Using POP Gmail - - question

Question

Level 1

5 points

Using POP Gmail - - question

I only use my iPhone to catch e-mail messages when out of the office. Once I open my work PC, the messages download to it. I keep ZERO messages on the iPhone. I have both a work e-mail account, and a personal gmail account that are monitored. The work e-mail account is also POP, and it works flawlessly. The problem is with the Gmail account. iPhone sends and receives exactly as it's supposed to. Only problem is that once the iPhone pulls the message from the Gmail server, the work PC no longer gets it. I have the "Delete from server" option in the mail settings as "When removed from Inbox". The desired behavior is if I delete it from my iPhone, there's no reason for the PC to download it again. I'm confirming it's not wanted. However, I have tried every setting for this particular field, and none work. Once the iPhone grabs it, the PC won't pick it up regardless.

I had the identical setup on my BlackBerry, and it never had a problem. Worked exactly like I wanted it to. 1 other strange thing:

OCCASIONALLY, the PC will download a message that is on the iPhone, but there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason. For example, I had 6 messages come in after I left work yesterday. All were opened, read, and kept. When I opened the work PC this morning, 2 of the 6 came through even though they were all handled identical on the handheld. What???

Anyone else having this problem? I can't figure out if it's on Apple's side or Gmail's. Seems to be Gmail since my POP work account is OK. But then again, Gmail POP worked perfectly on the BlackBerry which points the finger at Apple.

VERY frustrated at this point . . . . .

iPhone 3G, Windows Vista

Posted on May 8, 2009 12:54 PM

Reply

Answer 1

paulcb

Level 6

19,245 points

May 8, 2009 1:00 PM in response to Vol4Ever

I would setup your Gmail as IMAP (the GMail default setting on the iPhone), then all your messages stay on the server and you only view them from the PC or iPhone.

Reply

Answer 2

Vol4Ever Author

Level 1

5 points

May 8, 2009 1:06 PM in response to paulcb

I thought that IMAP did a FULL sync of everything, received and sent. I originally tried that method, but the handheld was wanting to download the 2000+ messages that are on the Gmail server. I leave those alone even though I only keep a handful on my local machine. Theory is that if I accidentally deleted something, it's nice to have a full backup on Gmail's side taking up THEIR disk space. 🙂

That's why I changed over to POP.

EDIT: In other words, if I delete it on the handheld, wouldn't it be gone forever from the Gmail server too?

Reply

Answer 3

paulcb

Level 6

19,245 points

May 8, 2009 1:19 PM in response to Vol4Ever

On the iPhone, in Mail settings, you can choose the number of messages to download, 25, 50, etc. In the Mail app itself, it will then only download that number of messages (25, 50, etc) to the folder you select, i.e. Inbox, Drafts, etc.

When not on my iPhone, I access GMail via a browser and it works very, very well. I used to use a mail client on my desktop but have switched to the browser (Firefox).

Edit: for emails deleted on the iPhone, you can choose to put them in the iPhone Trash or the GMail Server Trash, thus having them available until GMail auto deletes them from their server (every 30 or 60 days I think)

Edit2: Setup a test GMail account (IMAP) with a new email address and play around with it.

Message was edited by: paulcb

Reply

Answer 4

Vol4Ever Author

Level 1

5 points

May 8, 2009 1:23 PM in response to paulcb

I may try that, but I'd really like to get the POP working since that's what I'm used to. I use that method for my work account and it works exactly like it's supposed to. Something about the iPhone/Gmail connection that's just getting gummed up. I even tried deleting the Gmail POP from the iPhone, and restarting from scratch. "New" account has the same issue. Weirdest part is that occasional messages come through. For the life of me, I can't figure out what would cause that type of sporadic behavior.

Reply

Answer 5

paulcb

Level 6

19,245 points

May 8, 2009 1:29 PM in response to Vol4Ever

You may not figure it out. I used to use and love POP as well until I switched to IMAP. I certainly won't go back because I don't have to worry about where my email is... I can access it from any configured device and it's the same everywhere. Just try it for a few days and see how it works for you.

Reply

Answer 6

Vol4Ever Author

Level 1

5 points

May 11, 2009 7:35 AM in response to paulcb

Wouldn't using IMAP delete it from Gmail's server if I deleted it from the handheld? Here is a roadmap of the desired behavior. This process worked 100% with my BlackBerry.

HH = handheld iPhone

When PC is logged in:
- If msg is downloaded to local PC, it is NOT downloaded to HH

When PC is logged out:
- All msgs download to HH
- If deleted from HH, msg does NOT show up when logging back into PC
- Any msgs remaining on HH (whether in "opened" state or not) download on PC

- Regardless if msgs are deleted from HH or PC, a copy ALWAYS stays on the Gmail server itself

Would IMAP have the above funcationality?

Reply

Answer 7

paulcb

Level 6

19,245 points

May 11, 2009 7:52 AM in response to Vol4Ever

Would IMAP have the above funcationality?

Yes.

As I understand and as it appears to work with IMAP, you only download a copy form the server and just view/control what's on the server. If you delete an email on your PC or HH, a command is sent to move that email to the trash folder on the server. If you send an email from your PC or HH, it sends the email from the server to the recipient and places a copy in the Sent Mail folder.

