How do I send mail from my gmail alias?

Have you tried setting up your GMail as an Exchange account on your device instead of a "standard" iOS GMail account? That may work, see:

http://support.google.com/mobile/bin/answer.py?l=en&topic=14252&answer=138740

Another option might be to try the GMail app rather than the standard iOS Mail app.

Here is how to set up the Gmail "send as" feature on your iPhone. This will enable you to sync one Gmail account while retaining the ability to send from all forwarding addresses linked to that account from your iPhone.

First thing you have to do is make sure IMAP is enabled in your Gmail settings and that your "Send As" addresses are already set up in your Gmail account.

Then you must set up your account as an IMAP account on your phone.

To do this, go to Mail, Contacts, Calendars in your Settings, click Add Account, and choose other, NOT Gmail.

Once you have done this, click "Add Mail Account."

Enter your Name, The Primary Gmail Address you are using, Password and Description.

On the next page, make sure your incoming server is imap.gmail.com and your outgoing server is smtp.gmail.com

In the username field(s) on that page, make sure "@gmail.com" is included in the useranme.

Enter your password, and add the account.

Once you have done that, you need to go back into your account settings.

Go to settings > mail, contacts, calendars > "your gmail account" > "Account" > "Email"

That will take you to this page, where you click "Add Another E-Mail"

Enter the e-mail address(es) you want to "Send as" on this page and you're done! NOTE: it will take anywhere from several hours to a day to begin working. I set mine up at night, and the next morning I was able to send mail from my phone again.

One it is set up and working, your "send as" addresses should display as regular choices in the From menu in Mail:

This should work for the iPad as well.

Cheers!

This is currently not possible with the current Mail.app version and iOS version. This bothers me as well. I suggest you submit Feedback to Apple to let them know that this is something that you want. http://apple.com/feedback

lindsdyn wrote:

... now I get two emails everytime an email is sent to account 1. Since it is forwarding I get one from account 1 and one from account 2 in iPad mail. Any ideas on how to change that so I only get one email?

From a computer, log into your account 1 settings and see how you're forwarding mail to account 2. There should be an option to either (a) route incoming mail to the Trash at the same time as forwarding it to account 2, or (b) leave incoming mail in your Inbox but mark it as having been read before forwarding to account 2. That way only the only indication of New Mail is from account 2.

Another option is to use a filter instead of forwarding incoming mail. Filters let you forward incoming mail, but give you more options (like moving incoming mail to a particular folder).

Here's another iOS workaround... http://www.imore.com/2011/08/01/daily-tip-set-gmail-alias

Don't forget to go to the account's advanced settings and direct drafts, sent messages, and deleted messages to their appropriate server boxes if you want them stored online.

Also, for anyone looking to send email using a gmail alias from your lap/desktop/OSX (I'm using Lion/Apple Mail)... just include both addresses in the email field in your account settings. Seperate them with a comma (e.g. > alias@gmail.com, mainaddress@gmail.com), and whichever address is listed first becomes the default email address used for sending email.

Please realize all of the information above, while true, is all for not when using an iDevice if you forget to visit this portal with your iOS device: m.google.com/sync. This page will prompt you to enter your gmail account and password. At this point, it will register your iDevice with google sync and allow you to take advantage of the "Send As alias". This is very slick and my recommendation.

Having said that, is there any work around for Apple Mail? I only read a resolution above for the iOS issue but nothing for the Lion problem.

Agree... you must visit m.google.com/sync to register your device settings.

As for Lion/Apple Mail... I'm no pro... but this is what I did and my alias is working like a charm...

1. System Preferences >

2. Mail, Contacts, & Calendars >

3. Click on + Add Account and select Other.

4. Choose the first radio button, Add a Mail account > Create.

5. Place your alias email address in the email field and enter your password.

You will get a message saying Mail couldn't log into the Mail server "gmail.com." Just hit Continue anyway.

