METHOD TO PRE-SELECT FOLDERS TO SYNCHRONIZE DURING INITIAL EMAIL ACTIVATION ON A MOBILE DEVICE

• US 20170054667A1
• Filed: 08/19/2015
• Published: 02/23/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/19/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: PURI, Ronesh, EWANCHUK, Andrew John, BROWN, David Andrew
• Granted Patent: US 10,397,160 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/42 Mailbox-related aspects, e.g. synchronisation of mailboxes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements

Abstract

A method for synchronizing a mobile device with an email mailbox is described. The method includes: sending a search query to a mail server to identify email messages that are associated with folders of the email mailbox other than an inbox folder; selecting one or more folders of the email mailbox to synchronize on the mobile device based on the identified email messages; and retrieving, from the mail server, one or more email messages associated with the selected folders.

Claims

1. A method implemented by a processor of a mobile device for synchronizing the mobile device with an email mailbox on a mail server, the method comprising:

sending a search query to the mail server to identify email messages that are associated with folders of the email mailbox other than an inbox folder;

selecting one or more folders of the email mailbox to synchronize on the mobile device based on the identified email messages; and

retrieving, from the mail server, one or more email messages associated with the selected folders.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the identified email messages comprise most recently received email messages that are associated with folders of the email mailbox other than the inbox folder.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the one or more folders of the email mailbox to synchronize on the mobile device comprises determining, for at least one folder of the email mailbox other than the inbox folder, a count of the identified email messages that are associated with that folder.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the one or more folders of the email mailbox comprises identifying those folders associated with one or more of the identified email messages that were recently accessed.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the method is executed during an initial setup of an account in a mail client application on the mobile device, the account corresponding to the email mailbox.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein retrieving the one or more email messages associated with the selected folders comprises retrieving only header portions of the email messages.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein retrieving the one or more email messages associated with the selected folders comprises retrieving email messages based on a predefined sync window.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more email messages associated with the selected folders are retrieved according to an order and wherein an order of retrieval of an email message is determined based on a folder of the email mailbox associated with that email message.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more email messages associated with the selected folders are retrieved according to an order and wherein an order of retrieval of an email message is determined based on one or more indicators associated with the email message

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

creating account folders for an account corresponding to the email mailbox in a mail client application on the mobile device, the account folders corresponding to the selected folders of the email mailbox; and

synchronizing the created account folders with at least portions of the retrieved email messages.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the search query to the mail server to identify email messages that are associated with folders of the email mailbox other than the inbox folder comprises an instruction to identify a predetermined number of email messages.

12. A mobile device, comprising:

a memory;

a communications subsystem; and

a processor coupled with the memory and the communications subsystem, the processor being configured to;

send a search query to a mail server to identify email messages that are associated with folders of an email mailbox on the mail server other than an inbox folder;

select one or more folders of the email mailbox to synchronize on the mobile device based on the identified email messages; and

retrieve, from the mail server, one or more email messages associated with the selected folders.

13. The mobile device of claim 12, wherein the identified email messages comprise most recently received email messages that are associated with folders of the email mailbox other than the inbox folder.

14. The mobile device of claim 12, wherein selecting the one or more folders of the email mailbox to synchronize on the mobile device comprises determining, for at least one folder of the email mailbox other than the inbox folder, a count of the identified email messages that are associated with that folder.

15. The mobile device of claim 12, wherein selecting the one or more folders of the email mailbox comprises identifying those folders associated with one or more of the identified email messages that were recently accessed.

16. The mobile device of claim 12, wherein retrieving the one or more email messages associated with the selected folders comprises retrieving only header portions of the email messages.

17. The mobile device of claim 12, wherein retrieving the one or more email messages associated with the selected folders comprises retrieving email messages based on a predefined sync window.

18. The mobile device of claim 12, wherein the one or more email messages associated with the selected folders are retrieved according to an order and wherein an order of retrieval of an email message is determined based on a folder of the email mailbox associated with that email message.

19. The mobile device of claim 12, wherein the processor is further configured to:

create account folders for an account in a mail client application, the account folders corresponding to the selected folders of the email mailbox; and

populate the created account folders with the retrieved email messages.

20. The mobile device of claim 12, wherein the one or more email messages associated with the selected folders are retrieved according to an order and wherein an order of retrieval of an email message is determined based on one or more indicators associated with the email message.