How to fix iPhone email problems: Definitive Guide

Ronald Epstein · 07-07-2007, 11:16 AM

How To Fix iPhone Email Problems
With thanks to HTF Member DaveF

iPhone Mail is a complete mess for those of us that get hundreds of emails per day that are
mostly spam related. There are no spam filters on iPhone, and worse, there is no way to do
a mass deletion of everything that gets downloaded. Though there are rumored software fixes on the way,
we felt it necessary to help you guys with iPhone mail related problems. By going through this
10 minute procedure, you'll be enjoying spam-free email directly to your iPhone

Create a GMAIL account

1. Go to Google Mail and create a personal account

2. After you have successfully registered, log into your GMAIL
account and click on SETTINGS in top right corner

3. Go to Accounts and scroll down to Get Mail From Other
Accounts. Fill out the information pertaining to the POP3 account
you wish GMAIL to retrieve mail from.

4. Go to Forwarding and POP and select the option Enable POP
only for mail that arrives from now on

Set up GMAIL on your iPhone and Computer Mail applications

1. On your iPhone go to Settings -> Mail -> Add An Account.
You will see an option for adding a GMAIL account. Use
the same information that you used to set up your personal GMAIL
account.

2. Set up a GMAIL account on your computer desktop/laptop mail client
according to these instructions

Be certain when setting up email on your desktop and laptop that
for USERNAME you put "recent:" directly in front of your GMAIL username

For example, my gmail username is: htfron@gmail.com
When setting up my computer and notebook mail applications for GMAIL
I changed the username to: "recent:htfron@gmail.com"

In doing this, you will be able to download the same mail across
all your computers, keeping your mail in perfect synch.

Please note that upon completion and first download of your GMAIL
accounts on all your platforms (including iPhone), you will download
a month's worth of old mail. This is normal. Once it is all cleared
out, you will enjoy the luxury of receiving only NEW messages on all
your computers with spam successfully filtered out.

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ErichH · 07-07-2007, 01:18 PM

Well Done Ron, and of course Dave!

DaveF · 07-08-2007, 12:06 AM

Ron, this is excellent news!

(ok, I'll violate personal policy with the dancing banana just this once.) I hope this solution works well in the long term. For all the time and value HTF has given me, helping you out with your email is effort well spent.

The instructions look good; and our initial thread has other details, though scattered. I'll just add that I expect that other web email services (eg Yahoo or Hotmail) could work in like manner. But I've never tried.

Craig S · 07-08-2007, 12:28 AM

Quote:

I'll just add that I expect that other web email services (eg Yahoo or Hotmail) could work in like manner. But I've never tried.

I would amend that by saying other POP-enabled email services should work in like manner. IMAP email (i.e., .MAC) just works without any of this futzing around.

DaveF · 07-08-2007, 08:43 AM

Does .mac have spam filtering on par with Gmail? That's the main reason for fighting so much to get this working with Gmail's POP system -- excellent spam filtering.

Ronald Epstein · 07-08-2007, 11:11 AM

I subscribe to .mac for the ease of synching all my computers
using the backup system. I never knew that .mac also has spam
filtering. Then again, I don't even use my .mac account for email.

On my desktop and notebook I use SpamSieve which is probably
the best spam filtering software I have ever used. It takes some
reading and a little time to set up properly, but once you do, it is
the most reliable method of filtering out spam that I have seen.

That being said, I am VERY impressed with GMAIL spam filtering.
Since forwarding all my POP3 mail through GMAIL to get to my
iPhone, I have received little to no spam mail. GMAIL does an
excellent job of recognizing and filtering. Of course, it's not perfect.
You need to go to the website and check that filter. I did notice
one or two GOOD emails that were recognized as spam. You are
able to train GMAIL not to make the same mistake twice.

I can't believe how well this GMAIL is working as a "middle man"
between my POP3 mail and my iPhone. I am enjoying my iPhone
more than I ever have before for the simple fact that I am only
receiving GOOD mail, and that it is now controllable. The GMAIL
workaround truly works!

DaveF · 07-09-2007, 07:24 AM

Glad to hear it Ron! The first couple weeks after I switched to Gmail, I was a bit dubious -- the spam filtering worked well, but didn't blow me away.

But a year later, and I daren't consider life without Gmail! The spam filtering is very effective. It also allowed me to change computer systems with minimal difficulty -- just point the new computer / email client to Gmail and I'm off and running. No new SPAM program to buy, train, etc.

And I've found Gmail to be a great online client -- I preferred using Gmail to Thunderbird. Being iPhone-less, it's also a great way for me to keep up on email at work and on vacation.

I'm sure there are other services that could work similarly, but Gmail definitely works, and you can't beat the price

Ronald Epstein · 07-09-2007, 07:40 AM

I am actually amazed at how well GMAIL is handling my spam.

I have said this before....I get over 200 spam mails per day. The
GMAIL filter has done nearly a flawless job of keeping all the spam
out of the INBOX. I check the filter daily for mistakes and I have only
found one mistake so far.

My iPhone is only getting the good mail, and it's now totally under
my control. In fact, it's an absolute pleasure using this iPhone as a
email device.

DaveF · 07-10-2007, 05:43 AM

Ro,n, do you secretly moonlight at MacWorld?

Quote:

AGHHHH, SPAM!!! Because I run SpamSieve on all my Macs I’d nearly forgotten how much of this crap I receive. Retrieving email on my iPhone reminded me. My iPhone offers no spam filtering that I can see and, man, do I need it. Yes, I do have a Gmail account and because Gmail’s spam filtering is so good, I’m seriously considering moving more of my regular email work to that account.
Chalk this up as Reason Number One why I’d like people like SpamSieve’s author, Michael Tsai, access to the guts of the iPhone’s email client.

http://iphone.macworld.com/2007/06/m...t_requests.php

He follows up in this editorial, though fails to explain the need for "recent" mode. http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/mac9...mail/index.php

Michael Tsai · 07-11-2007, 02:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ronald Epstein

On my desktop and notebook I use SpamSieve which is probably
the best spam filtering software I have ever used. It takes some
reading and a little time to set up properly, but once you do, it is
the most reliable method of filtering out spam that I have seen.

[...]

I can't believe how well this GMAIL is working as a "middle man"
between my POP3 mail and my iPhone.

FYI, if you use IMAP you can also use SpamSieve (running on your Mac) as a middle man.

Ronald Epstein · 07-11-2007, 02:40 PM

Can someone explain what iMap is? I keep hearing that
term but don't know what it is and how it can be used in this instance.

Craig S · 07-11-2007, 05:16 PM

IMAP is a protocol for accessing email - an alternative to POP. It is considered better than POP for those who need to access their mail from multiple computers. This writeup at The IMAP Connection explains it better than I could.

The one drawback to GMail is that it is POP-only. That's one of the reasons for all the troubles people have had setting it up to work nicely on the iPhone (downloading a bunch of old mail, etc.). If/when Google enables IMAP on GMail it will be pretty much perfect.