Gmail on Mac and iPhone

[SC03OTT]

Ok, so this is actually doing my head in.

I have set-up Gmail on my Mac using IMAP settings. Now, when I delete e-mails, they don't delete from the Gmail server. They remain in the "All Mail" folder no matter what folder I move them to or how many times I delete them in Mail. How do I change this? When I delete an e-mail, I want it gone forever.

Now for the iPhone. Again I want the same thing and push e-mails. Alexiooo (don't panic, this isn't a witch hunt ) suggested using the Gmail function as it supported push e-mail. So I tried this and push didn't work. I had to open Mail to receive anything. So I went back to the Exchange set-up. But I'm having the same problems with deleting, they always remain in the "All Mail" folder.

I have followed more on-line guides than I care to remember, but it doesn't seem to function how I think it should and how I want it to. I'm getting pretty tired of deleting messages just for them to download from the server again.

All help is much appreciated.

 

[sn00p]

Umm, All Mail is a special folder, you don't normally look at it/use it unless you have good reason.

You just use the normal inbox, sent box etc and everything will work as expected, delete an email from the inbox on the iPhone and it will dissapear from the inbox on the desktop, it'll remain in All Mail because that's a special folder that contains a full history of everything you've ever received or sent.

 

[sn00p]

If you want push email from gmail then you have to set up an exchange account with the server being m.google.com. Push won't work in imap because apple don't support push (idle) on imap connections on the iPhone.

 

[SC03OTT]

I see. I've done a bit more reading and apparently moving mail to the Gmail "Trash" folder will delete them permanently. Not an option on the iPhone as that folder doesn't show up.

 

[sn00p]

You have to remember that gmail does not work like conventional email, it doesn't support folders in the traditional sense, it supports tags.

The imap interface google expose fakes folder support with tags, so things you can see on the web interface may or may not be visible when using a different method to connect to it.

 

[BatFastard]

In your gmail settings there is an option to set deleting the e-mail in your main account when you do it on your phone.

 

[Tom]

Use the Advanced IMAP Controls in google labs

You can choose which labels show up in IMAP, turn off message auto-expunging, or trash messages when they're deleted from IMAP.

 

[SC03OTT]

Cheers for that. I'll have a look later.

 

[john.med]

Not meaning to hijack, but, I've got gmail push workin perfectly on my iPhone, but on Mac Mail on my new MBP (I'm a Mac noob) it's awful. Sometimes gets new mail, sometimes not and rarely alerts me.

How do I fix that? I've googled it to death before anyone starts. I've tried a few things too.

 

[Munson]

I use Sparrow on my Macs. It's well good.

 

[john.med]

I've given up on MacMail, I couldn't get the notifications to work whatever I did.

I'm using Thunderbird now, and it works. The notification is quick as fook and pings every time. Hopefully the next version of Mail in Lion or whatever will be better.