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Question using Gmail on iphone...

IMAP Front end for gmail

What I have done for this is to set up an IMAP front end for GMail. What this means is that I have all my gmail forwarded to an IMAP account (say AOL). I then set up that account in mail.app and iPhone but I make sure the smtp server is gmail's so everything looks as if it is being sent from
gmail but I get the sync advantages of IMAP and gmail has a copy of all my mail in case I am without access to my phone or mac. I never really cared for IMAP until I got an iPhone but now I see its advantages; however at this stage everyone knows my gmail address and I don't want to give that up. So this is my best of both worlds solution - and surprisingly it works flawlessly. Though i don't use aol mail, I did get this solution to work with it.
 
Lekun (or anyone else) --

Please explain how to set up forwarding to an IMAP account in such a way -- through configuring the SMTP server, or whatever -- that when reply to a gmail message that's forwarded to this IMAP account and read on your iPhone, it appears to the person who receives your email to be coming from gmail (not your IMAP account).

The filtering solution doesn't work for me for two reasons: 1) I want to be able to save copies of my sent gmail and 2) I get an error message every time I send an email with that filter activated (about the message being part of a deleted thread).

I like the idea of forwarding my gmail to an IMAP account that I'll only use on my phone, but only if replies to emails on my phone look like they're coming from my gmail. But I don't know how to set configure the mail account -- the SMTP settings -- on my iPhone to make that happen. Can someone walk me through it?
 
My IMAP Front End explained further.

So on my iPhone I went to set up a new email account. I clicked "Other" and named it GMail/IMAP and set it to IMAP.

Then I fill in the name, and email address for the IMAP server; I fill in the username and password for the IMAP server and the mail server is for the IMAP server.

The SMTP server is smtp.gmail.com; and the SMTP username and password is your GMail ID@gmail.com and GMail password.

In GMail I have two settings. The first is to forward all mail to the IMAP email address. The second is to take all messages from ME (myGMailid@gmail.com) and skip the inbox and go straight to archive. This last setting keeps them from be forwarded back to my IMAP address.

I have duplicated these exact settings for mail.app and turned off my GMail pop account. When I send a message through the IMAP "front end" the recipients think I have sent it straight from GMail. I have even checked the long headers for any mention of my IMAP email address and couldn't find any. To everyone else it looks like I am still using GMail. I get the benefits of IMAP interplay between my main machine and iPhone and when I am away from my iPhone or main machine (unlikely) I can access all my mail via the GMail web interface.

The iPhone really requires IMAP functionality. When using straight GMail (even with the Recent functionality turned on) when you are away from your computer and using your iPhone you may read a bunch of messages, but then when you return, your computer says they are all unread. Additionally every time you send a message from your iPhone, GMail bounces a copy back into your iPhone inbox so ten minutes after you send a message you think you have a reply only to see its your same damn message that you sent. I love GMail but it only works well if you stick solely to their web interface or have only one POP Client that you download too. Previously that is what I did (download only to my macbook with mail.app) but the iPhone changed that for me.

I have only used this for a day now, so I haven't fully tested it out, but the Sent Mail bounce-back of GMail was driving me crazy on my iPhone. And using any email web interface on mobileSafari is just lame compared to the Mail client (which is the worst app on the iPhone, IMHO).

Hope this helps.
 
I haven't had a chance to set up IMAP accounts to forward to, but I did try something that got rid of the emails I sent from my gmail inbox on the iPhone.

I was having problems sending messages in gmail over my office WiFi. So I tried manually entering my gmail information.

When I set up the account on the phone...instead of using the wizard, I selected "other". Then for the POP server I entered "pop.googlemail.com". For the SMTP server, I entered "smtp.googlemail.com".

Gmail's help section suggests using pop.gmail.com, but that was what was having problems. Since doing this, I haven't had any problem sending messages. It keeps a copy on the server for me to download later from my MBP. The best part is, it doesn't put mail that I've sent in my iPhone inbox, but keeps the thread organization in gmail's web interface.
 
