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Some Experiencing Issues With Gmail on iOS Devices, Google Working on Fix
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Over the past month or more both gmail and icloud have been acting up for me. I get the "mail service imap.gmail.com is not responding" about once a week. When it happens, my iPhone battery starts draining really fast because it keeps checking for new mail over and over again. I work around speakers and the whole time I can hear it checking because of the interference it causes with the speakers. The way to fix it is usually to restart the iPhone or logging into gmail on a browser and clearing the captcha. I downloaded the official gmail app and it seems to be much more reliable than the iOS mail app when it comes to getting new gmail.
Meanwhile about once a week for icloud, I'll be out all day around different places and then I'll get home, check my computer, and see I have multiple new emails that came in over 3-5 hours ago, yet I received no notification on my iPhone or iPad until the mail app on Mac OS checks it as well. This has happened multiple times and a few times regarding emails that would have been best served with a quick response.
Both of the scenarios are becoming more and more of a PITA as I use both my gmail and icloud for business emails and now neither of them seem to be that reliable.
Meanwhile about once a week for icloud, I'll be out all day around different places and then I'll get home, check my computer, and see I have multiple new emails that came in over 3-5 hours ago, yet I received no notification on my iPhone or iPad until the mail app on Mac OS checks it as well. This has happened multiple times and a few times regarding emails that would have been best served with a quick response.
Both of the scenarios are becoming more and more of a PITA as I use both my gmail and icloud for business emails and now neither of them seem to be that reliable.
I've been getting this same error for several weeks on both my iPad and iPod Touch. And lots of other problems like syncing not working, duplicates of messages, messages with corrupt attachments, etc. For this reason I have given up trying to use email on these devices. Waste of time. Lots of people have been having the same issues, but Apple have been quick to delete a lot of the threads from it's own support site.
When I phoned Apple support, they first told me the unthinkable - that I should try reseting my devices and doing a permissions repair on my Mac. I followed those instructions, and much to my surprise everything was just as broken as it was before.
When I phoned Apple support a second time, I then got told that "Apple don't provide support for third party services". It seems like Apples customer service has hit a new low. Not what you expect after spending £399 on an iPad, plus £59 AppleCare.
When I phoned Apple support, they first told me the unthinkable - that I should try reseting my devices and doing a permissions repair on my Mac. I followed those instructions, and much to my surprise everything was just as broken as it was before.
When I phoned Apple support a second time, I then got told that "Apple don't provide support for third party services". It seems like Apples customer service has hit a new low. Not what you expect after spending £399 on an iPad, plus £59 AppleCare.
They just are acknowledging this now. Like many others been getting this message on and off for well over a year. It clears up eventually but its a pain in the ass!
Absolutely. They are working hard on crippling IMAP connectivity since they really prefer people to access Gmail on a web browser and look at ads.
Every time you leave the web browser, you basically halt your data stream of personal online activities to Google and worse, you aren't looking at the ads that generate >90% of Google's revenue. They hate it when you're not using a web browser or using one of their operating systems.
Google contacts
Something between google contacts and the iphones Contacts book is deeply messed up.
I used to keep all my contacts in Outlook in Windows 7. I had the iphone sync to Outlook for the contacts. Add contacts to Outlook, it ends up on the iphone after the iphone syncs through itunes. Same in the other direction.
Then I decided to copy everything to google contacts with a .csv export of the contacts from Outlook and a .csv import into google contacts. Ran google's merge and delete duplicates function to clean things up.
Then changed the contacts sync in itunes from Outlook to Google Contacts. And then did a one time sync of the contacts "Replace information on this i..."
So everything looks pretty good in Google Contacts and also okay on the iphone.
But the next regular sync starts making lots of redundant contacts on both the iphone and google contacts. I think it has to do with some contacts being associated with groups that were set up in Outlook in the first place and are stuck in the phone. Ugg.
Something between google contacts and the iphones Contacts book is deeply messed up.
I used to keep all my contacts in Outlook in Windows 7. I had the iphone sync to Outlook for the contacts. Add contacts to Outlook, it ends up on the iphone after the iphone syncs through itunes. Same in the other direction.
Then I decided to copy everything to google contacts with a .csv export of the contacts from Outlook and a .csv import into google contacts. Ran google's merge and delete duplicates function to clean things up.
Then changed the contacts sync in itunes from Outlook to Google Contacts. And then did a one time sync of the contacts "Replace information on this i..."
So everything looks pretty good in Google Contacts and also okay on the iphone.
But the next regular sync starts making lots of redundant contacts on both the iphone and google contacts. I think it has to do with some contacts being associated with groups that were set up in Outlook in the first place and are stuck in the phone. Ugg.
Absolutely. They are working hard on crippling IMAP connectivity since they really prefer people to access Gmail on a web browser and look at ads.
Every time you leave the web browser, you basically halt your data stream of personal online activities to Google and worse, you aren't looking at the ads that generate >90% of Google's revenue. They hate it when you're not using a web browser or using one of their operating systems.
My thoughts exactly.
I started getting this message, or something very close, a few weeks ago and couldn't access my online gmail accounts. Off line worked fine. Lasted on and off for about a week I think. And all of it was happening on my Powerbook G4 w/Leopard.
Thank you for sharing this! I am getting the error on my Gmail account, and now I understand that it is not just my account.
I think I logged into this app once. I guess if you only have one email address and it's a google account, or if all your addresses are gmail accounts it'd be cool, but having email addresses with different hosts like I do there's really no point. I'm just ready for my iCloud.com account. I'm about over gmail's clunky interface and harebrained imap support. And at least I know apple won't be selling my info to third party advertisers. Hopefully by this time next year I'll be completely rid of gmail.
I started having an issue since I got my first android devie nexus 7. I think they want me to start thinking that android has a much better and reliable and awesome experience. I want to start thinking that way but gmail is not the only app i'm using.
Absolutely. They are working hard on crippling IMAP connectivity since they really prefer people to access Gmail on a web browser and look at ads.
Every time you leave the web browser, you basically halt your data stream of personal online activities to Google and worse, you aren't looking at the ads that generate >90% of Google's revenue. They hate it when you're not using a web browser or using one of their operating systems.
That may be. I pay for Google's services and as such we don't have any ads in the GMail web site and we haven't seen any service disruption yet. We all use IMAP.
It has to do with Google's 2 Step verification process
That's all it is. Disable it and you can now use iOS mail again. Just have to wait for Google to fix it. ... but that IS the reason for this.
That's all it is. Disable it and you can now use iOS mail again. Just have to wait for Google to fix it. ... but that IS the reason for this.
Odd, I have 2 step verification on and my Gmail has been working fine on my iPhone, no problems.