January 12, 2012
I’ve talked about this before. How Gmail is treated differently in just about every program (link) and I’ve been using the new Gmail iOS app to do any deleting of messages in Gmail (link).
First, I’m using Google Sync on my iPhone (and iPad). That enables me to have push Gmail and use multiple Google calendars. This has nothing to do with the Gmail iOS app. For Gmail, you setup your iPhone to what the iPhone things is an Exchange server to sync emails, contacts, and calendars. You use the regular Email app that comes with the iPhone to access your Gmail. The problem with this setup was when you attempted to delete an email, it only removed it from your inbox. It would still stick around in your ‘All Mail’ in Gmail. While I like having the ability to Archive things, I delete A LOT more.
I got home today and saw this tweet:
[tweet https://twitter.com/#!/gmail/status/157587598024511489]
After you follow that link, you are instructed to load up the Mobile Sync settings on your phone: m.google.com/sync. All you have to do it check a box for each device and then things actually get deleted. Also in this screen you can pick which calendars show up on your phone. There is a ‘send as’ option too, which I think lets you change your ‘from:’ field.
Is it sad that finding out about this was the best part of my day?
October 22, 2011
I’m getting sick of Gmail, and it’s only for one reason: it doesn’t like to delete things. Whenever I come across an application for email, I have to test of Gmail actually deletes when the app tells it to delete. Sometimes, when Gmail gets a request to delete a message, it just archives it. I like the idea of archiving, it’s so much easier than having to put everything in to folders. I just have this weird thing, when I hit delete, I mean delete, not archive.
Here is a quick look at how each client I use behaves when I click Delete.
Outlook – Delete
Apple Mail – Archive
Gmail on iPhone Mail – Delete (there is a setting asking you if you want to use archiving, I leave it as deleting)
Gmail (as Exchange) on iPhone Mail – Archive
That last one is important, because that is the only way to get push mail to work for Gmail on the iPhone. I’d also like Apple Mail to work. For the next few months I still need to use Outlook for school, so I’ll have it open a lot. Once that is gone, I’ll hopefully be rid of Outlook.
I looked around for which services offer push mail on the iPhone. All I could really find was Yahoo! and iCloud. I’m not going to use Yahoo! Mail. iCloud is free and I was curious to give it a shot. Yes I’d be going even further into the Apple ecosystem, but it seemed fairly harmless. It’s IMAP afterall.
Why I gave up on iCloud Mail after after a few hours …
iCloud Mail works as simple email. The web app looks nice, it works well on the phone and email apps. Most importantly, delete actually deletes. I’d recommend you try it out if you are in the market for just email. If you are looking for something a little more than basic, then maybe stick to Gmail.
I’m open to something new. As usual, I’m going to keep my eye open for new email servies. They don’t seem to pop up that often anymore.