Google Mail + Mail.app + IMAP not playing nicely since 10.5.6

No, it's an Apple and Google problem, which is probably why it hasn't been fixed... It's too easy to assume that the other side should be fixing it.

As I mentioned earlier in this thread, I have about eight different IMAP-based accounts that I have tested this with, on everything from Cyrus IMAP to MobileMe to Exchange, GroupWise and Lotus Notes. None of the other accounts exhibit this problem.

Likewise, it makes sense that other IMAP clients may not show this problem either... Hence it's very obviously a combination of the two. Since GMail's IMAP implementation isn't "true" IMAP, and Apple tends to be fairly rigid in their adherence to RFC standards (at least in principle), it's probably fair to say that it's a more complicated problem than it would seem on the surface.

Hi, Just coming back in on this thread. Great that it is still alive and kicking. Been following from inside email. I think I was the 2nd person to reply to this thread. Wanted to update where I am at.

I was having so many issues with IMAP that I switched over to POP. While not ideal, it completely eliminated the headaches I was having not seeing email where I needed to, the desktop. I could not sit on my iPhone going through hundreds of messages. The iPhone is great for when one is "out-and-about" but is not a high-volume email tool. That being said I am in a holding pattern on the Apple Mail/Gmail IMAP combo until there is some good news.

Hopefully that day will come soon.

Best,
Bert

I do not see this as having been addressed/fixed etc.
I hope this will be soon. I am getting frustrated with my iPhone.

Though this may not be the answer most are looking for...

I was having the exact same issues as far as everything worked fine on GMail EXCEPT for correctly updating the "Read" status in Mail.app. I configured Thunderbird for GMail IMAP and everything works perfectly.

Use googles offline facility - why sync with any other progs and bring more problems to the equation?

I'm delighted you're not having any issues with MAIL.

So many of are, that this problem is quite widespread and pervasive, at least in my time with a Mac, and that goes back to 1984. Similar problems throughout the Mac community, but rarely quite the same. My MAIL won't retrieve email from my ISP. And constantly asks for one account's password. My ISP (usually very good at both CS and being up on the latest problems) says they are a little overwhelmed by the number of people with the same problems as I have, and they don't have an answer. Mac support is not their gig, but they have to deal with technical issues from their customers and this one has them stumped ... and 10.5 is in it's sixth release. So, this is not a casual, I'm-techno-amish' kind of problem.

Do you have a fix for this? Delighted you don't have this difficulty to deal with, but do you have a fix?

This needs a bump, AGAIN
My Mail.app is still not syncing correctly with ANY imap mail, including me.com servers.
It is working for deletions, but not read email.

Apple, please please fix this

I've always had trouble with Gmail and Mail.app:

1 - Emails arrive in "all mail" not immediately appearing in my inbox
2 - Emails I'm reading in my inbox not being marked read in "all mail" and vice versa
3 - New mail sound not usually working, or sounding late (a minute or two after the email comes in)
4 - Read emails not being marked as read or replied on the server for some minutes or hours (so my iPhone make a new mail sound several minutes after I've seen it on my desktop and vice versa)

That's all I can think of for now but I think there are more. Mail seems, imo, a bit buggy. Like if you're using plain text you have to type something before you can insert an attachment, otherwise it won't attach; and smart mailboxes still don't work for "and". And if a MS Outlook user sends me a rich text email with an attachment, I can't open the attachment.

I think Apple need to spend a bit of time tweaking Mail to make it work with what is certainly among world's most popular free email solutions. Even if Google Mail is non-standard, I don't see why they can't cater for it.

Hello,

I stumbled into this thread looking for a different issue. However, I have had a Mail problem with IMAP since about December. However, not with gmail, but at usa.net (Net@ddress), so I think it's on the Mac side and not the server.

Messages now take an exceptionally long time to send in all of my IMAP accounts, but they do get sent. However in the usa.net account, sometimes, but not always, the message will not be written into the Sent folder, not on the Mac, not on the server. The message makes it to the recipient, but all record of it is gone. This may have to do with attachments, but it's too random to be absolutely sure. It's happened three or four times (about 1/2% of messages sent), but once is too many.

Add me to the list of people having this problem.

I have 1 Gmail account a 2 Google Apps accounts and this happens with all 3. If I read a messaging in Mail.app, it DOES get marked read on my iPod Touch, though.

If I read the emails on my iPod Touch, BlackBerry, or Gmail web interface, the read status does not get synced back to Mail.app unless I close and re-open it.

Not sure if this is an Apple issue or a Gmail issue, but it's VERY annoying and somewhat defeats the purpose of using IMAP.

i cannot even setup an account for gmail in mail app 10.5.6, it wont work.
i am very confused, as the prescription always mentions gmail (imap.gmail, smtp.gmail)
but my account is named "xxx@googlemail.com" as gmail is not an allowed term in germany.
so do i have to change everything to googlemail, like smtp.googlemail.com?

FYI I'm having this issue too and I'm using a DreamHost IMAP account- nothing Google related at all.

Just chiming in with the same problem. I finally got around to investigating it after the last few months, and it looks like we're still without a fix...

I can't quite say that I'm suffering with Gmail except one thing: when Mail.app deletes messages it places them in [Gmail]\Deleted Items which is just another label that it creates. Shouldn't it place deleted into Trash that already exists in Gmail?

What I do have a problem with is my Exchange account. It's setup using Mail's exchange wizard, so I guess it's IMAP+some sort of OWA wrapper. For some reason, messages coming from sharepoint to my email just flat don't show up in Mail.app. Not in junk, nowhere. They remain forever in Inbox in OWA (and visible just fine in Entourage). *** is that?