Please help me with synchronising cleanly

February 8, 2008 3:34 AM

Mail.app + Nokia e61 + gApps IMAP

I would love to get my already fairly nifty Mail situation properly synchronised. At the moment, Google Apps handles my email for me and I access it via POP with Mail.app. It is also forwarded to MailForExchange where I am able to sychronise it with my Nokia e61. If I'm out, therefore, I can access and reply to emails. When I get back, though, my sent items in Mail do not reflect mails sent from the phone because gApps had nothing to do with that. In addition, emails read on the e61 are still unread in Mail.app.

What I would love to do is begin using IMAP with gApps but without disturbing the current archive of email I have in Mail.app and begin accessing my email on my phone by that method also.

How can I do this? Do I have to drag my folders into the IMAP folders? This is Mail 3, by the way.

posted by dance to computers & internet (8 answers total)

gApps should have an IMAP facility that you can access from your Nokia.

Also, the Google Mail app for mobiles is very good, and should be usable with your phone.
http://www.google.co.uk/mobile/mail/index.html
Mail.app also speaks IMAP.
posted by seanyboy at 4:01 AM on February 8, 2008

seanyboy, thanks. So any ideas about my question? Specifically, is there a nice clean way to migrate from POP to IMAP without rocking the Mail boat? I like the way my mail is pushed at the moment to phone and then the e61 flashes etc... maybe Gmail for mobiles can do this too?
posted by dance at 4:35 AM on February 8, 2008

Moving to IMAP makes most of your workflow unnecessary -- synchronization is baked in.

The only problem is that the Nokia Messaging program doesn't have the ability to store sent mail, drafts, etc. on the server instead of the phone. You have two options: Send a copy to yourself, and move it into the "Sent" folder later, or look for a different email program on your phone. To that end, you might want to look into ProfiMail, which claims to support storing sent items on the server.
posted by SemiSophos at 7:12 AM on February 8, 2008

I should clarify - you can automatically send a copy to yourself - you don't have to manually add your address each time. Settings -> Email -> Mailboxes -> Gmail -> User Settings -> Send Copy to Self
posted by SemiSophos at 7:14 AM on February 8, 2008

Did you set Mail.app to delete all of the mails on the server, so Google doesn't have them any more? If so, then yes, you will have to drag them back over to the IMAP folders. If they still show up in gApps, they'll come down just fine again via IMAP.
posted by zsazsa at 7:14 AM on February 8, 2008

I have this setup and it works pretty well. Gmail and the e61 both support imap idle so you get notified the second something comes in. The only glitch is that sometimes things read via imap take a little while to get marked as read in the web interface.

The only problem is that the Nokia Messaging program doesn't have the ability to store sent mail, drafts, etc. on the server instead of the phone.

Any mail sent via gmail's smtp server gets put in the sent items folder, so thats not a problem. Drafts are another matter.
posted by Olli at 10:09 AM on February 8, 2008

Oili, thanks for your response! What program do you use for accessing gmail on the device? Gmail's own? Two questions:
1. Does it stay open all the time (and is therefore able to use IMAP idle)
2. Is it able to utilise the e61's email LED?
Thanks!

zsazsa, are you talking about the facility in Mail.app to remove the copy from the server? Mine is set to remove "right away", but Gmail being Gmail, old email is archived, not deleted, when downloaded by the POP client.

I think my question generally may not have been clear enough - what I was really looking to do was cease using POP and begin using IMAP without encountering hassle from Mail.app (deleting my mail archive for example). I have email in Mail.app that I don't have in Gmail because before that I was using another provider. I was looking for a way just to begin using IMAP "from now on"!

Thanks, all.
posted by dance at 12:04 PM on February 8, 2008

I'm just using the built in email client, as a result the led is supported and the home screen can show the latest messages. It's pretty simple but my email needs aren't that complicated.
posted by Olli at 2:49 PM on February 8, 2008