Best practices for Email on the iPhone

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Level 4

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Best practices for Email on the iPhone

As a new iPhone user, before I do something disastrous (I once wiped out an email account completely when trying to use IMAP after delete stuff in one place and having the effect synched everywhere), I am wonder how best to use email on my iPhone.

I use Mail.app on my Mac. If I want to check for new email, and possibly respond, but not affect my usual Mac email downloads later on, is there a best way to set things up so I retrieve my email but leave it on the server for later download when I'm at my Mac? I am hesitant about switching everything to IMAP.

Or... is there a better way? How do most people set it up?

Thank,

doug

MBP C2D 17", Mac OS X (10.5), 3.0 GB RAM

Posted on Feb 1, 2009 12:56 AM

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Answer 1

Doug Lerner2 Author

Level 4

1,345 points

Feb 1, 2009 3:17 AM in response to Doug Lerner2

I'm not sure exactly what I did, but what appears to be happening, which is ok, is that:

(1) The iPhone appears to be doing an IMAP synch to my Gmail account (which is where I pull in all my mail from other accounts). I think that is what happened because I can see my Gmail "sent" mail box on my iPhone too.

(2) My Mac is doing ordinary POP3 downloads from Gmail as before, and removing the email (actually archiving it) upon download.

So the next time the iPhone checks email the emails that got downloaded on my Mac are automatically removed from my iPhone.

I suppose since it is doing an IMAP connection that deleting it from my iPhone would have also deleted it from Gmail. I haven't tested that yet.

I didn't actually create any mail settings on my iPhone - it was all created automatically when I synced the first time.

And when new email arrives it seems to get pushed to my iPhone mailbox.

I still don't know how to use the xxxxx@i.softbank.ne.jp cell phone address that came with it, but I don't know if I actually need it for anything, considering that I can just use my regular email accounts.

doug

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Answer 2

Doug Lerner2 Author

Level 4

1,345 points

Feb 1, 2009 5:46 AM in response to Doug Lerner2

As per my other note, I guess I understand everything now except for one thing.

Why is my Gmail account, as synched from my Mac automatically an IMAP account without any option to set it to anything else? On my Mac it is a POP3 account.

I have some accounts that are POP3 and they show up on the iPhone with clear POP3 settings, and another IMAP account with IMAP settings, but Gmail seems to automatically set itself up as IMAP with no server setting options.

Does anybody know why?

Thanks,

doug

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Answer 3

Feb 1, 2009 6:18 AM in response to Doug Lerner2

When using the Gmail account preset which is available when creating a Gmail account with the iPhone's mail client, the account is created as an IMAP account. To create a Gmail account as a POP account, you need to select "Other" when creating the account choosing POP as the account type instead of using the Gmail account preset when creating the account.

Google does not provide/support Push access for a Gmail account with the iPhone's mail client.

When accessing an email account with more than one email client, I prefer accessing the account as an IMAP account if the email account provider supports accessing the account as an IMAP or POP account.

Although it possible to access a POP account with more than one email client, a POP account is really designed to be accessed with a single email client only.

An IMAP account is designed to be accessed with multiple email clients with the ability to keep all server stored mailboxes for the account synchronized with the server automatically with each email client used to access the account.

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Answer 4

Doug Lerner2 Author

Level 4

1,345 points

Feb 1, 2009 6:46 AM in response to Allan Sampson

Thanks for your response Allan.

One followup point regarding this. I didn't set up my Gmail account via the iPhones Mail client. It was set up automatically for me when I did my first synch and I said it was ok to synch email accounts.

However, my Gmail account on my Mac inside Mail.app is NOT set for IMAP - it is POP3.

So it appears that the iPhone not only sets your Gmail account as IMAP when setting up in the client by choosing the Gmail option, but that it also OVERRIDES the settings when synching the account information from your Mac, turning a POP3 account into an IMAP account.

I guess the only way of turning it back to POP3 would be to delete that account on the iPhone and create another one via the "Other" account setting.

But it seems to be working well as is.

I think it is safer to have one "master" account (like on my main computer) that is POP3 and doesn't synch with all the other accounts. I had a disastrous experience once with IMAP and lost all of an account's email because of the synching. Since then I prefer to use POP3 on my main account and keep all my email offline - and also constantly backed up with Time Machine.

I also have my main mail set to "archive when downloaded" from Gmail, so there is yet another backup that way.

Thanks,

doug

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