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Mail on iPhone?

U

ubettergetit

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 29, 2008
3
0
I currently have a MacBook and use the Mail program and Entourage for my different e mail accounts. I want to purchase and iPhone. I have looked at pictures and demos on getting e mail on the iPhone but what i can't figure out is..... Will the mail program sync with the iPhone? Meaning if I'm on my MacBook and mail retrieves my e mail, then I connect my iPhone and sync it, will the mail that was retrieved load onto the iPhone?
I'd like this feature because i receive by e mail invites with info and directions and i'd like to be able to carry that info with me on the iPhone. Or with work I receive info by e mail and later on at a meeting would like to be able to access that already checked e mail to review the contents of the e mail.
thanks for the help.
 
Mail is not synced through iTunes. Just about every email provider supports accessing your email from multiple different sources. I have GMail and my work email set up on my iPhone and I check both from the computer and the iPhone and all email is available to me on either device. The only way it wouldn't work correctly is if you're using POP3 and have it set to delete email from the server once it is downloaded.
 
As mentioned above, iTunes syncs the email settings and not the emails themselves.

Sounds like you would benefit from mobile me in order to resolve your issue.
 
i dont understand the question

as others have pointed out, itunes syncs settings over to the iphone
you can then use the iphone to download mail, both new and old, over the air

you can then view email on the iphone

is this not what you need?
 
^ Yeah, what everyone else said. The iPhone retrieves mail on its own, just like any other computer with an Internet connection. Why would it need to sync the mail messages?
 
As others have said, setting up your email accounts as IMAP (whereby messages stay on the server) would do what you want. If you wanted to eventually delete emails from the server and save them on your computer, you could do that at any time.

As an aside, I wonder why you're using both mail.app and Entourage for your email. Seems like extra work to have to run two programs to check or send email. I used Entourage exclusively until Office 2008, but I found the new version slow, especially at launch. I switched to Apple Mail and it's been much better.
 
Roller said:
As an aside, I wonder why you're using both mail.app and Entourage for your email. Seems like extra work to have to run two programs to check or send email. I used Entourage exclusively until Office 2008, but I found the new version slow, especially at launch. I switched to Apple Mail and it's been much better.
Click to expand...

Well, I don't know what the OP's situation is but I have to use both Apple Mail and Entourage too. Our Exchange server at work is locked down really tight, no IMAP access or anything, and I couldn't get it to work in Apple Mail. I'd gladly give up Entourage (especially since we only have Office '04) but I can't get my email without it.
 
mrogers said:
Well, I don't know what the OP's situation is but I have to use both Apple Mail and Entourage too. Our Exchange server at work is locked down really tight, no IMAP access or anything, and I couldn't get it to work in Apple Mail. I'd gladly give up Entourage (especially since we only have Office '04) but I can't get my email without it.
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear that. At least Exchange support in Snow Leopard will be better next year.
 
I must say that I'm surprised that no one has yet come up with a feature that would allow people to sync their non-IMAP emails between iPhone and computer. Perhaps someone will create something via the App Store to allow this; hopefully it's not something that :apple: would try to prevent to encourage people to transition to MobileMe.
 
Thanks for the help

PoitNarf said:
Mail is not synced through iTunes. Just about every email provider supports accessing your email from multiple different sources. I have GMail and my work email set up on my iPhone and I check both from the computer and the iPhone and all email is available to me on either device. The only way it wouldn't work correctly is if you're using POP3 and have it set to delete email from the server once it is downloaded.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the help to you and everyone. I understand better now. Personally I see this as a flaw with the iphone. For me the point is not to have to recheck my mail to retrieve the e mail. The point of programs like mail for me at least is to have it check my mail for me from the internet so that once checked it exist on my computer ready to be viewed or accessed at at anytime. Once an email is in the mail program I shouldn't have to via my phone go back online to retrieve it again. This is just my thoughts at least. If the info in iCal will transfer to the iPhone and the info in Address book will transfer I would have hoped the info in Mail would have too, but I guess not.
Thanks again to everyone.
 
ubettergetit said:
Thanks for the help to you and everyone. I understand better now. Personally I see this as a flaw with the iphone. For me the point is not to have to recheck my mail to retrieve the e mail. The point of programs like mail for me at least is to have it check my mail for me from the internet so that once checked it exist on my computer ready to be viewed or accessed at at anytime. Once an email is in the mail program I shouldn't have to via my phone go back online to retrieve it again. This is just my thoughts at least. If the info in iCal will transfer to the iPhone and the info in Address book will transfer I would have hoped the info in Mail would have too, but I guess not.
Thanks again to everyone.
Click to expand...

