Best way to get GMail and Google Calendar on N900?
 

What is the best way to sync Google Mail and Google Calendar?
There are various threads, but I wanted to bring it all together into one that contains the best method(s).

Gmail

1. POP3
Seems to work ok, but due to the lack of IDLE will drain the battery.
Also new mails will only be found when the thing checks, i.e. once every 20 minutes or whatever it is set to.
Might have changed in PR 1.2?

2. IMAP
Not sure if this works on the N900? I've not tried it. Feedback appreciated.

3. Through Nokia Messaging
Been using this for a few months. I've had many issues, but on the whole it does seem to work for receiving only. My issues in short:

• Unable to send emails (ever)
• Unable to receive on demand using the 'Send & Receive' button
• Issues when deleting read items that stay as unread in the 'All Mail' folder
• Problems marking mails as read/unread

The other issue is that Nokia may change their mind at any moment and start charging for it!

4. Through MfE
Not tried this either. Presume it would be similar to IMAP with the same drawbacks (namely no 'push' and a battery drainer).

Google Calendar

Prior to PR1.2 I had one way syncing (Google to N900 only) set up as per these instructions from almighty Google. This has now ceased to work (error message: unable to log in, user account issue).

It's not a bad thing, as I want to change the way the syncing works so I can push events from the n900 out as well as suck them up.

There are some TMO instructions from Dec-09 here - although I think this should be well outdated now.

Google have some newer instructions here that are based on the Symbian syncing. Has anyone tried this? Does two way work?

Re: Best way to get GMail and Google Calendar on N900?
 

Basically, the only way I got it working alright was through Nuevasync (I Bought a pro account - wasn't that expensive). They act as a gateway between you and Google (which means you have to give them your google password).

You can't get Google calendar + contacts sync over 3g any other way, it seems.

Now if you are happy with just mail, then it's a whole new story... Go ahead and use POP, IMAP, ...

Re: Best way to get GMail and Google Calendar on N900?
 

Well, I use erminig to sync my google calendar (also syncs multiple calendars), which works flawlessly.

For googe mails I use the imap account, which also does everything I need for my emails.

To sync my google contacts i also use Nuevasync (works over MfE). I didn't buy the pro account. Contact Sync doesn't work that well though. I have 292 contacts on my phone, but only 267 got synced with my google acount (I really don't have a clue which contacts are missing)

Re: Best way to get GMail and Google Calendar on N900?
 

OK, thanks for the info.

I think the best approach will be to use Nuevasync Free for the calendar and then IMAP for the email. Can anyone confirm that IMAP both:
1) supports push
2) supports sending as well as receiving
3) Doesn't drain the battery

Re: Best way to get GMail and Google Calendar on N900?
 

I use IMAP for sending and receiving. Works reliably.
You dont get push, the phone checks for updates on the imap server (google) periodically, so if ou have it set to check every 15minuntes, if you get a mail one minute after the phone synced you wont see it for 14 minutes. This is not a problem for me.

Ofcourse it is one more thing that wakes data and processor up periodically, but I dont think its one of the bigger battery drains in the n900.

Re: Best way to get GMail and Google Calendar on N900?
 

id like to differentiate pop form imap.

pop is ancient and really basic. Effectively what it does is places your mail in the inbox for download. the pop client (n900) checks the serer and downloads new messages. thats it.

imap is two way, so sending stuff on your phone ends up in your gmail sent mail folder. and you can browse all your folders (all mail, spam etc.) from your n900. Although regrettably not that practical because the n900 mail client has no search function and gets slow with large amounts of mail.

does anybody use pop on their n900 and if yes why?

Re: Best way to get GMail and Google Calendar on N900?
 

MoKopila,
Offline reading?

Re: Best way to get GMail and Google Calendar on N900?
 

the n900 mail client sucks offline cause there is no setting to automatically download new mails. so no, there is no offline reading. maybe mfe provides that? its applicationspecific not protocol

Re: Best way to get GMail and Google Calendar on N900?
 

I agree that client is horror show from late 90´s but i thought that you can read pop mails offline, but it isn't so?

Re: Best way to get GMail and Google Calendar on N900?
 

offline reading is possible with a community fixed version of Modest (the build-in N900 email client)

http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=55771

I'm using it and I'm very happy.

Re: Best way to get GMail and Google Calendar on N900?
 

I found that the best client for GMail is the web itself, in plain HTML. As the page is loading up, it provides a link at the bottom of the page to switch to plain HTML. Click that. It is crazy fast after that. Unless you need offline capability, why bother with anything else?

Re: Best way to get GMail and Google Calendar on N900?
 

I have found that MfE is able to 2-way sync to 1 google calender calender. It has been pretty reliable in my experience. I'm not sure how to choose which google calender calender to sync to if you have more than one though.

Re: Best way to get GMail and Google Calendar on N900?
 

I use IMAP for GMail and it works. You just need to enable IMAP from the GMail settings and you can set it based on some help from google help center.

This is not something that has been added in PR1.2. I have been using it since the first release.

Re: Best way to get GMail and Google Calendar on N900?
 

I use modest, and when I check the account settings, it says "IMAP4 account settings for Gmail" I figured it was the default.

Re: Best way to get GMail and Google Calendar on N900?
 

OK, I've removed everything I had before and started the process again.

I had an @googlemail.com so changed to an @gmail.com which Nokia Messaging picks up as a new account.

Now got the dream setup going:
Contacts and Calendar
Nuevasync.com - Free, constantly updates both ways (through MfE)

Email
Nokia Messaging - Free, Push working well, no bugs (so far)

I'd recommend this combo to anyone.

Re: Best way to get GMail and Google Calendar on N900?
 

I'm wondering if any of you used Erminig for Google calendar and tasks synch?

It looks too good to be true. Much better than the other options. I was going to try it out but not seeing it mentioned in this thread is making me hesitate.

Re: Best way to get GMail and Google Calendar on N900?
 

I use erminig, but it's stil beta and not very reliable, it looks very promising. For now I use a pro account on nuevasync.

Re: Best way to get GMail and Google Calendar on N900?
 

i was using the browser for google mail + calendar + rest
but lately this is so annoying. i want to edit contacts and the interface is not loading properly, i click on links and nothing happens. in google maps i cannot make the map fullscreen as i don't have "button" activated ... maybe google is not friendly with maemo, maybe other apps have a bad influence ...

not having google on this phone really sucks

Re: Best way to get GMail and Google Calendar on N900?
 

I remember checking out google calendar in my N900's browser. It works great as if I'm using it from a desktop computer. Lately, when I open google calendar in the browser it gives me the very limited mobile interface without any option to switch to the full interface.

Any suggestions?

Re: Best way to get GMail and Google Calendar on N900?
 

I have IMAP configured for for my Gmail account. For Google Contacts & Calendar I use the N900's MfE.
I had problems with MfE but in my opinion it works great as long as you:

• don't try synching with PC-Suite/OVI (MfE wouldn't work after that for me)
• delete N900 calendar(or whichever you plan to synch) and nuke your contacts on the phone before configuring MfE.

If I add photos on my N900 to contacts MfE fails but that is the only "feature" so far that I have had. It's just as easy adding them via Gmails webinterface.

Re: Best way to get GMail and Google Calendar on N900?
 

Gmail works perfect in Modest with IMAP, though I miss a lot the thread view of the web interface.
I haven't been able to synchronize Calendar with Erminig.
And Contacts..., well I don't trust MfE nor I'm able to delete all the information on the phone so I'm waiting for a new solution.