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Reliable GMail on iPhone.

S

switchy

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 5, 2007
58
0
I successfully got GMAIL to work beautifully across my iPhone, MacBookPro (mail.app) and Thunderbird on Windows. Here's how I did it:

1. In GMail, I forwarded all of my mail to a free 2gb AIM mail account. (similar space, similar conditions). (GMail Spam filters own.)

2. I setup my accounts in my email clients to send mail from my GMail SMTP account, on the GMail server.

I also set up my clients to receive inbound from imap.aim.com.

3. I set both of these up on my Thunderbird, and my Mail.app. I then synced it via iTunes to my iPhone..

Sure, it's common sense, maybe? But it works. And it's completely free.
 
You send Outbound via GMail's SMTP server. I find it works just fine.
 
All I did was forward my gmail account to my yahoo account and it pushes to my iPhone. I also setup outlook to do the same with my other email address. No problems at all.
 
Kinmar said:
All I did was forward my gmail account to my yahoo account and it pushes to my iPhone. I also setup outlook to do the same with my other email address. No problems at all.
Click to expand...

The problem with this is that when I reply to one of these messages, it comes from myid@yahoo.com, and there is no way to change that (yet).
 
Well. You can just send email through your GMail SMTP, that's how this works.
 
switchy said:
GMail doesn't have IMAP support. AIM does.
Click to expand...

Ahhh, got it. :) You don't get push support with AIM though, right? That only works with Yahoo currently. I think I too would choose IMAP given a choice, but my regular email is overrun with SPAM, and I am using GMail as a filter like you. But I use POP instead.
 
ZBoater said:
The problem with this is that when I reply to one of these messages, it comes from myid@yahoo.com, and there is no way to change that (yet).
Click to expand...

Yeah that is true but the only reason that bothers me at all is because of the stupid ad's they put at the bottom of the emails on occasion. Otherwise people just know that when they get email from my yahoo account that im probably on my iphone. Aside from the stock signature telling them such :)
 
Kinmar said:
Yeah that is true but the only reason that bothers me at all is because of the stupid ad's they put at the bottom of the emails on occasion. Otherwise people just know that when they get email from my yahoo account that im probably on my iphone. Aside from the stock signature telling them such :)
Click to expand...

The only two advantages of using IMAP over POP, in my view, are syncing folders and push (IDLE). Since IDLE is only supported on Yahoo, that leaves folders.

Since I use this for work, I cannot have emails coming from myid@yahoo.com. Its just not an option for me. I also have six email accounts, and when I reply to a message, the reply NEEDS to have a reply-to address the same as what the original message was sent to.

Since GMail has the best spam filters I know of, I created GMail accounts for each of my regular accounts - forwarded each one of my accounts to a corresponding GMail account. On the iPhone, I defined the GMail accounts using the "Other" shortcut. This allowed me to specify my custom reply-to address AND use GMail as incoming and outgoing server. The only thing I do not have is IMAP folder syncronization, but I only use the iPhone to check email on the go. I leave all the messages on the server to download when I get back to my desk.

I do miss the push - the Yahoo push seems to work. I only hope Apple, in its infinite wisdom, support IMAP push with other IMAP providers, not just Yahoo.
 
AHDuke99 said:
how do i set up my yahoo account to send through my gmail smtp server? on the website or on the mail app on the iphone?
Click to expand...

You cant, not unless you have a paid Yahoo account. The free Yahoo account does not support any access other than web, with the exception of the brand new iPhone, which allows you IMAP access. The free Yahoo account has no POP access.

If you have a paid Yahoo account, you can configure it using the "Other" shortcut under Settings / Mail / New Account, use the Yahoo server as the incoming server, and GMail as outgoing. But, at that point, since you paid for it, you might as well use Yahoo for outgoing as well.
 
oh. i'll wait for apple and google to improve gmail on iphone before i pay to use a yahoo account to get my mail forwarded to.
 
I use my gmail and besides the emails i send being sent back to me it works perfect, I guess I could just set up a filter, but it's not that hard to just 'swipe' and delete.
 
