Since upgrading to 17.04 (or possibly something else, but I don't know what) when Kmail starts it says that it can't run as Akonadi is not running and provides me with a button so start the Akonadi service. I click on this and all is ok. What can I change to make the Akonadi service start automatically when I reboot?

The message is: The Akonadi personal information management service is not running. This application cannot be used without it.

I had reported that I got an upgrade for KMail2 and that my problem had gone away. However, after a week or two of working correctly the problem is back again. I have not done anything specifically with Akonadi or Kmail, except for accepting all the various system/application updates that come along.

In trying to solve the issue I have discovered that I do not appear to have an Akonadi Console and cannot find one to download. I did find a .deb for 16.04 (akonadiconsole_16.04.3-0ubuntu2_amd64). This appears to install but exits immediately when run.

I also note that my akonadictl, whilst able to run, will not pipe or redirect it's output. Eg 'akonadictl fsck | more' and 'akonadictl fsck > test.txt' both run to completion in the console and ignore the pipe and the redirect.

Some help would be much appreciated.

Not able to offer any help I'm afraid, but just reporting that I get the same thing. Fresh vanilla install of:

KDE Neon 5.11 User Edition
KDE Plasma version 5.11.1
KMail version 5.6.1

I'm only testing with a single GMail account with standard IMAP, with about 70 emails in the Inbox and 10 in the Sent Items folder. I don't want the full Kontact PIM experience, just KMail as a standalone email client, so don't have Kontact installed. I even tried again with another fresh vanilla install of KDE Neon, but same problem again.

Can anybody else offer some help/advice on this? Bug reporting time?

My understanding is that the current / preferred option is that Akonadi does not start until required by a programme.
Either way it is not a bug to be reported!

Hi Gummidge,

Thanks for the reply.

Gummidge wrote:My understanding is that the current / preferred option is that Akonadi does not start until required by a programme.

That would be my assumption too. Although I would also assume that when started KMail would tell Akonadi that it was necessary and needed to start up too, without further user intervention.

Are you saying that this is a feature rather than a bug?

Having to click on a "Start Akonadi" button every time I start up KMail doesn't seem like the best way of designing things to me, from a UX point of view.

Here's an update from me.

I am now on Kubuntu 17.10 and I still have the same issue - Akonadi not starting when KMail starts. Now, however, it is intermittent. I would say that it doesn't start about 80% of the time instead of all the time.

As for the suggestion that this behavior is 'normal', I offer this analogy. I turn the key in the car ignition and the engine roars into life. However, before I can drive off I have to get out of the car and press a button to open the valves to let the engine coolant flow. Would you buy this car?

On the bright side, the Qt version has moved forward so you can now print from KMail without having to copy the email into the browser and print it from there.

barraclm wrote:As for the suggestion that this behavior is 'normal', I offer this analogy. I turn the key in the car ignition and the engine roars into life. However, before I can drive off I have to get out of the car and press a button to open the valves to let the engine coolant flow. Would you buy this car?

Exactly.

I've had the same problem some while ago but it seems to have cleared without me doing anything on Neon.

A work-around I have used is to add a one line script in System Settings / Start up Shut down / Autostart

"akonadictl start" (without "")
and set it to run at log-on.

Not really the proper answer but it should work.

So, akonadi is active and kwallet closed, I start kmail, kwallet asks for password to open the wallet but kmail has already downloaded any new emails....akonadi is nothing if not confusing.