mail. I also have notifications set but thats not happening. I guess because it not checking every 5 mins like it is set to. Any one have any ideas.
Can you reply with all your settings so we can see what may be the problem?
Can you hide email accounts
Unfortunately you cannot hide email accounts
Just installed k9 on my droid. so far so good…can finally do signatures. Question..don’t understand folder poll check…what is that???
Hi,
The new K9 is really great. I do need a bit of help though. My ISP (virgin) is currently migrating users from their older (blueyonder) systems, and if I wish to pick up emails on my Android and via outlook, I need to use recent:usernm instead of usernm as the username. However, when I do so via the incoming server tab, it doesnt seem to work. Is this type of functionality supported?
regards,
Kevin
UK
K9 questions??
#1 — Keep all email on phone. Do not remove (delete) emails that I have retreived on my PC. I’d rather manually delete emails on my phone than have K9 auto delete when it detects emails are no longer on server.
#2 — What are the STARS for?
#3 — Please explain the dif between first class and second class in settings.
#4 is there any written documentation on the settings?
#5 How do we store archieve emails to the storage cartd on the phone?
#6 How does one best copy & paste a portion of one email into another email?
#1 — Keep all email on phone. Do not remove (delete) emails that I have retreived on my PC. I’d rather manually delete emails on my phone than have K9 auto delete when it detects emails are no longer on server.
I assume you’re using POP3 and have your PC set to delete emails from the server, you would have to first be sure K9 Mail is not set to delete email from the server, then retrieve email from the phone first, then retrieve email from the PC second. When you do this in reverse, K9 Mail will only pull what’s available.
#2 — What are the STARS for?
Stars are like “Flags” in Outlook
#3 — Please explain the dif between first class and second class in settings.
It’s an advanced feature for people with a lot of email folders that allows a way to show or hide folders.
More can be found here: http://code.google.com/p/k9mail/wiki/WorkingWithClasses
#4 is there any written documentation on the settings?
Unfortunately there isn’t a complete guide. The developer started a Wiki and has the explanation about 1st/2nd Class.
#5 How do we store archieve emails to the storage cartd on the phone?
Unfortunately you cannot, worse the emails are stored within internal phone memory. I would suggest to request this feature from the developer.
#6 How does one best copy & paste a portion of one email into another email?
Forward the 1st email, when you Forward in K9 Mail you can edit all the text from it, copy the portion you want then Discard it, paste in a new email.
Hope that helps
If it could send an e-mail using my MobileMe e-mail, it would be installed right now,
Help. Just installed K9 works great with my comcast email pop3 server.
i cannot get it to work with exchange server for another account.
Same account works fine with original software on my droid.
What are the settings you’re using?
furhter to your question. incoming imap settings are my name, my password, mailbox.xxxxxx.com; no security, authentication type plain, port 143
Reply
What are your Incoming mail settings (without giving up too much sensitive info)?
Well, my user name, password and server name are there along with the port #
I’ve configured IMAP now which seems to fix the problem. Though for some odd reason I cant get mail to go out. There seems to be a username/password [smtp.blueyonder.co.uk - SSL] issue with PLAIN text. Works fine from Thunderbird?
Back to the Virgins FAQ pages (which are that helpful).
Kevin
It turns out it’s imap this gets the incoming mail delivered.
But i cant get the outgoing sorted out. tried all sorts of server names/ports.
Appreciate your help pls.
The rest of the app is great. Once i get this figured, i’ll be back on questions about files. thx
furhter to your question. incoming imap settings are my name, my password, mailbox.xxxxxx.com; no security, authentication type plain, port 143