How-To Configure iPhone With Gmail IMAP

[denton]

As Google slowly begin rolling out their access to the Gmail IMAP feature i thought it would be a good idea to share some more advanced configuration techniques with you guys.

Google offer a nice little step-by-step to get IMAP running on your iPhone - albeit at a bare minimum, but im sure like me you want the service running seemless on both your iPhone mobile client and your other web clients.

To start make sure you've followed the Gmail IMAP basic guide before moving onto the configuration stages. There's also some handy tips and features at the bottom that Google haven't documented as of yet.

The following steps will properly configure your iPhone mail client so that your mail folders are working properly after syncing between web and mobile clients. Properly sorting your drafts, deleted, and sent mail on the iPhone.

Configure Your iPhone Mail Folders

1. Open ‘Settings’ > ‘Mail’ > [Your Gmail IMAP account] > ‘Advanced’
2. Select ‘Drafts Mailbox’ > ‘On the Server’ > ‘[Gmail] Drafts’. Return to the ‘Advanced’ view.
3. Select ‘Sent Mailbox’ > ‘On the Server’ > ‘[Gmail] Sent Mail’. Return to the ‘Advanced’ view.
4. Select ‘Deleted Mailbox’ > ‘On the Server’ > ‘[Gmail] Trash’. Return to the ‘Advanced’ view.

Now Gmail's 'sent' folder will house all emails sent from your iPhone device with any iPhone draft messages appearing in the Gmail drafts folder. All deleted messages will be placed in Gmails 'Trash' folder.

Additional iPhone Tips For IMAP Gmail

• To archive any mail from your iPhone just move the message(s) to 'Gmail All Mail'.
  
• To use a custom 'from' email address when sending mail from your iPhone just add one to the Email Address field (note: not the authentication fields) and it will be automatically used instead of your Gmail address
  
• To get rid of the extra Gmail hierarchy listing all you need to do is navigate to your advanced email settings. and for 'IMAP Path Prefix' type Gmail now go back and reassign your Sent, Deleted and Draft mail boxes - if needed.