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Yosemite Mail still has sync problems with Gmail - any solutions?

I notice that Yosemite Mail still has sync problems with Gmail. After running for some hours, I noticed there were 6 emails in my Gmail account that had not synced over the past hour.


In the meanwhile, for safety's sake (don't want to miss emails!) I'm back to Mailplane. But I wonder if anybody knows of a solution to this long term problem first introduced in Mavericks. Works fine in iOS Mail though.


Thanks,


doug

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013), i5, 512 GB SSD, 16 GB RAM

Posted on Oct 18, 2014 9:10 AM

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162 replies

Oct 18, 2014 9:21 AM in response to Doug Lerner2

I had some problems in Mavericks... Never used my mail app.. Used Gmail direct instead...


Having run Yosemite since public beta (couple of months) I have actually reverted back to apple mail...

Seems fine to me... But will be checking it often to make sure everything is ok.


Just a note: Apple mail does not always sync.. this depends on your settings/preferences (with regards to how often it syncs). Also would be a good idea to manually sync the mail by clicking envelope at top left corner before comparing to gmail.

Oct 19, 2014 7:26 AM in response to Darklykoz

I was giving it another try today and so far so good all day. If I run into what seems like another non-syncing problem I'll try clicking the envelope as you suggested.


I wish there was a a quick shortcut way to file messages in all the mailboxes I have for different friends, family, customers, etc. That is one advantage of Gmail direct or, say, Mailplane.


But Apple Mail has its advantages too.


Thanks,


doug

Oct 19, 2014 7:50 AM in response to Doug Lerner2

Another aspect for consideration is that Apple Mail app groups certain mail together from same respondent/thread... (depending on settings)


It also takes certain mail into: Junk Mail...


Gmail sorts out the mail somewhat different between for example: primary/Social/promotions (again depending on your gmail settings).


Basically what I am saying it may seem that messages are missing, but the messages are sorted in a different manner in Apple mail and browser Gmail...


It can get somewhat confusing if you constantly interchange your email clients. However 'missing e-mail' in apple mail is often found inside another email-thread (Instead of seeing 2 emails you see the same thread just coming to top- so it looks like you have 1 message less) or in the junk folder.


But I can say from my experience all the mail finds its way to Apple Mail. It just might be seen in a different location/e-mail thread than native gmail browser.

Oct 19, 2014 7:51 AM in response to Darklykoz

If Mail marks an incoming email as junk it changes its color to brown and then (depending on your settings) moves it to the junk mailbox (or leaves it in the inbox). If it is not colored Brown then Gmail marked it as junk and does whatever you told Gmail to do with it.'


It's a bad idea to use 2 junk mail filtering systems, unpredictable results can occur. Pick one of the two and use that.

Oct 19, 2014 7:12 PM in response to Darklykoz

Ah, too bad. It got stuck again just before. There was mail in Gmail. In fact, I just read one and replied to it using iOS 8 Mail. But it isn't appearing in Apple Mail.


I tried the Get Mail envelope but it didn't help.


I tried quitting Mail and restarting (what Apple recommended for a while with Mavericks) and that did seem to kick off a flurry of new activity in the activity window and about 10 minutes later the stuck mail did come in.


It's a reliability issue of course. If I have to regularly use a separate mail app just to check to see if Mail.app needs to be kickstarted that's not so great.


doug

Oct 29, 2014 11:09 PM in response to Doug Lerner2

It happened again today twice, with two different Gmail accounts, after being well-behaved for a week. I don't know what to do. I'm back to Mailplane for the moment because as much as I prefer the editing and some other features of Yosemite Mail the bottom line, of course, is that I need the mail delivered. If the mail doesn't come in, then what's the point?


doug

Oct 30, 2014 8:43 PM in response to Doug Lerner2

Doug, perhaps with only 4GB of mail in Google Apps, I just don't have enough email to cause sync issues, but I'm not seeing any problems at all with Yosemite...and I've been looking for them. I also use Mailplane 3.0, but I prefer a cleaner interface such as Apple Mail, the ability to have a digital signature, and and overall I just like Mail.app better. I refuse to ever quit using Gmail, though as it has the best spam filtering of anyone on the planet.


