New 4S but having difficulty understanding Gmail and exchange vs IMAP

[EC99SS]

Hi all
I'm new here and a new Apple user (been a BB user forever). I'm researching all I can in regards to Gmail and my iphone and learned a lot but have some questions I couldn't quickly find. I'm hoping you can educate me on a few things.

I set up 3 Gmail accounts. 2 are IMAP (via Google icon in mail app) and 1 via exchange. I did the exchange as it was the only way that I found that will allow me to have an additional calendar on my phone.

1) When using the exchange gmail account. I delete an email on my iphone and it also deletes it from the Gmail inbox (web version). BUT I did notice that it keeps it in my "all email" on iphone and doesn't register in my Gmail account under trash until I erase it from my "all email". What does this really mean? I deleted it and it's not in either inbox. Is the email still in my iphone then and not deleted from there? In the IMAP version I notice the deleted is not in my "all email" and also registers in "trash" in the gmail account (web)

2) I've read where Gmail exchange (set to push) drains battery life significantly. I've also read that it doesn't to some. If I have 3 gmail accounts say set to push (via exchange) and receive say 15-20 emails a day...is that intensive enough to significantly affect my battery life?

Just by typing these questions I realize that a perfect email setup would be one that combines the push of "exchange" with simultaneous real-time changes (to iphone and Gmail account) of IMAP. Is that an accurate assessment?

Thanks all for taking the time to read this and offering any help! I'm excited to join the iphone family.

Thanks!

 

[mms13]

There's a difference between archiving and deleting. Gmail has so much storage you never really need to delete mail, you just archive it, moving it from your inbox to your all mail folder.

For the IMAP account at least, you can go into settings on your phone and flip 'Archive Messages' on if you want that behavior.

 

[whsbuss]

Google's implementation of exchange is different than most since they use labels and not folders. Yes, if you delete using gmail exchange it will get archived. I use a workaround - create a label called "IOS trash". Then instead of doing a delete, I move it to IOS trash so its out of my inbox. Then when I want I delete all those emails from the IOS trash area using the web interface. Works well.

 

[EC99SS]

Google's implementation of exchange is different than most since they use labels and not folders. Yes, if you delete using gmail exchange it will get archived. I use a workaround - create a label called "IOS trash". Then instead of doing a delete, I move it to IOS trash so its out of my inbox. Then when I want I delete all those emails from the IOS trash area using the web interface. Works well.

Thanks. That's an interesting work around! So when you empty the IOS trash via web interface does it sync with the same folder within the iphone (ie erases the messages in there)?

Thanks!