On 17 Sep 2026, at 10:25, Ralph Seichter via dovecot wrote:
- Michael Slusarz via dovecot:
Push notification plugin is Dovecot's internal system for sending these events. Enabling it by itself won't do anything for end users. [...]
Thanks. So typical IMAP-based MUAs indeed need to either rely on IDLE or fall back to polling Dovecot. That's why I never had the need to enable Dovecot's push notication plugin, but still receive a heads-up when new mail arrives. That's what I understood to be the OP's requirement, too.
The IMAP IDLE extension was created specifically so clients don't need to poll. When an IMAP client connects to an IMAP server, the server informs the client which IMAP extensions are supported. This is how the client knows if it can use IDLE or not, and if not, the client could fall back to polling.
--Randall
On 17 Sep 2026, at 10:25, Ralph Seichter via dovecot wrote:
o Michael Slusarz via dovecot:
Push notification plugin is Dovecot's internal system for sending
these
events. Enabling it by itself won't do anything for end users. [...]
Thanks. So typical IMAP-based MUAs indeed need to either rely on IDLE or
fall back to polling Dovecot. That's why I never had the need to enable
Dovecot's push notication plugin, but still receive a heads-up when new
mail arrives. That's what I understood to be the OP's requirement, too.The IMAP IDLE extension was created specifically so clients don't need to poll. When an IMAP client connects to an IMAP server, the server informs the client which IMAP extensions are supported. This is how the client knows if it can use IDLE or not, and if not, the client could fall back to polling.
--Randall