Help Gmail only works with WIFI on?

[evilcarstereo]

I've been having issues with my battery draining really quickly and one of the things I read was to turn WiFi off when you're not using it. Fair enough. So I turned it off last night before bed, woke up with email notifications, but noticed that throughout the day - while I've been emailing heavily on my computer - I haven't received any notifications.

I've checked the settings, done some tests, re-synced google, and still nothing. Even going into the gmail app and refreshing only produced some new emails (from hours ago) about 1 out of 3 times. I've also powered off and on and hit refresh to no results.

Then as soon as I turn WiFi back on, I get an instant notification.

This is my first Android phone, so forgive me if I'm making a rookie mistake here, but shouldn't email work without the use of WiFi? I thought that the network was capable of performing tasks such as email and browsing the internet and that WiFi was an added feature to boost performance and use instead of the network to limit strain on your data plan. Am I wrong in this? I've just tried to connect to the internet and twitter with WiFi turned off and come up empty-handed, so perhaps I am.

Can someone please throw some knowledge my way?

 

[evilcarstereo]

So was this an entirely ignorant question with an absolute, "Of course you can't use any internet based apps without WiFi" answer? Because, please, somebody just put me out of my misery and at least give me that response if it is the only one to be given.

I'm just confused because I came from an old BlackBerry Bold and super old Pearl which both notified me of emails instantly (and had web-based apps and internet access)and I wasn't aware of them having WiFi. Please forgive my naivety and kindly throw me a bone.

 

[thoffland]

2 things to check. Did you turn off syncing for gmail, or your background sync settings?

Also, is your "always-on mobile data" turned off?

I disable both of these on the weekends since I don't need email pushed and notice that I don't get all the notifications either as emails come in.

 

[evilcarstereo]

I've since found the problem, I'm just not sure how to fix it.

My mobile network is stuck on "Turning on..." and clearly never does. I've read posts from users with other phones and it seems like it might be an issue with AT&T needing to activate my phone. I'm not sure why this wouldn't have already been done. And I'm not sure if that is the only/actual fix needed. But everything is synced, it's just the mobile network that never turns on.

 

[rmreid]

I would bring the phone back to where you purchased it, and see if they can fix it or give you a new phone