[RickR10]

I bought a iPhone last Friday and am very happy with it. The only problem I've run into is with syncing it with my Mac. I use Apple's Mail program under OS X.

I've downloaded the .pdf manual off of Apple's website for the iPhone and it seems that when syncing it syncs all the email accounts for setup and I assume changes but never actually syncs email between the two devices.

What happens is often I'm on the road during the day. I try to close Mail before I leave but if I leave it open on my laptop at home I know sometimes I get errors when trying to connect to check email. I assume this is because my laptop is trying to do this at the same time. That isn't a big deal.

The problem is I'm wondering what others on here do to keep track of email between their computer and their iPhone. I know with standard pop email like I use I can choose to keep it on the server or erase it. I'm scared to use the erase option on either since if I'm on the go and leave it open at home I won't get emails and same vice versa since I would then get it on the iPhone and not at home and I deal with most email at home.

Is it possible to turn email off? I have it set to manual checking but even without going into email is still seems to get emails.

Is it possible also in addition to having a default email to create a certain order by email address (I have 9 because of business) that it checks each address in a certain order?

Last, I get many emails daily so that's one reason I'm concerned with this. It's a lot of email to erase off my iphone daily since I can easily get 100 emails or more. It just seems there would be an easier way with dealing with email to sync the actual email itself between two machines.

[apple007]

The only solution I can think of to the two-devices-checking-same-POP-email-account issue is to go into Mail's preferences, click on the account(s), click on the Advanced tab, and then change the setting from "delete message immediately" to "leave message on server" for anywhere from 1 day to 1 week. This should result in all new emails showing up on both devices, even if both are on and checking your account(s) at the same time.

As for your general sync issue, I thought all emails were synced from the main Mail.app to the Mail app on iPhone every time the two devices are connected/synced. I don't have an iPhone yet, but I thought that was supposed to be the deal (??). I'm sure someone else can chime in on that.

[torifile]

Mail is not synced. Mail account settings are. email is retrieved by the iPhone the same way your desktop gets it - from the server. If you're unfortunate enough to have only POP3 access to your accounts, you're doomed to have "unsynced" message states on your iPhone and your Mac. Nothing to be done about that.

Sent mail from the iPhone is kept on the iPhone and doesn't make it back to the server. This is a short-coming of the program.

[markw10]

I'm curious about this.
I use comcast for internet service and have a pop3 account. I also have a 2nd account that's pop3. Is it possible to use email a different way than pop3 and what is a better type of email? Is IMAP what I should be using?

[apple007]

Originally Posted by torifile Mail is not synced. Mail account settings are. email is retrieved by the iPhone the same way your desktop gets it - from the server. If you're unfortunate enough to have only POP3 access to your accounts, you're doomed to have "unsynced" message states on your iPhone and your Mac. Nothing to be done about that. Sent mail from the iPhone is kept on the iPhone and doesn't make it back to the server. This is a short-coming of the program.

I can't believe this hasn't been detailed in the (countless) reviews I've read. I thought email was synced between devices, not just the email account info. (Syncing account info. is no big deal; it would take, what, 2 minutes to enter by hand?)

Assuming this is true, and I have no reason to doubt 'torifile' on this, iPhone doesn't come close to being a true mobile email solution. I'll be deleting hundreds of emails every day instead of just allowing my main Mail and my iPhone's Mail to sync. Very, very disappointing.

[psmith2.0]

What about .Mac users? That's IMAP isn't it? All I know is that when I check my e-mail at another computer, via .Mac's webpage, anything I do (delete, move, etc.) is reflected in my Mail.app when I get home (and vice versa). I never have to manually "match" the two.

I'm hoping iPhone does the same thing? If I get an e-mail and delete it on iPhone, it's deleted on my PowerBook when I get home? I've never had to screw around with my .Mac mail, in terms of keeping the web-based mail match my Mail.app.

[turtle]

IMAP is the answer to keeping mail synced.

[torifile]

Originally Posted by pscates2.0 What about .Mac users? That's IMAP isn't it? All I know is that when I check my e-mail at another computer, via .Mac's webpage, anything I do (delete, move, etc.) is reflected in my Mail.app when I get home (and vice versa). I never have to manually "match" the two. I'm hoping iPhone does the same thing? If I get an e-mail and delete it on iPhone, it's deleted on my PowerBook when I get home? I've never had to screw around with my .Mac mail, in terms of keeping the web-based mail match my Mail.app.

See turtle's answer.

Originally Posted by turtle2472 IMAP is the answer to keeping mail synced.

.mac uses IMAP, so your emails will be "synced" across all your devices. As I said above, sent mail from the iPhone is NOT stored on the server, so it isn't technically "synced".

Any email service worth its salt uses IMAP (and this is probably why it wasn't detailed, though I know it was mentioned in at least one review I read). .mac is at least worth *that*.

[torifile]

Originally Posted by apple007 I can't believe this hasn't been detailed in the (countless) reviews I've read. I thought email was synced between devices, not just the email account info. (Syncing account info. is no big deal; it would take, what, 2 minutes to enter by hand?) Assuming this is true, and I have no reason to doubt 'torifile' on this, iPhone doesn't come close to being a true mobile email solution. I'll be deleting hundreds of emails every day instead of just allowing my main Mail and my iPhone's Mail to sync. Very, very disappointing.

