The TRUE fix for the Gmail problem on the iPhone

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So…there is a little problem with sending email from your iPhone with your Gmail account. It always sends you a copy of the email you sent back into your inbox. It’s annoying. So this morning when I read the “solution” to this problem on TUAW I was eager to try it.

The only problem is that TUAW’s solution is completely wrong. Once I did what they said, I suddenly had my gmail account trying to download over 1,000 messages to my phone.

Not cool.

So I had to delete the account off my phone. Then I had an idea. What if I set it up as a Pop 3 account instead of using the Gmail pre sets. Note – the only problem with this, is that you’ll be getting a copy of every email you send when you use Gmail in your browser. So you have to decide, do you use it more on the phone or in the browser? I use the phone more, so it works for me…just something to keep in mind.

To do this go into your iPhone settings.

Mail>Add Account > Other

select POP

Then enter your name, address, and the description you want for the email address

under Incoming Mail Server insert the following:

Host Name: pop.gmail.com
User Name: yourname@gmail.com
Password: YourPassword

Outgoing Mail:

Host Name: smtp.gmail.com
User Name: yourname@gmail.com
Password: YourPassword

That should do it. You’ll stop getting that copy of all your outgoing email and after you check your mail on your phone Gmail will start obeying your POP 3 settings. So if you have it set to archive those emails like I do, it’ll actually start doing that.

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Kokou Adzo

Kokou Adzo is a stalwart in the tech journalism community, has been chronicling the ever-evolving world of Apple products and innovations for over a decade. As a Senior Author at Apple Gazette, Kokou combines a deep passion for technology with an innate ability to translate complex tech jargon into relatable insights for everyday users.

5 thoughts on “The TRUE fix for the Gmail problem on the iPhone

  1. Brilliant, worked perfect for me. Though not at first. I tried leaving the Gmail account I initially set up on my iPhone and tested with that, and under the account set up as outlined in this article and still got sent mail copies under both accounts.

    I then deleted both accounts from my iPhone and tried setting it up as you stated (and as the only Gmail account on my phone) and it worked perfect! Thanks for a solution to an aggravating POP bug in gmail.

    Note: I also have a filter set up in Gmail to archive anything “sent” by my address.

  2. Well, almost worked perfect, i tested it some more today.

    I won’t get the copy if I reply from my iPhone, or even if I send a new message. But I will get a copy if I reply to the email via my computer in the gmail web interface. As soon as I hit send from my regular computer, a sent copy appears in my iPhone’s inbox.

    So I would say this is an 80% fix. Any replying done outside of the iPhone seems to send a copy of the message to the iPhone’s inbox.

  3. Hi there,

    thanks for putting your comments above as once i read them i tried what was said BUT b4 i deleted anything off my iphone and started again with gmail i added the filter in g mail putting in from:username@googlemail.com and then chose the skip inbox and also delete it and that has worked…thank god i sent a few emails and did not get one copy back.
    Hope this helps someone else

    Lou

  4. Forgot to test to see if this filter worked even though i sent emails from my pc….Well have just sent an email from my pc, and have checked the phone and it has not sent a copy to the phone.

    This i would call a success…yee ha

  5. Safari crashes and closes whenever trying to login through the website.

    Have tried other browsers same thing.

    IPHONE 3GS running ios 4.1 jailbroken.

    I have cleared all the cache and cookies and removed the databases/ website data.

    Still having the same issue.

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