iPhone inbox out of sync with Gmail on web & Mac

Discussion in 'iPhone Tips, Help and Troubleshooting' started by badlydrawnboy, Dec 7, 2009.

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  1. badlydrawnboy, Dec 7, 2009

    badlydrawnboy macrumors 65816

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    #1
    I'm having a really frustrating problem and I can't figure out what's causing it.

    I have Gmail set up as push/Exchange on my iPhone and IMAP on my Mac with Mail.app. I also use Gmail on the web when away from home. The idea with this setup is that all of my inboxes should be synchronized, right?

    Problem is, they're not. The inbox on my iPhone is different than the inbox in Gmail, which is also different than the inbox in Mail.app. It seems like the inbox on the iPhone lags the most. For example, there's a message showing up there that I deleted from Mail.app yesterday. Why?

    I have Mail.app configured to check mail every minute, so it should stay synced with Gmail's inbox but it doesn't. They actually never get in sync completely - Gmail always lags behind the changes I make in Mail.app, sometimes by hours.

    Is anyone else having this problem? I'm ready to switch back to MobileMe at this point. So frustrating.
     
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  2. joejoejoe, Dec 7, 2009

    joejoejoe macrumors 65816

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    Sep 13, 2006
    #2
    There's not much you can do on your iPhone if you've set it up with push exchange. Push exchange for Gmail sucks. It's slow, unsynchronized, and eats battery like there's no tomorrow. I've started using mail notifier to get my push notification about my email and use the gmail webapp to check my mail. Works flawlessly.

    It's strange you're having so many problems with mail.app on your computer. I would recommend deleting the account and setting it up all over again, that should help. What version of OSX are you running?

    If you can't get things to work with mail.app, you can always make a webapp for gmail on your computer. Apps like fluid (fluidapp.com) will let you save gmail as an app on your computer, and turning on gmail offline in labs will let you access everything even if you're not connected to the internet. Turned out to be the best solution for me, I recommend it highly.
     
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  3. badlydrawnboy, Dec 7, 2009

    badlydrawnboy thread starter macrumors 65816

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    #3
    I'm having no trouble at all with Mail.app. It is behaving exactly as I expect. The trouble I'm having is with Gmail push on the iPhone, and with Gmail on the web. Or I should say the trouble is with how all three of those applications are communicating.

    For example, when I delete a message from Mail.app it is supposed to be put in the Trash in Gmail. Yet the deleted mail often remains in my Gmail inbox for some time after I've deleted it in Mail.app. Likewise, it will remain in my Gmail inbox on the iPhone for quite a while after I've deleted it in Mail.app.
     
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  4. joejoejoe, Dec 7, 2009

    joejoejoe macrumors 65816

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    #4
    So it seems like the issue is with Mail.app on your computer not communicating well with the Gmail servers, that's why the deleted message from mail.app is both on Gmail web and on your iPhone.

    I think you should delete the account and set it up all over again in Mail.app and make sure you follow the IMAP instructions on google's website.

    If things still aren't working, you might have to run a software update to make sure you're not missing any updates to Mail or OSX.

    Again, I was in the same boat as you and learned that just using Gmail exclusively solved all of my problems. Whenever you are managing your mail through multiple channels, things are bound to get sticky. If you limit everything to just one channel--gmail--you won't have any problems.

    Good luck.
     
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