I set up an AOL mail account and configured the iPhone exactly as you suggested, and the problem -- finally -- is fixed. And, as a bonus, my Gmail now comes to my phone as push mail via IMAP, which is great. I've been banging my head against a wall over the duplicate email problem for a week. Thanks a lot for the solution (and the server settings walk through). I really appreciate it.
 
buriedpaul said:
I set up an AOL mail account and configured the iPhone exactly as you suggested, and the problem -- finally -- is fixed. And, as a bonus, my Gmail now comes to my phone as push mail via IMAP, which is great. I've been banging my head against a wall over the duplicate email problem for a week. Thanks a lot for the solution (and the server settings walk through). I really appreciate it.
Click to expand...

You are getting Push IMAP with AOL? Man, I gotta figure out how to do that with my email... or switch to AOL.
 
Actually, the push business hasn't been working very well at all. My gmail problem has been completely solved, but I think my IMAP mail has only been "pushed" to me once all day. I've been digging around online a little, and it looks like a lot of people are having problems with their IMAP email being pushed to them. Does anyone know if this is an AT&T / iPhone problem?
 
ok thanks guys. this has been so frustrating...i feel like i'm almost there.

i set up the imap account as directed with aol/imap... the smtp aspect of it isn't working for me, however. the iphone tells me the smtp server "smtp.gmail.com" doesn't accept authentication. so then i switched it to just my gmail id instead of gmailid@gmail.com and password. same problem. then decided to take out the username/pw altogether....

how did you get your smtp to work on the iphone? thanks,

ben
 
When I entered the SMTP server info, it added ":587" -- so it looks like this.

smtp.gmail.com:587
gmailID@gmail.com

Try setting it up like that and let us know if you have any luck.
 
ahhh! i figured it out - i had to turn on "SSL" authentication for outgoing mail under the "advanced" tab. so if anyone is using the AOL trick be sure this is turned on.

thanks! now everything works like a charm and syncs perfectly with outlook imap. i'm impressed - was not expecting the iphone to pull this off.

ben
 
This method will work with any IMAP email address; AOL's a good choice for this solution because it doesn't append an ad or tagline to sent messages, so the mail you send from your phone will look like regular ol' gmail to the recipient. (I'm not sure if .mac mail is IMAP -- I think it is, though.)

Another thing to remember: turn of the spam filtering on your Gmail/IMAP (AOL or .mac or whatever you're using) account. You can do this easily from AOL's mail website.
 
Sorry if that was unclear. Leave the spam filter on your Gmail account on. But you should probably turn the spam filter off on the new IMAP account that you create to use on your iPhone -- the account you're having all your Gmail forwarded to. That way you'll be sure not to miss any Gmail that's forwarded to IMAP account.
 
Gmail IMAP loophole

lekum,

great advice. I set up an aol account and am now using my iphone with IMAP instead of POP. Incoming mail and sent mail are working fine. The only problem I'm encountering is that my iphone is not archiving or showing any of my sent mail in my sent mail folder. I have my gmail as my SMTP out and aol incoming mail server. How do I get my outgoing to show up in my sent mail folder?

my outgoing host name is: smtp.gmail.com:587

Thanks,
dustbustir
 
disregard/push mail

sorry all...please disregard my last message. it was just a setting on the phone that needed to be changed. I did have one other question. What is push mail and how would i set my phone to do that?

thanks,
dustbustir
 
dustbustir said:
sorry all...please disregard my last message. it was just a setting on the phone that needed to be changed. I did have one other question. What is push mail and how would i set my phone to do that?

thanks,
dustbustir
Click to expand...

what setting needed changing?

as far as i know, push mail is when the server tells your phone when you've got mail, so you get notified immedieatly, instead of having to check in with the server all the time, which is called push.

others here know gobs more...

r.
 
OK i'm confused. I only receive about half my emails and they usually take around 40 minutes longer than my computer.

I have 15 minute updates on the iPhone. The computer receives it with in minutes.

What's going on?
 
Bump to the top....here's to hoping that Apple checks out this site and starts working with Google to make sure their email program works correctly......It's hard to believe that they made such a stink about their Google Maps application on the iphone, but didn't stop to test and make sure that the email worked properly.....


=|
 
theNEOone said:
Bump to the top....here's to hoping that Apple checks out this site and starts working with Google to make sure their email program works correctly......It's hard to believe that they made such a stink about their Google Maps application on the iphone, but didn't stop to test and make sure that the email worked properly.....


=|
Click to expand...

You would think that if the Apple and Google are practically in bed together they would do a little better to fixing this whole situation... God for bid they combine .mac and the google stuff to actually make a decent and awesome 1, 2 punch to the compitetion.
 
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