GMail, which way is best to set it up?

[PwnCakes193]

Hey all,
Wondering whether it was better to set up my GMail account on my iPhone 4 through the way that apple has it, or to use it as exchange. Is it better or worse to have the exchange working as a google sync client? Will it drain more battery life?

 

[Alli]

It will make your life much easier if you set it up as an Exchange account. In the grand scheme of things, the battery drain it produces is barely noticeable compared to other things.

 

[stkywik]

I have it set up as an exchange client. I've never had a problem getting my mail pushed to me (like with yahoo mail, which always stops pushing mail- requiring me to reboot the phone) and haven't noticed any significant loss of battery life.

 

[Robert Waldroup]

The consensus is to use an exchange

I am an IT worker for a large company and for all of our company smartphones we use an exchange. The battery issue is not significant and the service is more robust.

 

[markhunsaker]

I like using it as an exchange account. I like my e-mail to PUSH through. I haven't noticed any huge difference in battery life. I can make it through a day and still have 40% left. I have 3 e-mail accounts. One GMail (exchange), one GMail set up through GMail (fetch), and one Mircosoft Exchange account (push).

 

[noaim]

i have 2 accounts set up as exchange and they both work fine and dont drain my battery life

 

[ebedoun]

I have my personal gmail account and a work google apps account both setup as exchange. The iphone does a MUCH better job with my email/contacts and calendars than my BlackBerry ever did.

My vote is for exchange.

 

[bigchamp]

What is exchange?

 

[Alli]

Exchange is the Microsoft licensed mail protocol where sync happens automatically and handles your email, contacts, tasks, and (depending on the server) notes.

 

[marcster]

I have my gmail account setup as exchange, however unlike when I set it up with gmail, the exchange does not show my previous emails in my inbox, and for some reason keeps removing the previous messages after a few days.

Is there anyway to change this? Thanks.

 

[LCW]

I tried using Gmail via ActiveSync, but there were some issues with emails getting stuck in my Outbox... so what I have done is setup Gmail under the native Gmail iphone settings for MAIL only, and then have another Gmail setup under Exchange, but with MAIL turned OFF, and CALENDAR and CONTACTS enabled... best of both worlds...

 

[Roo Zilla]

I have my gmail account setup as exchange, however unlike when I set it up with gmail, the exchange does not show my previous emails in my inbox, and for some reason keeps removing the previous messages after a few days.

Is there anyway to change this? Thanks.

There's a setting to change how far back to sync emails. Change it to a longer length of time.

 

[douglaswilson]

its possible to set up a personal gmail account as an exchange account? Is there any special information needed? like server information. etc?

 

[hugecanoli]

How does the phone interact with the Gmail servers using Exchange compared to using IMAP?

Does marking a email as read move it to archive on the server? Does deleting emails move them to archive or does that action actually put the email into trash?

How do you delete a email permanently using exchange?

There is a guide for IMAP gmail usage, but I cannot seem to find one for an Exchange setup.

Email reconciliation is one thing I'm going to really miss about giving up my BlackBerry. Its so easy to choose...delete from device/mailbox/or both.

 

[Ipheuria]

As far as I know and I may be wrong. If you setup the GMail as Exchange it acts the same as before but instead of updating when you open Mail the emails will get pushed to your phone. There are settings you can change when you login to the email through the web that will set how it's handled when emails are deleted.

 

[Entertainment72]

Have my GMail set up via Exchange as well, works great.

 

[rknowlt]

Exchange slot for gmail is the best. Better push, and it syncs your contacts/calendars to the google cloud OTA so you never have to worry about losing contacts again.

 

[Fausty82]

I've been reading this thread and want to ask the obvious, basic question... how do I set this up? What is different from the standard gmail set up?

If some one could explain step by step, I'd appreciate it.

 

[Massie]

Easy as could be:
Set Up Your Apple Device for Google Sync : Mail, Calendar, & Contacts - Google Mobile Help

 

[Fausty82]

Thanks for the link.