How to set up an email account for more than one user

Question

I have created an email account for a production team like this: [e-mail]. Every team-member has set it up as an account on their smartphone using IMAP.

My problem is that when new mail arrives to the account and one of the team-members read it, it will be marked as read for the other members as well. So the other members phones will download the new email but won't display any notifications because it's already marked as read on the server.

I realize that email and IMAP is designed with a single-user-per-account mindset. But are there any work-arounds for this?

Thank you!

Answer 1

Dovecot IMAP server can provide per user Seen flag in shared folders:

Dovecot Maildir: Per-user \Seen flag

With Maildir a dovecot-shared file controls if the \Seen flags are shared or private. The file must be created separately inside each Maildir, although if the file already exists in the Maildir root it's automatically copied for newly created mailboxes. If dovecot-shared file doesn't exist in Maildir, the \Seen flags are shared. If it exists, the \Seen flag state is stored only in the user's index files. By making each user have their own private index files, you can make the \Seen flag private for the users. [...]
If you want to change what flags are shared when dovecot-shared file exists, currently you'll have to modify the source code: src/lib-storage/index/maildir/maildir-storage.c maildir_open() has mbox->ibox.box.private_flags_mask = MAIL_SEEN; Change the MAIL_SEEN to any flag combination you want. See src/lib-mail/mail-types.h for list of valid flags.

Answer 2

In your email server, whatever it is, try creating "group" that receives emails sent to given account, then broadcasts those mails to each team member.