Is anyone getting email notifications for the POP/IMAP email app?

[cohoman]

That does sound flaky. On my Moto-Q phone, I get email notifications whenever the POP or IMAP accounts get new emails. The system will check for new emails at predefined intervals. I can "lock" the screen so that the hardware buttons are disabled, but even then the device is still active and I will get email notifications.

If the G1 phone can't reliably check for emails and notify me, then that's a real limiting factor.

Thanks for your responses.

cohoman

Are you using POP or IMAP on there? Notifications just don't work on POP at all, from what I've seen. Since switching my email to IMAP, I get notifications. I do not have to have K-9 running. Perhaps it needs to have BEEN run at some point? I have noticed that there may be a period of time after which it stops checking mail? To explain: If I have been using the phone, and hit home, to get the the home screen, then end call to put it in standby, and put it in my pocket, I will still get notifications just fine. But if I don't get any emails for a while (say, half an hour?), then I get a new email, it will not notify me until next time I use the phone. Usually, I'll just pull it out, hit menu twice to "wake it up" and pretty much instantly get a notification. I don't know if that's because the network is going to sleep completely after a while, the service to check for emails goes to sleep after a while, or if it's just flakiness that I am worngly attributing to have something to do with this. But that has been my experience.

[DesignDawg]

If the G1 phone can't reliably check for emails and notify me, then that's a real limiting factor.

Thanks for your responses.

cohoman

Yep, it is. The G1 isn't for everyone yet. Good luck.

[cohoman]

You're right-- it certainly isn't the mobile phone for business users.

I love the OS, but it seems that a few more updates are in order to get it working right.

cohoman

Yep, it is. The G1 isn't for everyone yet. Good luck.

[DesignDawg]

I've been looking into this notification flakiness a little more, and here's what I'm noticing: First of all, I always leave 3G off. EDGE is just fine for most normal stuff, and since I always leave WiFi on, and most places have WiFi, I don't miss 3G. However, just like all phones with WiFi, after a period of inactivity, the WiFi turns off. When this happens, the phone has NO network connection. The way I know this is, when I hit a button to wake up the phone, it shows what connection it has available at that moment. WiFi is gone, and since I've been testing here, there's nothing in its place, signifying no connection. As soon as I hit menu to unlock, the WiFi logo shows back up.
Now, I have noticed in the past that sometimes the EDGE icon would be there even when WiFi is not, and it will switch back to WiFi when you wake the phone. but it's not doing it now. Not sure why.

Now here's where it matters that I always leave 3G off: When 3G is ON, it's always there. No matter how long the phone has been asleep, when I hit a button, it shows as being connected to 3G.

So, I'll keep testing it, and maybe this "timeout" factor doesn't limit you from getting notifications if you're connected via 3G. I'd sure like to know. I'll let you know as well. i just leave it off to conserve battery life, but I haven't seen for myself that it really makes a difference on my phone.

[angeland]

I am only getting email and email notifications through gmail. I set up the pop email to check every 10 min. but it never checks let alone notifies me. Even tried K9 with no success.

[Shel]

I realize that different people operate differently.

What I always loved about e-mail was, that I could check it, and respond to it, at MY convenience! Unlike a phone, where, if I missed a call, I'd have to instigate another call, and then I'd leave a message if the person I wanted to speak with wasn't in, then THEY would return MY call, which was returning THEIR call, and we'd play phone tag.

What I always LOVED about email was, I could send a message to a business associate, vendor, whatever... and when they got it, even if *I* was busy doing something else at that exact moment, they could still respond, look up the info I needed, whatever, then send me a response, which, again, at MY convenience I could check.

Now it seems we need our email NOW, not in 5 minutes, not in half an hour.... NOW NOW NOW NOW!!!

Hey, if it's THAT important, I'll pick up a phone and call them! I do have a phone around here somewhere, don't I???

[DesignDawg]

As I mentioned, POP email will not notify. IMAP will, and I am currently testing some scenarios to figure out what key factors contribute to its reliability. In the meantime, if you MUST have rock solid notification, and even PUSH capabilities for accounts you only have POP access to, here's a solution that works perfectly:

Go into your gmail account on the desktop and set up your account to check your POP account. You can even have it label the messages from your POP account as having come from there. That way, gmail automatically checks your pop account and deilvers them to your gmail box, which gives you PUSH notifications for your POP account. The only limitation to this is: when you reply on your phone, it will be coming from your gmail address. There's a setting in the gmail settings to reply from whatever address it was sent to, but that only seens to work on the webmail version of gmail, not coming from the phone. --But if your reply-to address is a big issue, you can always switch over to K-9 to reply to emails!

[DesignDawg]

I realize that different people operate differently.

What I always loved about e-mail was, that I could check it, and respond to it, at MY convenience! Unlike a phone, where, if I missed a call, I'd have to instigate another call, and then I'd leave a message if the person I wanted to speak with wasn't in, then THEY would return MY call, which was returning THEIR call, and we'd play phone tag.

What I always LOVED about email was, I could send a message to a business associate, vendor, whatever... and when they got it, even if *I* was busy doing something else at that exact moment, they could still respond, look up the info I needed, whatever, then send me a response, which, again, at MY convenience I could check.

Now it seems we need our email NOW, not in 5 minutes, not in half an hour.... NOW NOW NOW NOW!!!

Hey, if it's THAT important, I'll pick up a phone and call them! I do have a phone around here somewhere, don't I???

That's a fine window into your soul on your outlook on life, but what we're addressing is functionality that isn't working in software. --Key functionality that is a major dealbreaker for a lot of people. It's not really important if some people don't want to be notified instantly. What's important is that the software works as it should. Right now, there is a setting to turn off notifications, so people like you can be blissfully unaware of their new emails. And those options work like a champ. Unfortunately, it's the options to turn them ON that aren't working, and this is a big problem.

[Fujitsujeff]

I get notifications using my IMAP with K-9 ... This isn't meant to sound obvious, but make sure under your settings, you have checked the box that indicates you want "Email Notifications" to show up in your status bar when email arrives. If this is not checked, then this is your problem ...

[Shel]

Gee, THANKS, DESIGN DAWG!!!

I'll shut up now, and allow the BIG DAWG the floor.