iphone and mail - one happy family?

[superspud]

is there a way to "sync" my mail and iPhone to where if i read an email only iPhone, it will no longer show as new on my macbook's mail?

for example.... if I'm at work and read emails i receive during the day, i don't want to come home, open up my macbook and have to sift through them all over again since I've already read them.

how do i set this up?

 

[swiftaw]

You need to set up your mail using IMAP accounts

 

[superspud]

i don't speak the lingo very well so work with me here.


what does that mean?

if it matters, i use gmail.

 

[superspud]

ok so, essentially i want to be able to have my emails i read on my iPhone change from "read" to "unread" on my apple mail on my macbook throughout the day.


i have read how to change one or the other (iPhone and macbook) over to IMAP which will change it on Gmail, but will that also carry over to either the macbook or iPhone (whichever one i am not reading or deleting the emails on)?

i guess what i am asking is, if i change my iPhone and or apple mail over to imap, will they sync the read and deleted emails with each other? or just with the main gmail page? if i read an email on my computer will it no longer be shown as a new message on my iPhone and visa versa? that what i want to happen....

 

[lamboman]

With both set up with IMAP, email will basically work like so:

iPhone - email read, iPhone updates Gmail immediately, marking email as read.

MacBook: Next time it refreshes email, it will receive these updates.

Setting up your iPhone for Gmail IMAP is easy; you just select Gmail when you make a new account, the settings are already pre-set.

On your MacBook, you just need to fill in your name, email address, and password; it will then sort the rest.

If this is how you have setup your email, it should already be working the way you are requesting now; the only way that I see it wouldn't be working with IMAP is if Mail is set to refresh manually; to change this setting, go to Preferences in Mail, and change the "Check for new messages" setting away from manual to another setting. Note that if you set Mail to check email very frequently (1 or 5 minutes mostly), you'll probably see battery life take a hit if you keep Mail open in the background.

If you have your email configured with POP (which would require you to fill everything in, taking more time), any emails that Mail hasn't seen before will be treated as unread, even if they have been read elsewhere.

I hope this helps!