6. Select IMAP for Account Type.

7. Replace the User Name (was your alias) with your entire actual/primary gmail address > Continue.

8. Place smtp.YourAliasDomain.com in the Outgoind Mail Server field.

9. Check Use Authentication > and enter your entire alias email address in the User Name Field > Continue.

Apple Mail should create the account... you may need to "take the account online."

Hope this helps.

I figured it out after posting my question--automagical solution when you add your "alias" address to the "address" field, separating the address for the account by a comma. The program automagically assumes you are attmepting to use an alias email for something, talks to the google server, and viola, honors your gmail pref's to "send as" with an alias. Ini my humble opinion, this is very slick and subtle--dare say elegant (although somewhat hidden). Thanks for the reply.

kgaddy: "Also, for anyone looking to send email using a gmail alias from your lap/desktop/OSX (I'm using Lion/Apple Mail)... just include both addresses in the email field in your account settings. Seperate them with a comma (e.g. > alias@gmail.com,mainaddress@gmail.com), and whichever address is listed first becomes the default email address used for sending email."

______

Fantastic tip!

I've been trying to set up additional accounts for the alias with no luck but this worked great.

Thanks very much for this, it's much appreciated.

Cheers.

Thank you kgaddy. This is brilliant and it likely works for all servers - mine is zoho and it worked flawlessly. Why don't they let us know when they build in these lovely features?

Even better, if you list ALL your alternate mail addresses in the comma separated list, you just need to tap the "from" field before sending and the complete list will appear in a drop-down menu, allowing selection of the desired alias for that particular email.

The alias placed second last (directly adjacent to the actual email address of the account) becomes the default.

Super @OriginalMacBabe! Glad to know this will work for all mail servers, and very cool to learn you can insert more than one comma + email address. I'll have to take advantage of that special tidbet and save myself jockying between email accounts on my phone. Thx!

Exactly. Until I found this info I never even used the mail app because I have my own domain and all my emails addresses use it; I never use the actual user account address of the server.

NOTE: It looks like my secondary comment is missing: Once there are more than three aternate email addresses in the list, I cannot figure out how to specify the default alias. For some reason it just picks one in the list and I cannot chase it down .. when I've exchanged the desired default for the one in used in the list, it just used something else - no matter what position in the list I place the desired default, I can't seem to get it selected. I can't be bothered to test all the permutations.

I called tech support on this today, and they don't know either. I'm not actually sure that some of them knew this feature was even available, which is not unlike Apple (they don't always know what their systems are fully capable of doing until we users go ahead and challenge it by trying everything!)

If anyone can figure out how to specify the default alias to use (i.e., which alias is used automatically in the "from" field unless you manually change it by selecting another from the drop-down list) when the number of alternate addresses specified in the list in your settings is greater than three, please post it here.

Now, if we can only get apple to include alternate signatures based on alias rather than account, like the actual server does, we'd be sailing. But, being able to specify the "from" field with an alias is a HUGE step forward.

Thanks again.

Hi,

I've tried to sync my iPad with google using the link you provided. It takes me to a page describing linking mail, contacts, etc with google. When I tap on the link "sync with a mobile device," it takes me to a help page. At the top of the help page, there is only the option to create an account. There is no prompt to sign in. If I tap on the link for "iphone, ipad. ipod touch," it takes me to another help page with the option of clicking on a link that says "sync Gmail, Calendar and Contacts on your iPhone and iPad. That link takes me to another help page which only gives me the option to either download the Gmail app or to create a new account.

How do I find what you're telling me I should be able to find? I have tried creating a new account using the recommendations in the imore article and so far cannot get it to find all my aliases.

Thanks very much!

Hi Andrew,

Some of the above posts are dated now... I believe Google has made some changes, some syncing options may not available anymore...

Are you just trying to sync to a Google account (for mail, calendar, etc?)? Or, are you having trouble creating a Gmail alias?