As I've mentioned a few times, I think you can answer all your questions in a few minutes by setting up an IMAP test account but that appears to be something you're unwilling to do, albeit perhaps for a good reason.

Message was edited by: paulcb

Reply

Answer 8

Vol4Ever Author

Level 1

5 points

May 11, 2009 8:26 AM in response to paulcb

IMAP didn't work. 2 major problems.

1 - When I deleted test msgs from the HH, they disappeared from the Gmail server, too.

2 - HH would download 50 old messages. When I would delete those 50, the next 50 would come in. Not only were they deleted from the Gmail server, but it would take days to go through the 1000's of old messages that are on there. Plus they would then be gone forever . . . .

I guess I'll just live with the "quirky" Gmail POP. Same scenario this morning. There were roughly 12 messages on the HH from the weekend. Only 5 of them came through to the PC, and they were randomly spread through the list. As usual, work POP account worked 100%.

Reply

Answer 9

paulcb

Level 6

19,245 points

May 11, 2009 8:39 AM in response to Vol4Ever

On GMail...

1. When I delete an email from my iPhone's Inbox, it's moved from the Server Inbox to the Server Trash so it's not 'gone forever'. If I leave it there, it stays there on the Server as well. You can adjust these settings under Settings > Mail > your account > Advanced
2. You can set the number of recent messages for the iPhone to download at one time under Settings > Mail (25, 50, 75, 100 or 200). If you have lots of messages in your Inbox, I'd suggest moving them to appropriate folders (called labels in GMail). This is good practice for any email system. Keeping all your emails in your Inbox will cause you problems somewhere down the line, either now or later.

Reply

Answer 10

Vol4Ever Author

Level 1

5 points

May 11, 2009 8:53 AM in response to paulcb

I have it set to 50 messages. However, when I deleted the first 50 that came through, then it went after the next 50. My e-mails are SUPER organized at the PC level, but I never log into the Gmail direct interface. Thus, the Gmail direct Inbox has 1000's of messages in it. Always has. It is simply an emergency archive. To be honest, I've never had to go to it, but it's sure nice for it to be there. And Google gives you free, almost unlimited storage space, so I've never worried about it.

I really do appreciate all your help, but the IMAP solution is not for me. I just can't believe someone can't explain the sporadic POP problem. The randomness is what is so odd.

Reply

Answer 11

Randy Fast

Level 4

1,432 points

May 11, 2009 9:06 AM in response to Vol4Ever

When the iPhone "downloads" emails from gmail server it doesn't remove them from gmail servers. Are the emails in your gmail inbox marked as read? Also what desktop client are you using instead of going to the webmail of gmail? You shouldn't need to delete any emails, just read them as they come in and they will remain in your gmail inbox and the iPhone won't do anything with them, it will just keep showing new ones as they come.

Between Outlook, Gmail (webmail) and my iPhone everything is working fine with IMAP. Stuff I read in outlook shows up as read or not new online and on my iPhone, same if I read online or from my iPhone.

Reply

Answer 12

paulcb

Level 6

19,245 points

May 11, 2009 9:07 AM in response to Vol4Ever

For your POP setup, it sounds as if you leave the emails on the server's inbox so yes, the iPhone will try to download them all. Since they're already on your PC, you'd have to delete them from the server's inbox.

GMail seems to work best when you use the server as you central point and then the HH and PC as access/view/manipulate only (not storage). I used to use a mail client on my PC but switched to a browser and direct access to GMail a coupe years ago. I like it much better than the old way purely b/c I can access everything from any location (work, home, HH, friends computer, etc) and it's the same for all devices. It was a bit of a pain switching over though... there were some emails I just archived in my old mail client.

I believe the problems you're having are why IMAP was developed, so people don't have to keep track of what emails are where, i.e. HH, desktop, work, etc. With IMAP, it's the same everywhere.

That being said, if you don't like IMAP, don't use it. Sorry I don't have an answer to your original POP problem, other than switching to IMAP. Good luck with your setup.

Reply

Answer 13

Vol4Ever Author

Level 1

5 points

May 11, 2009 9:21 AM in response to paulcb

You've hit on the core issue. I like to store messages I want to keep on my local machine. M$ Outlook is my poison of choice. When changing to web browser access, how do you know when you have new messages? Do you just have to manually check throughout the day? Obviously they come through to the HH, but what about your desktop?

Reply

Answer 14

paulcb

Level 6

19,245 points

May 11, 2009 10:07 AM in response to Vol4Ever

You can store messages on the server just as you do on your desktop, i.e. with folders/labels. The only difference is the location of the email.

I know I have messages two ways... 1) if my browser (Firefox) is open, the tab description tells me I have messages without having to open that tab and/or 2) GMail has a notifier you can enable that is similar to that used in MS Outlook - it resides in the Notification Area of the Task Bar.

Note that when accessing your email through a browser, you're looking at the server so you don't need to 'receive' your email, it shows as soon as it's on the server... if you can't see it, it's not there yet.

I'm finding that in some cases, email being one, the more I do in my browser and the less I do on my desktop, the better off I am. One less thing to worry about if my hardrive goes south.

Reply