Gmail App. Emails disappear

[Joey76]

Im helping my father out from abroad who is having trouble with his first smartphone.

His emails disappear from his Gmail app on his S2.

I have done some research through these forums and the net and have heard about POP and IMAP etc.

While Im not completely useless with technology there is still a lot which gets past due to my age as well.

My email on my very simple samsung works flawlessly, his disappears. I have looked for these options on my little phone and done seem to have them.

Is there a simple solution that could be done to help with this issue. I would prefer to not have him DL different apps etc and stick with the Gmail one, I am trying to make the experience as simple for him as possible.

Like I said my gmail works flawlessly and syncs well, It does everything I need. His phone being much better than mine also has a lot more functions/settings that can be accessed as well.

We basically just wont his emails to stay and not disaappear. We arent worried if they still get DL'd when he logs into his PC etc. He just wants access when he is out and about.


Thanks everyone

 

[El Presidente]

You can't change the POP/IMAP configuration options on the phone as far as I'm aware.

If you log into the Gmail account on your PC, hit the Settings Icon (it's a cog) in the top right corner of the page, click settings, then go to the "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" tab, POP should be disabled and IMAP enabled.

Is that the case?

 

[Joey76]

Mate I dont know, My old man is in Australia and I'm in Brazil.

I will try and help him over skype later this evening..


I am just looking for a way to get emails to not disappear.

When I helped him set it up (via skype) it was just as simple as mine.... email-password- and bingo it all showed up.

He has sice been having emails disappear. He reads them and then they vanish.

As I said in my opening post I dont have any such trouble on my smasung duos. We would just like to be able to get this disappearing to stop.


The S2 has many more option and setting and am wondering if it is something that can be adjusted there.

Not being able to physically play with the phone it is difficult and thats why I need you guys to help....


thanks

 

[El Presidente]

Can you log in to his account via a PC and check those options for him? I suspect POP is enabled, not IMAP.

Those are my settings, my mails don't disappear so unless it's another problem, if he sets his up the same, he should be ok too.

 

[Joey76]

At the moment no. i dont have him online.

Just out of curiosity what are you suggesting I do via his private emails and why cant you adjust it via the phone itself.

Not disputing anything you say at all, just surprised these things arent manageable via phone as well.

in addition, I just checked my email and Imap is enabled. If I delete an email on my phone it deletes on my PC etc. it works brilliantly.


Do you believe that if IMAP is enabled then this problem would desist?

 

[El Presidente]

Yep, I'm pretty sure/hopeful the issue would go away if IMAP is enabled.

POP/IMAP is just the way the server handles dishing out mail to it's clients.

How I understand it is that with POP, the client polls for mails from the server. Generally once it's downloaded, unless you've specifically told it too, it won't retain a copy on the server (your Gmail account on the web).

IMAP works differently in that whenever it receives a new email, the server automatically sends a copy of the email to all the clients configured to access that account. The server retains a copy and dependant on how it's been configured, each device has it's own copy of the mail which remains independent of the other devices. Meaning if you delete it on one, it wouldn't necessarily disappear on another.

Not sure why you can't configure those options on the phone. I suspect it's because they are server side options and it's all to do with how the server handles the mail as it's where the mail is actually being delivered to.

All make sense? I've never really had to think about how/why before, it's always just worked for me.

 

[Joey76]

Yeah mate, Mine works fine not sure why his doesnt.

When I chat with him I will check it out for him and see how it goes.

Thanks for your help...