Gmail with Blackberry?

[ceeboe]

I know this is covered well on other sites and such, but since I don't post on there I wanted to get some direction on CF.

I use gmail as my main email account. Currently my account is set up like normal through the BB ( I didn't do it, the sales guy did). What I've noticed is although I get quick response on new emails, it doesn't update my gmail account after I read the emails on my BB. And it won't update my BB if I read and delete them off my gmail account (external comp.).

Now I did download the Gmail mobile, but the only issue with that is I don't get notifications of new emails unless I tell it to refresh manually, so that becomes pointless.

So how can I use my Gmail so that I get instant feedback on EVERYTHING from both ends, BB and internet site? I've read very little about "pushing" the account and using IMAP (?), but since this is all very new to me I have to idea what any of that means and if it even applies.

Thanks in advance.

 

[JHudd]

I'm actually looking forward to this answer too. I have switched over to gmail as my primary account and haven't dug around enough to find the answers either. I am getting irritated by the notices I get on my BB when ever I send an email from my gmail account, why would I need that if I just sent it? I am using google calender now and syncing with google sync, that does work well but the email is still a pain. (I haven't ever downloaded the gmail app though, figured no reason to if I had it set up as an account with BIS.)

 

[ceeboe]

Alright a few more thoughts.

I got the IMAP set up. So now I can correctly read my emails on my BB and have them mark it off on my browser account. Thats a plus. Any sent messages are displayed properly in my sent mail in my browser as well. And the notifications are very quick. The only inssue still is if I read anything on the browser first, my BB is not updated and I have to manually go back and delete everything!!!

I reinstalled the google app again to play with that some more. The notification is much slower, and depending on the site and such it could be quite a few minutes of difference. Although the app and the browser work better together, I'm still finding that I need to do a refresh on the phone if I change anything on the browser or if I want quicker notifications (maybe expecting an email or something). At least I'm not having to go back and delete a bunch of stuff twice, but the delay in syncing is very aggrevating.

Jhudd under your messages go to Options, General Options. There is an area "Hide Sent Messages" select yes and you will not see your sent messages any more. They won't be deleted, but you won't see them. There's no way for it to not create that message.

Oh, and I'm still open ears on the best way to handle this!!!

 

[Angie]

I set my Gmail up as an alternate e-mail account on my Blackberry (in addition to my Blackberry e-mail address and my work one). If I read an e-mail on the Blackberry, I can say to also delete it from my Gmail. However, if I read an e-mail via my Gmail account on my computer before I get to it on my phone, it does not update that information on the phone, as it's already downloaded to the phone and listed in my new items. I believe it's a little (in theory, not practice) like if you download from your Exchange server or something to a .pst file on your computer instead of just accessing them from the Exchange server.

 

[Jer]

The only way for true two-way synchronization right now with gMail is to use the gMail App and set the option in it's settings to notify you on new messages. You would then have to use only the app for your gMail and not the BB's BIS email for it. Note that the gMail app typically checks for new mail every 15 minutes so it's not instantaneous like the BIS or BES email.

gMail and the Blackberry's email client don't currently work perfectly together and it's one of the biggest drawbacks of the platform right now. Rumors have the next BIS update improving things a bit, though it's always a guess if that will really happen.

 

[Cyclone90]

I dug into this a lot and it seems to be a problem with any BB BIS IMAP account, Gmail or not. My wife ran into the same problem with her IMAP mail at work.

 

[JHudd]

Jhudd under your messages go to Options, General Options. There is an area "Hide Sent Messages" select yes and you will not see your sent messages any more. They won't be deleted, but you won't see them. There's no way for it to not create that message.

Oh, and I'm still open ears on the best way to handle this!!!

I don't mind my BB showing my reply emails or sent emails, what is irritating me is gmail sending me a completely new unopened envelope of the message that is sitting right below it as my sent email. I tried playing with the setting on gmail to stop it but haven't found it. (gmail is the only one of my 5 addresses that do this.)

 

[ceeboe]

Alright I think I've found the solution that will work for me.

First off, my phone seems to update gmail within a couple minutes of my BIS messages folder on my phone as long as my backlight is not off! So if I get an email while using my phone I do seem to get a notification fairly quickly. But if my phone's backlight turns off, I don't seem to get any notification for quite some time.

So, to actually read, delete, and send emails I will use the gmail app. This way everything stays in sync with the browser, but here comes the work around.

I then set my gmail notification to off, within the app itself and within the notifactions profiles. I do this because I'm going to use the BIS email messages folder with my pushed email to notify me instantly. This BIS email application then only acts as a notification tool instead of an actual email tool. I then set that anything I delete from the BIS email folder only gets deleted from my handheld and not from my actual mailbox. I also set to display those stupid sent messages, this way when I go into my BIS email app and tell it to delete everything, it includes those pesky messages.

So now anytime I get a new email I get notified right away with my BIS email. Then I just open the gmail App and do what I need for my actual email, this will most likely require a refresh of the app to get the updated email. When I'm done I then go into the BIS email messages only and tell it to delete everything knowing that it's only deleting from my handheld and not my actual mailbox.

Does this make sense?

 

[ceeboe]

The only way for true two-way synchronization right now with gMail is to use the gMail App and set the option in it's settings to notify you on new messages. You would then have to use only the app for your gMail and not the BB's BIS email for it. Note that the gMail app typically checks for new mail every 15 minutes so it's not instantaneous like the BIS or BES email.

gMail and the Blackberry's email client don't currently work perfectly together and it's one of the biggest drawbacks of the platform right now. Rumors have the next BIS update improving things a bit, though it's always a guess if that will really happen.

Knowing that you do or did have gmail, what do you then? Does this issue prompt someone to switch over to yahoo which I've read doesn't have these issues?