Apple mail does not sync with gMail

I should have mentioned to you, the 6-7 year old iMAC (bought it when he was in grade 10, he is now turning 22 next month) and it is still working fine (maybe a little slower - hard to tell for sure). The first one I bought was DOA, but FutureShop replaced it without question, and this one is still going.

I am also using a Windows 8.1 system (HP) that is working fairly well, but just doesn't have the 'fun factor' of the MBA.

It really isn't the products that I am upset with Apple about - all products have their issues. It is their indifference to their customers experiencing the issues. If Apple were to make the statement saying they have these issues, and they are working on them, that would go a long way. It is the AAA principle - Acknowledge, Apologize, Action.

I've tried the other email clients mentioned in this thread, but still come back to Mail as the best solution for me. I'm no longer consistently getting the delays for incoming Gmail messages, though nothing has changed to account for this. Sometimes they come in right away. Sometimes they don't. This makes me wonder if this is a problem on Google's end.

Whatever the solution is, I'm very frustrated with Apple. I've brought them many thousands of dollars in purchases and recomendations since 2006, and I've never been so frustrated as I am currently. I'm embarassed by problems I'm encountering, especially when I've bragged to Windows users about how great some of these very same things work on the Mac.

I've had multiple problems with new machines and OS versions in the last few months, but they don't seem to be concerned. I wonder if there is a specific way we should be complaining about this issue in order to make them aware of how much we want it fixed.

Des325, I hear you and felt that way a few years ago too. What I learned from the way Steve used to run things was not to admit or commit until they actually knew what the issue was (remember antenna gate for the iPhone). My personal experience in the IT arena is that people can be quick to blame you because you are at huge front of the line and then with analysis you find out it is something or someone else. As noted before, these things are not always as clean cut as they sound. What if Google is playing some sort of game? There is no evidence either way but it is another potential.

It is possible with Google, but it sounds like the Mail problem is not only with Google (although that is all I use). Ihave the WiFi issue too, and did have the sleep issue. Nothing from Apple on either one of them. Even if it isn't an Apple problem, to ignore their suffering customers is unacceptable. But unfortunately is has become expected.

As you can see the problem is not syncing contacts or calendars or notes. It's only the email.

bennzz wrote:

What gets me is that IMAP is not difficult to impliment, and an email program really doesn't need to do much beyond checking and sending email.

Gmail is not a standard Imap system, so that paragraph hardly applies to it.

Get a better email carrier, get one that does not use your email as a product that can be sold in order to others.

Csound1 wrote:

bennzz wrote:

What gets me is that IMAP is not difficult to impliment, and an email program really doesn't need to do much beyond checking and sending email.

Gmail is not a standard Imap system, so that paragraph hardly applies to it.

But be that as it may, how come Airmail, Thunderbird, Postbox, Inky, Unibox, and Mail Pilot can get Gmail to work and Apple can't? After months of trying, presumably?

But be that as it may, how come Airmail, Thunderbird, Postbox, Inky, Unibox, and Mail Pilot can get Gmail to work and Apple can't? After months of trying, presumably?

Where to start with this?

Possibly for the same (or similar) reasons that Airmail and Mail Pilot (I have not used the other clients mentioned) do a dreadful job with non-Gmail accounts?

And as I have pointed out before many Gmail users have Mail as their client, and are not seeing any issues, the few hundred vociferous posters in this thread represent a tiny percentage. I use Gmail for one purpose only, it's my junk collector, every month I go in and just delete everything, and I use Mail, in which Gmail works perfectly for me and others.

And as I have also said before, if an email service wants my business so that they can sell my information to anyone with the money to buy it I want a cut. I have no interest in becoming a free source of income for Google, if you are happy with that situation then by all means use the client that you prefer. Airmail is only a buck ninety nine, and worth every one of that meagre amount of pennies.

I don't think it could realistically be all down to Google mail... IMAP is a very robust protocol, with so many users communicating with Google's servers from such a wide range of clients... Seems a bit too much to think Google would leverage one weakness in Mail.app... Sounds a little 'second gunman' to me...!