I'll keep trying to induce sync errors, but for now there are none for me, so I'm going to keep using Apple Mail. Oddly, Apple Mail has a different set of problems for everyone. For me, it's the inability to view fonts as I want them. If I use Helvetica 14 to compose a message, it looks much smaller than if I use Helvetica in any other email app. My eyes are getting too old for this on my 27" iMac, so may have to go back to a 21.5" iMac.

Oct 30, 2014 9:05 PM in response to Larry McJunkin

Larry, I basically agree with you about preferring Apple Mail overall. I have a whole list of why I prefer it. It's certainly easier on the eyes. And it handles pasted images better. And formatting is better. And you can have multiple signatures per account.


And I can go a week or more without the sync problem, so it may not show up right away.


By sync problem what I mean is all of a sudden there might be a big delay - anywhere from 30 minutes to 5+ hours - before mail which is sitting there in Gmail finally shows up in my Apple Mail inbox. The only reason I notice it is because I happen to also check email on my iPhone. iOS Mail does not experience the problem that OS X Mail does. (I think the two teams should talk to each other.)


When that happens I have no alternative but to switch back to Mailplane for a while. While clunkier than Mail, at least it is reliable about delivering new mail, which has to be the bottom line for any mail client.


Also filing things in Gmail "folders" (labels, archiving, etc.) is far easier in Mailplane.


I wish there was a "best of both worlds."


doug

Oct 31, 2014 6:18 AM in response to Doug Lerner2

I don't think we'll ever have a "best of both worlds" Doug. I've used Gmail since the week it launched the first beta in 2004, and it's always been a bit of a love-hate relationship for me (mostly love). With the demise of the Google Notifier for Mac, I went with Mailplane, but even it has problems. Like when I see my iPhone update with new mail and I'm looking at Mailplane and it won't update at times with even a forced refresh. I often have to close/reopen it to see new messages. But, it's hard to live without my Google Calendar only a tab click away, one of the primary reasons I use Mailplane, that plus changing view zoom sticks with Mailplane and won't with Gmail.


For years I've thought Gmail labels were the perfect filing solution, but over the past few weeks I've been analyzing just how much I really use that feature, and for me...it's not all that much. I think I could simplify my life by putting everything into appropriate folders (as in all other email apps). Apple doesn't realize just how much money they're losing by not allowing people to use private domains with iCloud mail...which I would do in a heartbeat just because it would work perfectly with Mail.app. I would pay even more than I currently pay Google for this solution with Google Apps Business. So, I'm actually on the verge of moving my private domain to the best email service I can find and then using it with Mail.app. The problem here, of course, is I'll lose the best spam control on the planet (Gmail). So, as you say, there simply is not a "best" solution for all these things. I'll at least try a new email service first with some other domain to see how I like it before moving my primary email.


Lastly, the other thing that incenses me is synching of flags between iOS and Apple Mail. It works fine between Gmail and iOS Mail, since all I care about is whether a message is starred/flagged or not. But using Apple Mail, when I flag a message it will not show as flagged in their own iOS Mail, which is incomprehensible, given they built both apps.


If you find a great solution or discover anything new...please post it here, Doug. Thanks.

Nov 13, 2014 7:05 PM in response to Doug Lerner2

Doug, if this is still not working for you...I suspect it won't. There are still problems with Gmail in Mail.app that many people are complaining about and my guess is they just aren't a priority with Apple right now. I would think they would be since their customers want to use Mail.app...but they also want to use Gmail. My entire issue is the Gmail interface, even when using Mailplane. I've started using Unibox and configuring it as a classic email client rather than choosing the default people-centric configuration and I'm actually very pleased with it. It's lightning fast, great search, and has a gorgeous interface. There is no shortage of email apps for the Mac, but there is certainly a shortage of good ones.

Yosemite Mail still has sync problems with Gmail - any solutions?

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