I don't understand what you're talking about above. That's one. confusing. paragraph.

If you utilize IMAP, your email is synced between your Mail App on your MacBook and your iPhone. If I open an email on my iPhone, it shows as a read message on my MacBook. If I send an email from my MacBook Mail App, it will show as a sent message on my iPhone. They are synced. You don't need to physically sync your iPhone with your MacBook in order to sync your Mail Apps on your MacBook and your iPhone.

Is that what you're asking about?

If not.... ah well.
 
Surely said:
I don't understand what you're talking about above. That's one. confusing. paragraph.

If you utilize IMAP, your email is synced between your Mail App on your MacBook and your iPhone. If I open an email on my iPhone, it shows as a read message on my MacBook. If I send an email from my MacBook Mail App, it will show as a sent message on my iPhone. They are synced. You don't need to physically sync your iPhone with your MacBook in order to sync your Mail Apps on your MacBook and your iPhone.

Is that what you're asking about?

If not.... ah well.
Click to expand...

I think they are saying that they don't want to wait the 15 minutes until the iPhone downloads the new messages if the messages arrive while the iPhone is plugged into the computer, which is kinda dumb but whatever. If you got a message while on the computer, then check it on there and your iPhone will be in sync later when you want to look at that message. If you don't want to wait more than 3 seconds, then purchase mobileMe. Otherwise this is just too weird of a feature for Apple to develop.
 
macduke said:
I think they are saying that they don't want to wait the 15 minutes until the iPhone downloads the new messages if the messages arrive while the iPhone is plugged into the computer, which is kinda dumb but whatever. If you got a message while on the computer, then check it on there and your iPhone will be in sync later when you want to look at that message. If you don't want to wait more than 3 seconds, then purchase mobileMe. Otherwise this is just too weird of a feature for Apple to develop.
Click to expand...


Sorry if my post are confusing I will try a better way of explaining it. The information I have in address book will transfer to my iPhone. The information I have in iCal will transfer to my iPhone. Will the information I have in Mail (meaning checked and read e mails already organized the way I like) transfer to my iPhone or will I have to, on my iPhone connect to the internet and recheck my e mail just to see something I already saw on my Mail application? Having to recheck the mail seems a bit unMac to me. We don't have to re-upload music playlist or re-upload our contacts.
 
ubettergetit said:
Sorry if my post are confusing I will try a better way of explaining it. The information I have in address book will transfer to my iPhone. The information I have in iCal will transfer to my iPhone. Will the information I have in Mail (meaning checked and read e mails already organized the way I like) transfer to my iPhone or will I have to, on my iPhone connect to the internet and recheck my e mail just to see something I already saw on my Mail application? Having to recheck the mail seems a bit unMac to me. We don't have to re-upload music playlist or re-upload our contacts.
Click to expand...

It's not Mac.
It's email.

If you have an email in your "Inbox" on your computer, it will be in the "Inbox" on your iPhone. If you have it marked as read, it will appear as read on your iPhone. If you have it in the trash, it will be in the trash on your iPhone. If you send a message, it will appear in the sent box on your iPhone. There is no syncing necessary. There is no "rechecking." It just works. It's IMAP.
 
You can set the frequency with which your iPhone checks for new e-mails. So it's not like you'll walk away from your computer and realize twelve hours later that you never downloaded your e-mails to your phone and have to wait forever while it downloads the last twelve hours' worth of e-mail. You just set it to check every 15 (or 30 or 60) minutes, and the e-mail will be there. (You can also set it to check only when you tell it to.) So there's a small amount of lag between when an e-mail shows up on your computer and when it shows up on your phone, but it's pretty minor.

Of course, if you don't want any lag, just set yourself up with Mobileme, and your e-mails will synch up instantaneously.
 
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