How to get Mail to fetch only "primary" e-mails from Gmail
October 1, 2014 8:31 AM   Subscribe

Gmail does a great job of filtering spam at the site but it's all getting fetched to Mail on my iPhone & iPad. What do I do to get only "primary" mail in Mail?
posted by HotToddy to Computers & Internet (5 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
I'd suggest downloading the gmail app and replacing the iphone mail app with it. It incorporates the filters in an easy and useful way. I feel like I'd go crazy without the filters now :)
posted by greenish at 8:41 AM on October 1, 2014


Response by poster: If there's another way that would allow me to check gmail and my work mail in one go, I'd prefer that.
posted by HotToddy at 8:51 AM on October 1, 2014


If you're willing to look at a somewhat kludgey workaround, you can create a second Gmail address and use a filter to forward "primary" mail from the original address to the new address. You can then add just the new address to your Mail app. While I'm not familiar with iOS Mail, you should still be able to send mail as the original Gmail account (not just the new one) if you enable that feature.
posted by Corinth at 12:18 PM on October 1, 2014


To be precise about the filter, I think you'd use "category:primary" in the "has the words" field.
posted by Corinth at 12:31 PM on October 1, 2014


The Priority Inbox in gmail is an IMAP folder so if you are using Imap and only subscribing to that folder that should eliminate most of the problem.
posted by Rubbstone at 2:40 PM on October 1, 2014


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