Gmail acts like it's not configured in Mail

I have a recurrent problem. When I tap on the Mail icon, it acts like Gmail isn't configured yet. When I check in settings, there it is of course showing it's all configured, but no matter-tapping on Mail yields nothing but the "Welcome to Mail" screen that shows all the various mail accounts that can be configured when you're first starting to add e-mail accounts. I end up just deleting the Gmail account and adding it back. If this only happened once, I would be fine, but it doesn't. It's a recurrent problem every 2-3 weeks and therefore deleting and starting new is not an acceptable solution. I have Hotmail and two yahoo accounts and I never have this problem with them-only Gmail. I don't have any of them set up for push status.

Hi. Do you sync your device to iTunes on your desktop after you setup your mail account on your device?

hi, thanks for the reply. Yes, I sync to desktop to update apps only. My contacts and calendar are synced to the cloud.

Is the problem still occurring with your gmail account on your idevice?

Stay tuned, because I had just done the delete and re-configure deal about a week or two after my initial post, and it usually happens randomly after a while. Hasn't happened again yet, but that's the nature of the beast. I haven't determined a pattern yet. Right now I just have been leaving my mail "on" in terms of the gmail. I have hotmail and yahoo too, as well as my work e-mail, so it gets unwieldy at times, so I don't always keep all of them switched to "on" status. But perhaps with gmail, I wonder if that's what I need to do, though that would seem ridiculous. But I'm going to see if that makes a difference because it's the only other thing I can think to do that's different.

How did you set up your g-mail
I am not certain but I remember setting it up different from my other e-mails.
Oh I think I set it up as exchange
http://support.google.com/mobile/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=138740
But this should help

I use Google Exchange Active-Sync as well, to sync my contacts, calendar and mail. I've never had an issue with setting it up that way. I would advise everyone to set it up that way, even if you turn contacts and calendar off to where you only get email. It seems to function better, from what I've seen or talked with users about.

Thank you both. I will definitely try that!

I usually leave all of my accounts to "on" just to stay on the safe side. Have you checked if you typed in the correct password for your email on your idevice? Check that just to be sure as well. Also, the "push status" doesn't really matter if you have that configured for you email or not in regards to your problem. The "push status" is only available if it's an option for your email configuration, meaning if your email provider supports the "push" function.

I don't use "Google Exchange Active-Sync" and my email accounts work perfectly fine. Maybe I'm one of those lucky ones to make everything work.

Actually, I can't get it to work. It grays out on me after the username and password. It won't let me tap on "next" after that. And right now it's working still, so guess I'll have to see what happens.

Try this:
Settings>General>Restrictions...are yours on? Allow Changes>Accounts>On/Off.
Check your restrictions for your email.

Thanks. I appreciate your continuing ideas. Nope, my restrictions are not on, so I guess that's not the Exchange set up error. LOL, but I'll just keep trucking.

Try the IMAP in the video
do not push g-mail go to other

Hey gadgetgal,
Are you still having an issue to add a email account? I'm actually really curious on why that is happening to you. Please update us or me on your situation so that i could see why that is happening. Thank you

Tried the IMAP and it worked. It hung up for about 2 minutes but finally worked so hopefully this will be the option and do the trick! Kinda silly to not have the built in gmail work reliably, but whatever. As long as I can retrieve mail, that's what counts.

I have 3 gmail accounts setup as IMAP on my 4S and my iPad. For about the past 36 hours, one of those accounts has been giving an IMAP server failure message. Is this the beginning of the end for GMail on the Apple platform?

My Gmail accounts still work but I set mine up the normal way, through the Settings option.

So far so good for me with my gmail one week in. Sorry though to hear MrMike6by9. and I sure hope it's not the beginning of the end! There are more than plenty of iPhone users who also are on gmail, so it would seem unwise to mess up any functionality.

I can still access all 3 accounts on the phone. It's just frustrating that even though they're all configured identically, i.e. as IMAP, that one account continues to act as if the IMAP is misconfigured. I established a connection to that account via exchange. I can also connect to it through the gmail app or through a browser. It's just frustratingly strange! YMMV


Any impatience you show will only create more stress.