Star-fire said:
I use my gmail and besides the emails i send being sent back to me it works perfect, I guess I could just set up a filter, but it's not that hard to just 'swipe' and delete.
Click to expand...

What filter could you set up to avoid this? I have set a filter where any message that is from my Gmail address "skips the inbox and goes straight to archive" however, my iPhone still downloads it (and in fact, I want mail.app to download my sent messages because I have a mail rule that puts those directly into my sent folder).

I am hoping for Google and Apple to collaborate more on this, but I am not holding my breath. In the end, those other solutions were hacks and the increased functionality didn't warrant their niggles.
 
switchy said:
I successfully got GMAIL to work beautifully across my iPhone, MacBookPro (mail.app) and Thunderbird on Windows. Here's how I did it:

1. In GMail, I forwarded all of my mail to a free 2gb AIM mail account. (similar space, similar conditions). (GMail Spam filters own.)

2. I setup my accounts in my email clients to send mail from my GMail SMTP account, on the GMail server.

I also set up my clients to receive inbound from imap.aim.com.

3. I set both of these up on my Thunderbird, and my Mail.app. I then synced it via iTunes to my iPhone..

Sure, it's common sense, maybe? But it works. And it's completely free.
Click to expand...

I set it up with this method and it seems to be working fine. The only thing is that since you're receiving mails forwaded from Gmail, they'll remain as new in the web app. This is much better than receiving sent mails in your inbox, however.
 
I just enabled POP on my Gmail account.

switchy said:
I successfully got GMAIL to work beautifully across my iPhone, MacBookPro (mail.app) and Thunderbird on Windows. Here's how I did it:

1. In GMail, I forwarded all of my mail to a free 2gb AIM mail account. (similar space, similar conditions). (GMail Spam filters own.)

2. I setup my accounts in my email clients to send mail from my GMail SMTP account, on the GMail server.

I also set up my clients to receive inbound from imap.aim.com.

3. I set both of these up on my Thunderbird, and my Mail.app. I then synced it via iTunes to my iPhone..

Sure, it's common sense, maybe? But it works. And it's completely free.
Click to expand...

I enabled POP on my Gmail account.
I then added this account to my Mac Mail.
And then sync'd my iPhone.
It works great on the iPhone [sending and receiving even over Edge!]
 
ZBoater - what gmail settings did you use under "other"?

I heard that if you try to setup gmail under other, you can't specify the incoming and outgoing ports. Can you tell us what you used for pop and smtp with gmail that worked under other? For me I cannot have my reply to address for work showing up as gmail! Thanks!
 
maybe I misunderstood, but did you say you sync'd Thunderbird with iTunes?

If so could you point me to some information on doing that?
 
what he means is that you open your mail app in osx, configure the account there and itunes will sync all mail accounts from mail.app to iphone.

I've tried aim imap and for whatever reason it says checking for email for a good 40 seconds so i think thats total BS so I am trying to find some free imap provider or set up my own imap server :)
 
buzzin said:
I heard that if you try to setup gmail under other, you can't specify the incoming and outgoing ports. Can you tell us what you used for pop and smtp with gmail that worked under other? For me I cannot have my reply to address for work showing up as gmail! Thanks!
Click to expand...

You dont have to. It just works. AFTER you create the account, you can always go back to the Advanced settings and look at them, but specifying smtp.gmail.com and pop.gmail.com just works.

In order for you to use your work email ID as your reply-to ID, you have to do two things.

1. Define the account using the OTHER shortcut. This lets you specify your work ID in the Account Information box next to address, and then use the GMail IDs for logging into the incoming and outgoing servers.

2. You have to add your work ID as an authorized reply-to address in your GMail account. You have to go to GMail.com on your browser, log into your account, go to Settings / Accounts, and add your work ID as a reply-to address. GMail is going to want to confirm this ID is legit, so it will send you an email with a verification code. Once you verify it, all the emails coming out of your iPhone will look like they came from your work ID.
 
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