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There are some TMO instructions from Dec-09 here - although I think this should be well outdated now.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

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, ...

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)

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

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.

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?

MoKopila,
Offline reading?

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

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?

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.