mu4e inbox update delay

Question

incoming mail appears in mu4e inbox long minutes after it is there. I can see it in the webmail service online immidiately but in emacs it doesn't show till a few minutes or even half an hour after..

my mu4e config:

(setq mu4e-get-mail-command "offlineimap")
(setq mu4e-attachment-dir  "~/Downloads")
(setq mu4e-view-show-addresses 't)

#smpt:
(setq mu4e-sent-folder "/Sent"
  mu4e-drafts-folder "/Drafts"
  mu4e-trash-folder "/Trash"
  message-send-mail-function 'smtpmail-send-it
  user-mail-address "[email protected]"
  user-full-name  "Adam Gefen"
  smtpmail-default-smtp-server "smtp.MYMAIL.com"
  smtpmail-smtp-server "MYMAIL.com"
  smtpmail-stream-type 'starttls
  smtpmail-smtp-service 587)

#starting mu4e in its own frame:
(defun mu4e-in-new-frame ()
 "Start mu4e in new frame."
(interactive)
(select-frame (make-frame))
(mu4e))

and my .offlineimaprc config is:

[general]
accounts = XXXX

[Account XXXX]
localrepository = Local
remoterepository = Remote
autorefresh = 5
quick = 10
postsynchook = mu index --maildir ~/Maildir

[Repository Local]
type = Maildir
localfolders = ~/Maildir

[Repository Remote]
type = IMAP
remotehost = XXXX.COM
remoteuser = [email protected]
remotepass = XXXXXXXX
keepalive = 60
holdconnectionopen = yes
sslcacertfile = /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt

Answer 1

mu4e farms out the actual email checking to an external program such as offlineimap. The variable mu4e-update-interval controls how often mu4e will call that program.

Here's the docstring:

Documentation:

Number of seconds between automatic calls to retrieve mail and update the database. If nil, don't update automatically. Note, changes in mu4e-update-interval only take effect after restarting mu4e.

The following code:

(setq mu4e-get-mail-command "offlineimap -o"
      mu4e-update-interval  300)

will do the following:

• have mu4e run offlineimap to fetch mail (the -o switch is to have offlineimap run "once")
• do this every 300 seconds (i.e., every 5 minutes)