PDA

View Full Version : Guide: Push Gmail via proxy


psylichon
03-09-2009, 08:56 PM
So I've tried various methods to get my Gmail to push to me since I got the iPhone. They all entailed forwarding to a proxy email service that pushes properly to the iPhone. I'd given up each time previously because I was too annoyed by getting emails twice on the phone and having to delete things twice.

Well, I had a chat with up10ad the other day, and he pointed me to some settings and parameters I wasn't aware of. This info may have likely dawned on many of you, but for those who are still looking for a way to get their Gmail pushed relatively tranparently, here's what I did:

1. You'll need a push account. I use Yahoo because it's free and works well (now... didn't always). I don't give my yahoo address out, only my gmail.
2. Sign into Gmail from your desktop and go to settings
3. Under "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" select to "Forward a copy of incoming mail to [your push email address] and archive Gmail's copy
4. Setup both email accounts on your iPhone
5. On the iPhone, go to Settings - Fetch New Data - Turn on Push the hit Advanced at the bottom
6. Set your Gmail account to Manual, and your push account to Push
7. Now go to Settings - Mail, Contacts, Calendars - and set the Default Account to your gmail account (assuming you, like me, want your mail to show up as from gmail)


Now, on my iPhone, I get my forwarded Gmail via Yahoo within 1 minute. I delete pretty much everything after reading, because it's archived on Gmail (I want Gmail to remain the central hub for email searching purposes). I don't get multiple emails showing up on my phone, because nothing is ever in my Gmail inbox... it's archived.

The only thing I need to be aware of is when starting an email from the email app or replying to an email, I need to change the "From:" field to my gmail address. Due to step #7, sending email from any other app defaults to my Gmail account. Since 95% of my email from the iPhone starts in the camera roll, this works just fine for me.

So there you go. A walkthrough that is nothing new... just new to me. Hope it helps someone...

And here's hoping this isn't necessary for long. Get on the Push wagon, Google!

shutter13
03-09-2009, 09:34 PM
Very nice, pretty much exactly what I do with mobileme and my other email accounts. Had not thought of setting the other accounts to manual, gonna do that now, they never receive mail, their just there so I can use them as a "from" field.

psylichon
03-09-2009, 09:36 PM
Had not thought of setting the other accounts to manual, gonna do that now, they never receive mail, their just there so I can use them as a "from" field.

Exactly, that was the new thing for me as well. I don't know if it's because gmail archives incoming mail instantly or because it's set to manual... I just know I never recieve a notification from my Gmail account on the phone. Which is perfect.

Saverino
03-10-2009, 01:28 AM
Dave, I do something really similar, except I use mail2web (free exchange) instead of Yahoo. I have the same settings regarding Push. The strange thing is after I view the message in the mail2web account, it's marked as read, obviously. When I go to the gmail account, the email shows up, but it's already marked as read. Is that supposed to happen? It didn't always. I'm glad it does do that, so I'm not messing with anything for now.

psylichon
03-10-2009, 01:32 AM
I have no idea why it would be doing that. I would love for my setup to do that as well, and I have a mail2web account. However, I'm already using Exchange to Nuevasync my Google contacts and calendar. That's the nice thing about Yahoo on the iPhone... it avoids the Exchange sync limitation altogether. God I wish Google could have that affiliation with the iPhone...

Do you have gmail set to archive or keep in the inbox? If you figure it out, let me know!

Saverino
03-10-2009, 01:52 AM
Sorry, Dave. False alarm. It's only certain email addresses that do this because of a filter I have set up to automatically mark them as read. It's all emails that I open in the mail2web account though. Even ones not set to go through the filter. Wth?

psylichon
03-10-2009, 01:56 AM
You lost me there, buddy. But ok.

Saverino
03-10-2009, 02:00 AM
Lol, sorry, but yeah..

styfle
03-10-2009, 02:16 AM
I would think it wouldnt be much longer until google allows push for gmail seeing as it is a setting for their "sync" feature. This is a good temporary fix though.

psylichon
03-10-2009, 02:18 AM
I think that's just an Exchange placeholder. Nuevasync has had that option since the beginning as well, but simply say "don't select it" :D