In other evidence, if anecdotal: Since the Mavericks 10.9.1 Update, we're still having trouble with all of our several (custom, internally-built) IMAP servers, and having no trouble at all with our Google accounts. Further, we're having no issues connected to any of our servers using Postbox or MailMate (which is a project worthy of support; shameless plug).

No, mail issues seem to be centered right on Mail.app itself. If it helps point someone to an idea: Every time I start Mail, it reports 'Updating Mail database' - or similar - and never seems to do so.

In addition, I'm still having the No-wake-from-sleep problem. Power Management seems to be really f'd up since Mavericks.

Csound1 wrote:

And as I have also said before, if an email service wants my business so that they can sell my information to anyone with the money to buy it I want a cut. I have no interest in becoming a free source of income for Google...

Well, this is getting off-topic, and granted I'm probably the naive child wandering in the wilderness here, but...what is Google exactly doing along these lines? What are they selling and how closely is it allied with my identity? I've heard others make this assertion, but haven't seen any details that would convince me to go another direction.

Donnie Ashworth wrote:

Csound1 wrote:

And as I have also said before, if an email service wants my business so that they can sell my information to anyone with the money to buy it I want a cut. I have no interest in becoming a free source of income for Google...

Well, this is getting off-topic, and granted I'm probably the naive child wandering in the wilderness here, but...what is Google exactly doing along these lines? What are they selling and how closely is it allied with my identity? I've heard others make this assertion, but haven't seen any details that would convince me to go another direction.

Google's business model (as stated by them) is to provide their clients with information gleaned from the online data that is stored with them (email, contacts, calendars, data from Google drive and so on and so on) this is how Google generates revenue.

Once you get into their services you are the product.

There is no such thing as a free lunch, even when there is no apparent charge to use the service.

Hi Csound. Could you send me the links to your sources for this Google business model?

I also use email through Shaw, and it also doesn't sync properly.

CSound, I should clarify - I have found lots of articles from non-Google sources, most credible I think, and several scary, but I can't find Google's statement that you mention.

Google this, there are lots of sources.

google sells your data

And here is one from SafeGov.org with detail about how Google has expanded their data mining to Educational and Business accounts.

A General Article below.

Perhaps Google should reduce its privacy policy to one simple word: none. In a brief first reported by Consumer Watchdog, Google wrote that its users have “no legitimate expectation of privacy,” giving fuel to “Google haters”http://www.zdnet.com/expecting-privacy-with-email-providers-is-extremely-naive-7 000019374/ and defenders alike.

Google’s privacy statement as it currently reads is over 2,200 words long, and in it, among many other very interesting tidbits, the search engine-advertising giant openly admits to collecting six types of information from its users:

• Device information: Google says it may collect device-specific information such as hardware model, operating system version, and mobile network information, including phone numbers.
• Log information: When you use Google’s services or view content provided by the company, it may automatically collect and store that data in server logs. This information includes what you search for, the phone numbers of friends that you call, and how long you spoke.
• Location information: When you use a location-enabled Google service, the company may collect and process information about your actual location, like GPS signals sent by a mobile device.
• Unique application numbers: This number and information about the apps you install may be sent to Google when you install or uninstall that service or when that service contacts the company’s servers for automatic updates and other unspecified reasons.
• Local storage: Google may collect and store information, including “personal information,” on your device using browser web storage such as HTML5 and application data caches.
• Cookies and anonymous identifiers: The company says it uses unspecified technologies to collect and store information when you visit a Google service, possibly including sending one or two cookies or anonymous identifiers to your device, even when you interact with services the company offers to their partners.

Notably, Google also admitted to scanning emails of non-Gmail-users—who wouldn't have likely agreed to Google’s terms—sending email to Gmail users.

Much of the information mentioned in the privacy policy is the same information Edward Snowden leaked that Google was sharing with the National Security Agency. The founder of anonymous search engine DuckDuckGo recently told Upstart Business Journal that anonymous startups could never be forced to share their data with the government, because they don’t collect the data in the first place.