Google Rolls Out IMAP For GMail

[Nurhisham Hussein]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/10/24/gmail-goes-imap-finally-your-mobile-email-client-and-gmail-fall-i/' target='_blank'>http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/...d-gmail-fall-i/</a><br /><br /></div><i>"It's absolutely no secret that Google has a few humble fans of their email service, whose prayers have finally been answered. G's giving its users free -- yes, free -- IMAP access to their inboxes; great for desktop users, sure, but the people most likely to benefit from this development are those on mobile email clients (especially those unable to use the Java Gmail app)."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/hisham-20071025-engadgetmobile_gmail-imap.jpg" /><br /><br />While I'm not a big email user, I can imagine a lot of mobile GMail users will be over the moon about this - no more triaging your email twice! If you're a GMail user and you've looked at enabling IMAP, have patience. Google is rolling out the service starting with US accounts, and the whole exercise should be complete in a few days. Any GMail users out there want to share their experiences with this?

[Ed Hansberry]

I honestly don't get this. Gmail has a quirky but cool implementation of POP3. When you download it to your PC or PPC and "delete" it from the site, it simply gets marked read and archived, not purged like other POP3 services.

To me, it has the advantages of IMAP (marking read, server archiving) but not the disadvantages (new PST in Outlook required, PPC implmentation of IMAP lacking anyway)

[Dyvim]

I honestly don't get this.

I guess it depends on your usage scenario. If you're someone who needs to move your email around between different folders, this can be a godsend.

Also, if GMail implements the IDLE protocol, that will enable push GMail e-mail on your mobile device (assuming your device also handles the IDLE protocol correctly).

[tendomentis]

I'm still waiting for Google to add IMAP to my google domain email. I just had to hard reset my device and when I configure my SEVEN push mail client, I want to set it up to use the new IMAP service.

Come ON Google.....I've chewed my fingernails down to my elbows already waiting.....

[gregh]

I honestly don't get this.
ed,

the advantage for me is that email is kept on the server, and it reflects what you do from any device. So if I read an email on my PDA, when I access Gmail from either the web or my desktop PC it shows that email as read, something POP cannot do.

Cheers,

Greg

[ctmagnus]

It works for me. I'm unable to star/flag any messages on my device, though - the option just isn't there in Inbox. I'm running AT&amp;T's leaked WM6 on a Treo 750.

[T-Will]

FYI...

Why don't I have IMAP in my account?

We're working hard to roll out IMAP access to all our users, but it'll take about a week.

To use IMAP, you must have your interface language set to 'English (US)'. You'll know that IMAP is available in your account when the Forwarding and POP tab in your settings becomes Forwarding and POP/IMAP.

Until then, thanks for your patience!

I remember all the trouble I had with Gmail POP on my Dash so I'm hesitant to try IMAP. With POP (if I remember correctly), it would download the messages, then delete them from the device on the next sync, and I think it was deleting messages from my Gmail Inbox also.

[Jason Lee]

Works great so far. Except for some messages, the body of the message doesn't come down.
The pop implementation sucked for windows mobile because once it was popped down it then vanished from the inbox on the next sync. Plus it would then never download to your PC at home either because it had already been flagged as popped.

So far imap is awsome!

[T-Will]

Works great so far. Except for some messages, the body of the message doesn't come down.
The pop implementation sucked for windows mobile because once it was popped down it then vanished from the inbox on the next sync. Plus it would then never download to your PC at home either because it had already been flagged as popped.

So far imap is awsome!

Good to hear, maybe I'll give it a shot.

[Joelacrane]

I didn't even know what IMAP was until today. Gmail is the bomb BTW...

[bananasplit]

@Jason Lee

I have the same problem, only the subject will download and no text on the body. I've set my pda (HTC TyTN on WM6) for the imap access and my desktop email client for both my gmail account and another one so I can do end to end test.

On the desktop client, the text body is shown with whatever message I send, but in the pda it doesn't.

Anything I need to configure? Or is it just the IMAP implementation is still buggy?

[Jason Lee]

It seems to be a problem with the IMAP implementation and windows mobile. I have a TyTN II as well. Just to test I setup the gmail connection on my old WM5 cingular 8125 and get the same problem. The same exact emails are header and attachments only, the body is missing. So it is not a WM6 specific issue but perhaps a WM in general issue as it works properly with your desktop.

Hopefully google will get it worked out soon.

[bananasplit]

Hmmm...all this hype and something so simple is not working. Disappointing indeed. I do hope it gets fixed soon.

[Miz]

Eds:

The problem with POP3 (at least on my setup) is that if I downloaded a mail on the PPC, it no longer downloads to the desktop. With IMAP, I hope I can see the same emails in both places.

[atlp99]

The problems with POP3 gmail on the Dash are fixed in the WM6 ROM.
If you use the auto email account setup on WM6, it sets the account up to use the recent settings for your gmail mailbox and fixes the problem of deleting emails while syncing.

Emails that are read on my Dash show up as read in my inbox when i login to gmail online. I do not use outlook for email. I see no advantage to using an IMAP setup unless push email is enabled.

For now I have my Gmail forwarding to a Hotmail account because on the WM6 Dash Hotmail offers push email.

I assume that this would work the same way on WM6 Pro (PPC) but am not running a Pro device now.

[Jason Dunn]

I can't even get Gmail IMAP working on my desktop - it times out trying to download the folders (and I've clicked WAIT several times). Their instructions for setting up IMAP on Windows Mail are completely lacking. :? Good thing I don't really use Gmail for much of anything. ;-)