If you're still using POP, you've got other things to worry about. IMAP mail changes are reflected across devices so you won't have to deal with deletions multiple times.

[psmith2.0]

Cool. That's my real, day-to-day e-mail so that's good to know.

[thegelding]

i use .mac and my emails sync nicely back and forth...or at least seem to

email with the iPhone and .mac is a highlight of the iPhone...i get my email any where i go

g

[apple007]

Originally Posted by torifile If you're still using POP, you've got other things to worry about. IMAP mail changes are reflected across devices so you won't have to deal with deletions multiple times.

I'm still using POP because I've been with the same host, Hostway.com, for at least 7 or 8 years and, for whatever reason, they don't offer IMAP email.

If anyone can recommend some good, stable web hosts that offer IMAP, I'm all ears. (I have a company site, so stability is key. That's why I've been with Hostway for so long.)

[torifile]

Originally Posted by apple007 I'm still using POP because I've been with the same host, Hostway.com, for at least 7 or 8 years and, for whatever reason, they don't offer IMAP email. If anyone can recommend some good, stable web hosts that offer IMAP, I'm all ears. (I have a company site, so stability is key. That's why I've been with Hostway for so long.)

You'll find many opinions on this one, but dreamhost has been very good for me for some time now. Roboman started a thread in "Purchasing Advice" about hosting services just recently. It was specific to dreamhost, but several people suggested alternate hosts.

[PKIDelirium]

My host has IMAP but I've never used it. I always use POP.

[turtle]

Originally Posted by PKIDelirium My host has IMAP but I've never used it. I always use POP.

I use IMAP exclusively and it's pretty good with SurpassHosting.

[markw10]

I'm going to check if Comcast offers IMAP. It seems IMAP is much better than POP and is the way to go. Am I right about this?
The only thing that concerned me is after some research on Google it was mentioned that IMAP requires a constant connection to the server, almost like you're working on your email on the server directly. I'm not sure if I read this right but my only concern is with the iPhone at times I'm in areas without a strong signal. If you lose the signal does it lose the email or does it just means it needs that when moving between different folders, sending, receiving, etc?

[WrestleEwe]

Originally Posted by markw10 I'm going to check if Comcast offers IMAP. It seems IMAP is much better than POP and is the way to go. Am I right about this? The only thing that concerned me is after some research on Google it was mentioned that IMAP requires a constant connection to the server, almost like you're working on your email on the server directly. I'm not sure if I read this right but my only concern is with the iPhone at times I'm in areas without a strong signal. If you lose the signal does it lose the email or does it just means it needs that when moving between different folders, sending, receiving, etc?

IMAP is the way to go, especially for mobile devices with limited bandwith/storage/processor power.

IMAP is thinclient-server based, that means that, if implemented correctly, the server will keep all your emails and do all operations on them. For instance, if you search for a message, you just send a query to the server which then does all the work and just replies with the headers of the messages.

Another main advantage is of course that with all your mails on the server, IMAP is very well suited for multi-client access, since the clients only caches messages locally, you don't need to sync between clients, only between the clients and the server.

The reason for the continous connection is that the server pushes new headers to you when messages arrive. you don't need to be connected all the time. When you want to move a message all you do is send a small command to the server, not the actual message data. so when you lose your connection while moving messages nothing gets lost.

hope this helps.

PS; POP3 is from the time when server-storage was measured in MB's, not TB's and, as others already said, shouldn't be used anymore.

[markw10]

I think that makes sense to me.
So does the mail app actually download a cache of the msg so that if you're not connected to the server you can still view the email msg? Can you still compose a email if not connected and then it just sends it when you connect?

[chucker]

Originally Posted by markw10 So does the mail app actually download a cache of the msg so that if you're not connected to the server you can still view the email msg?

I don't know if the iPhone's Mail app can do that*, but the regular Mail on OS X does have this as an option, as do most mail clients. Each IMAP account has a "Keep copies of messages for offline viewing" setting, with various levels (such as "All" or "Only messages I've read").

Can you still compose a email if not connected and then it just sends it when you connect?

Again, dunno about the iPhone*, but yes, regular mail clients on a desktop work like that. The draft is kept locally, then sent off when you have a connection.

*) But I suspect the iPhone has both features as well.

[torifile]

The iPhone does cache messages locally - you don't need to be connected to the 'net to view your messages. You can choose the number of messages to be stored/retrieved at a time.

[markw10]

I contacted my provider, comcast, which I have for cable internet. They don't offer IMAP or at least that's what they told me. I will check into qwest dsl which is through DSL and see if they offer this since I definitely want to go with IMAP.

[rasmits]

I can't believe reputable email providers still use POP3.

The folks at gmail should be ashamed of themselves.

[turtle]

Originally Posted by rasmits I can't believe reputable email providers still use POP3. The folks at gmail should be ashamed of themselves.

Comcast is reputable?

I have Cox and they still don't offer IMAP. I wouldn't call them reputable either though.