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Mail not getting Gmail via IMAP

So I have a Gmail account, and I use IMAP via Mail to access it. When I click "Get Mail", I frequently won't get messages that I know are sitting in my Gmail inbox for some reason. I have to take the account offline and then back online to get my new messages. Sometimes it works normally, but most times it doesn't. Also, when I clicked "synchronize account" this used to work but doesn't seem to any more. I have another IMAP account using mail that goes to another email I have with my web hosting account, and that one always works perfectly. I also occassionally have problems sending messages through Gmail using IMAP and Mail. Anybody know what the issue may be? I'm using Mail v3. Thanks!

G4 (AGP Graphics), Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Posted on May 8, 2008 8:58 AM

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17 replies

Jun 30, 2008 2:06 PM in response to Sawtooth501

I think I have a similar issue. I was wondering if you found a solution?

I have Mail set up to sync with Gmail, but it often stops syncing. "Get new mail" does not work, and neither does "Synchronize Gmail". What fixes it for me is relaunching mail, I haven't tried what you said about taking the accounts offline and then back online.

This is an issue because I can't rely on Mail to notify me of new email...

Jul 2, 2008 11:30 AM in response to Sawtooth501

I am so glad to find that I am not alone with this problem. Interestingly, for me, I use mac mail for three IMAP accounts

.mac - inbox works fine
gmail - inbox works fine
gmail from google apps account - inbox doesn't update reliably.

I have to shut mail down and re open for it to get all the inbox messages. Like the other posts here, all other folders work fine in mail, even in the gmail apps account.

I have configured mail to work exactly as gmail suggests for IMAP. Neither mac geniuses nor apple care specialists have been able to help with this. I am very interested if anyone can figure this out.

Thanks.

Jul 2, 2008 1:04 PM in response to Sawtooth501

i have had the issue but with my school email account. not sure if it is the same issue but after a while it works again so i always thought it was a school issue. i have my main email hosted by google but its not "gmail" and after i switched it over to imap and set it up i havent had too many issues just a few times it wouldnt pull the mail but it was while i wasnt using the machine and the next auto check pulled it so im not sure

-matt

Jul 25, 2008 3:49 PM in response to ddoonie

Did anyone ever find a solution or an explanation for this problem - I have exactly the same behaviour. Usually, if I open the activity viewer, it looks like mail.app is stuck on downloading an old message. This is very frustrating, and has stopped me from using mail.app for the past few months - but I really do prefer it to the gmail interface, so if there's a way I can correct this, I would be so happy.

Jul 30, 2008 9:55 PM in response to m_s

Yup. Having the same issue. I won't be using Mail.app anymore since I use Gmail as my primary email address. What really is killing me is I've got all my iGTD setup through the Mail.app and now its totally screwed.

I've tried the all the various "solutions" posted around for solving this issue but nothing is working. Biggest problems:

1. Whenever i launch Mail a different amount of email shows up in the inbox.
2. Sometimes Folders appear and sometimes they don't.
3. Endless downloading of messages from Gmail -- will eventually have to force quit Mail.app just to be able to close it.

Would much appreciate some sort of solution on this. Hard to believe that two smart companies like Gmail and Apple can't figure out an easy and sensible solution?

Aug 2, 2008 1:47 AM in response to Phitness

I'm testing out Thunderbird now, and having none of the same problems - in fact, Thunderbird works just perfectly with gmail imap, and is letting me experience the benefits of imap over pop. I would rather be running mail.app, but until there's a clear solution to this behaviour, I'm going to stick with Thunderbird. What really bugs me is simple tasks like adding images - fully 100% easier to do from mail.app because of the OS integration... Thunderbird is good, but to my mind it's not (yet) capable of replacing mail.app. Any thoughts, anyone?

Aug 2, 2008 8:43 AM in response to Sawtooth501

Hmmm... I thought gmail only works via POP and not IMAP. Meaning I'm sure someone told me the Push would not work as far as updating mail I already checked on my iPhone because of the lack of the IMAP feature.

My problem now is I have 3 IMAP accounts the mostly work fine except that I can't "send" from any of them... I can only send from the gmail account/server. Why?

Aug 2, 2008 4:32 PM in response to mabletonga

Gmail introduced imap towards the end of last year ( http://tinyurl.com/yv48ys), but you need to enable it in your account settings. As to your question about smtp server for sending email: many service providers lock off their smtp server unless you're connecting via them - so if you're using x smtp server, you need to have connected to the internet via x's connection, but gmail's smtp servers are open and can be accessed via any connection - that's why they'll work anywhere. I'm sure somebody else can jump in with a more accurate and technical explanation.

I'm now running mail and thunderbird, and mail has behaved well all day - I wonder if it might have something to do with me having switched off pop access in gmail account settings? Never thought to do that before...

Aug 5, 2008 12:10 PM in response to m_s

Well, no - it had nothing to do with switching off POP, because Mail was back to misbehavin' a short while later. Now the truth is that I much prefer using Mail to Thunderbird, so I really would like to work this out. In case anybody is interested, here's a short video of what my mail activity window looks like (http://tinyurl.com/6gnl8g). I've had IMAP enabled for about 10 months now, since whenever it was introduced, and the message that's being downloaded there was fully downloaded long ago - and several times over: I've seen it show up in the mail activity before now, along with other messages that I can confirm (with a Spotlight search) are already downloaded. Doesn't anyone have any ideas? I have removed the account and reinstated it more than once - and I have reinstalled Mail as well... But so far no joy...

Mail not getting Gmail via IMAP

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