Google activates IMAP access - mobile device users rejoice!

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

Google have activated IMAP access to GMail, opening the door to a vastly improved mail sync experience for mobile device users. I've set up GMail IMAP sync on my Pocket PC, and it works brilliantly!

There is a quirk in that the IMAP settings tab in GMail settings only currently appears to people with 'English (US)' set as their display language, but that's easily fixed! If, like me, you use English (UK) (or indeed any other language), simply log into GMail, change your display language to English (US), return to settings and configure your IMAP access, before returning to settings again to revert to the language of your choice. Although the IMAP configuration tab then disappears again, the settings still work. Awesome ;)

The all important server settings are 'smtp.gmail.com' for outgoing, 'imap.gmail.com' for incoming, your email address as your username and ensure SSL is checked for both directions in the advanced settings!

When you complete your first sync, you'll notice the additional heirarchy below in the account. You'll need to enable the sync for each additional folder you want to view, choose whether to download headers or full messages and choose whether to download messages over 3 days old (if you have a HUGE inbox, syncing everything might not be the best idea in the world) :D

Well done Google! :(

P

[Guest Subliminal Aura]

Paul is this regular IMAP ? port 143 or IMAPS 993 ?

Do I need to activate it on my account as I still cant see the option for imap ;)

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

993, the default IMAP SSL port, but you just check the SSL box in Messaging and it goes there automagically.

Did you change your UI language as detailed above?

P

[Guest Subliminal Aura]

:| it doesn't work for me... I'll try later

[Guest martin01]

Now that is good news!

Thx for tip on language Paul. A quick, maybe stupid, question: Are deletes made on your PPC when off-line sync'ed through to the google inbox next time you go on-line?

Now we only need a fool-proof sync between handheld calendar and Google calendar and things really start to look good!

Martin

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

Yes, that's the beauty of IMAP. Even read / unread status syncs ;)

P

[Guest Monolithix]

Replied status?

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

Don't think so.

P

[Guest Subliminal Aura]

Replied status?

Yup - IMAP is king.

( Well it does on my IMAP servers. )

Edited October 25, 2007 by Subliminal Aura

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

Oh, OK! ;)

P

[Guest tsutton]

It doesn't show up on mine, even that I changed to English US, logged off & back on. ;)

Guess I'll wait...

[Guest Dr Who]

It doesn't show up on mine, even that I changed to English US, logged off & back on. ;)

Guess I'll wait...

W00t!!!!! I had to change my language, but I also disabled POP at the same time, and as if by magic it appeared. If people still have problems I wonder if it is different for those on googlemail accounts (rather than gmail) since that is a regional specific account?

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

Strange, worked for me ;)

P

[Guest Subliminal Aura]

Strange, worked for me :D

P

Heh - This is blatant class discrimination ;) Either that or his real name is Simon Templar ?

:(

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

Eh?

;)

P

[Guest Leaskovski]

IMAP and WM5, will that work?

Ayone care to do a step by step guide?

;)

[Guest pupton]

doesnt work for me ;)

[Guest Subliminal Aura]

IMAP and WM5, will that work?

I seem to see why not, it was working fine in the year 2001 under windows pocket pc 2002.

[Guest Leaskovski]

Yeah, i just realised how to create the account. lol, not played with that before. How long have i had my WM device for? lol

This might just make me add a data tarrif to my account ;)

Oh and they are gradually rolling it out according to an ITweek article so it should appear over the next week if it isnt working yet.

Edited October 25, 2007 by Leaskovski

[Guest FrankyG]

Ok, activated IMAP on my Gmail account then set up a Gmail account on my Kaiser;

Send/receive works and messages (from the last 3 days) appear to download. But, it's only the headers that get downloaded, no message body, no content...nothing. I've made sure that the settings are ok - set to download headers and message body, download 20k, download attachments (yes) but still can't read the message body. I sent a quick mail from a POP account, with only 'Test test test' in the subject and repeated in the message body, Gmail still won't download the message body <_<

Any ideas what's wrong?

Thanks,

FrankyG

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

In the folder setup, click and hold on a folder to choose headers or full message, and the number of days to download!

P

[Guest FrankyG]

In the folder setup, click and hold on a folder to choose headers or full message, and the number of days to download!

P

Ok, done that - now the plot thickens!

I sent another email from my POP account, with the subject and message body 'Test test test' and this time I send a 200k jpg also. Send/Receive on Gmail; this time the attachment downloads no problem but there is still no text in the message body!! I'm sure I had this problem before on my Hermes - and only a hard reset solved the problem. I Really want to avoid that on my kaiser for the time being!

Why won't the message body show up?! ;)

Cheers,

FrankyG

[Guest Dr Who]

Ok, done that - now the plot thickens!

I sent another email from my POP account, with the subject and message body 'Test test test' and this time I send a 200k jpg also. Send/Receive on Gmail; this time the attachment downloads no problem but there is still no text in the message body!! I'm sure I had this problem before on my Hermes - and only a hard reset solved the problem. I Really want to avoid that on my kaiser for the time being!

Why won't the message body show up?! ;)

Cheers,

FrankyG

This is ringing serious bells! I am sure I have encountered this on my Hermes. Thinking it was something to do with the storage card settings????

EDIT - Is it something like you have it set to store on storage card but have not storage card inserted? Trying to rack my brain for what the answer was.

Edited October 25, 2007 by Dr Who

[Guest FrankyG]

This is ringing serious bells! I am sure I have encountered this on my Hermes. Thinking it was something to do with the storage card settings????

EDIT - Is it something like you have it set to store on storage card but have not storage card inserted? Trying to rack my brain for what the answer was.

I had mine set to store attachements on the storage card, which rarely comes out of my device. Anyway, I changed the settings to store attachments on the main memory and then emptied all deleted items. Did a send/receive for all accounts and then soft reset. Tried to download my Gmail account - but still no message body ;)

Changed the settings back to save attachments on storage card, did a soft reset. Again tried to pick up Gmail, no dice.

I've got the full version of Sprite backup - but I don't have the confidence that it will restore properly if I have to hard reset. And, it might restore the problem that is causing this behaviour..D'oh!!

Keep thinking bro... :(

FrankyG

[Guest Mr.Clark]

Mine still isn't activated ;)

Still. I've gone and got myself Google Apps on my domain, and set up my catch-all account for it and that DOES have IMAP, so I'm sending and receiving domain email through IMAP on my Vario III rather than using it through Gmail.

Hoorah.

Edited October 25, 2007 by Mr.Clark