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Android and Email

A

Aries9910

Lurker
Hi everyone. I bought one of the first Android phones: the G1 from T-Mobile. After a month, I couldn't wait to get rid of it. The biggest issue email. I could NEVER delete any emails from the phone - I had to go to gmail on the Internet to delete things which is a waste of time in my view; I was also never able to see anything in the "sent" folder, getting attachments to download was torture, and the email crashed regularly. In short - email on that original G1 Android operating system was a nightmare.

So - what I'd like to learn from Android fans is this: now that the operating system has undergone several revisions and upgrades, what is the current situation with email on an Android phone? Can emails be deleted directly from the phone? Can you see items in the "sent" folder? I am not adverse to trying a new Android phone - especially since the App market has also increased tremendously since the phone's introduction. But the issue with email has always kept me away.

Thanks everyone!
 
Aries9910 said:
Hi everyone. I bought one of the first Android phones: the G1 from T-Mobile. After a month, I couldn't wait to get rid of it. The biggest issue was that email was a nightmare. I could NEVER delete any emails from the phone - I had to go to gmail on the Internet to delete things which is a waste of time in my view; I was also never able to see anything in the "sent" folder, and the emial crashed regularly. In short - email on that original G1 Android operating system was a nightmare.

So - what I'd like to learn from Android fans is this: now that the operating system has undergone several revisions and upgrades, what is the current situation with email on an Android phone? Can emails be deleted from the phone? Can you see items in the "sent" folder? I am not adverse to trying a new Android phone - especially since the App market has also increased tremendously since the phone's introduction. But the issue with email has always kept me away.

Thanks everyone!
Click to expand...

I've been an android user a little over a year and am able to delete emails from the phone and am able to view my sent folder.
 
I can fully manage my e-mail folders from the HTC Incredible.

That includes both GMail and Comcast e-mail accounts using the K-9 Mail app and my work e-mail from an exchange server using the stock mail app.
 
There is a setting in the HTC mail app that allows you to delete messages from the server when you delete them from the phone.

I assume all HTC phones have this. I know that the Aria and Desire do.
 
Aries9910 said:
So - what I'd like to learn from Android fans is this: now that the operating system has undergone several revisions and upgrades, what is the current situation with email on an Android phone? Can emails be deleted directly from the phone? Can you see items in the "sent" folder?
Click to expand...
Never been an issue on my Droid. Be sure to be very specific regarding email account types and the email app(s) you're asking about. They're not all the same.
 
Here is the deal. Gmail does not use a standard IMAP implementation. If you use an IMAP client, and do a delete, gmail does something different than a normal server would do. This has always been an issue with Gmail, on any platform, not just Android.

The HTC email program flat out doesn't play nice with gmail. When you delete, the message is moved to an [IMAP]Trash folder, and sent messages are put in [IMAP]Sent. Which is not really what gmail expects. (All assuming you have an HTC phone of course).

The email client has to support remapping the Trash and Sent folders to a different location, and HTC mail doesn't. There is also a way to set Gmail up to use advanced IMAP controls, but HTC mail also does work with that. In short.... don't use HTC Mail to talk to Gmail if you care about deleting items, and keeping track of sent messages.

K-9 does and works fine if you configure it to. The Gmail app also handles it correctly.

Just be aware that if you require ActiveSync to connect with an Exchange server, HTC Mail is one of the few that actually will. Touchdown is another (but you have to pay for that app).

EDIT: Your results will vary depending on what phone you are using. But it strikes me as rather sloppy that any Android phone (from any mfg) doesn't handle Gmail correctly given it's a Google OS. Now... if you aren't connecting to gmail, I would imagine most email clients should work fine now.
 
Well, the phone I had was the G-1 from T-Mobile, and it was the very first Android phone on the market. I have an HTC now, but it is the Windows OS and I have no problems at all with either my gmail or yahoo mail accouts. However, Windows have limited apps. Droid has lots of apps - but the whole email thing really seems to be a mess. It sounds like I need to get third-party apps to take the emails from the trash to get them permanently deleted. That just seems absurd. Guess I'll just wait for Verizon to offer the iPhone.
 
Aries9910 said:
Well, the phone I had was the G-1 from T-Mobile, and it was the very first Android phone on the market. I have an HTC now, but it is the Windows OS and I have no problems at all with either my gmail or yahoo mail accouts. However, Windows have limited apps. Droid has lots of apps - but the whole email thing really seems to be a mess. It sounds like I need to get third-party apps to take the emails from the trash to get them permanently deleted. That just seems absurd. Guess I'll just wait for Verizon to offer the iPhone.
Click to expand...

If all you want is gmail and yahoo accounts, then go into a Verizon store and try out K-9. It's free and works fine with both. A lot of people like it. I am a big gmail user (from my desktop too), and stuck with the Gmail app because it has most of the desktop features (threaded conversations, labels, archiving, starring, etc...).
 
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