Palm Pre Tutorial: Setup Push Email for Google Apps & Gmail

by Jeff Garrett on Jun 7, 2009

Setting up push Google Apps email and Gmail is a breeze on the Palm Pre.

It’s only day two with my new Palm Pre and to say I’m a tad excited would be a huge understatement.

So far one of my favorite features is how it manages email – particularly multiple email accounts. This is a HUGE feature for anyone like myself who has tried to manage multiple email accounts for different personal and work related endeavors. I set up my primary Exchange email yesterday and within 2 minutes, my calendar, email, and 600+ contacts were completely in sync with the Pre!

I was even more excited today when I sat down to add one of my Google Apps email accounts. It turns out that the Palm Pre supports the IMAP IDLE protocol, thereby enabling “push” email with your Google Apps email, or any Gmail account for that matter. After a quick review of Gmail Help I was off to the races.

Getting Started

Click the email icon to open your email.
Click the “Email” drop down arrow in the upper left hand corner.
Select “Preferences & Accounts.”
Scroll to the bottom and select “Add An Account.”
Click the “Email” drop down arrow in the upper left hand corner again.
Select “Manual Setup.”

Palm Pre Settings for Push Google Apps Email & Gmail

Mail Type: IMAP
Email Address:

Google Apps users – Enter your full email address (i.e. username@yourdomain.com).
Gmail users – Enter your full email address (i.e. username@gmail.com).

Incoming Mail Server
Server Name: imap.gmail.com
Username: Same as you entered for Email Address above.

Google Apps users – Enter your full email address (i.e. username@yourdomain.com).
Gmail users – Enter your full email address (i.e. username@gmail.com).

Password: Enter your password.
Port #: 993
Encryption: SSL

Outgoing Mail Server
Server Name: smtp.gmail.com
Use Authentication: Yes
Port#: 465
Encryption: SSL

Root Folder: leave blank

Updates

July 7, 2009

A few readers have provided additional pointers that I wanted to update this post with in case you don’t see them in the comments.

As Eric Marschall points out, be sure you have activated IMAP in the Settings of your Gmail or Google Apps email account. Eric also mentions that you may need to unlock the captcha.
Kyle and Doc both point out that you need to have Wi-Fi turned off when setting up your email accounts on the Pre. Especially if you are behind a corporate firewall.

Thanks to all visitors for your comments and additional tips…keep em’ coming!

Final Thoughts

I love the Pre. It’s so easy to set up and navigate. Managing multiple email accounts on the Pre is easier than doing so on my laptop. The ability to view and respond to email from “all inboxes” or one specific email account is a productive feature that is long overdue with all email clients in general (i.e. Outlook). I’m going to do some more testing this week and if all goes as planned, it looks like it’s time to say goodbye to the old Exchange server to deliver my critical push email and hello to more Google Apps email!

I heart you Pre!

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{ 2 trackbacks }

Palm Pre Tutorials « Cunningham’s Coffee Corner: Jun 22, 2009 at 5:20 pm
Palm Pre Tutorial: Setup Web Hosting Email: Jul 31, 2009 at 7:52 am

{ 57 comments… read them below or add one }

← Previous Comments

1 winsome Sep 20, 2009 at 10:24 pm: I have had my Pre for abour 2 months now…I recently saw something on the internet where on the email page there is a small picture of the sender (from) and the receiver (to)….I do not have this…when I am about to send an email I only see a picture of the person I am sending it to…If anyone knows how to do this please help….
2 Karen Oct 2, 2009 at 10:07 am: Hi Jeff,

thank you for wonderful tutorial on setting up gmail. I was just wondering however, if I wanted to set up other accounts (i.e. @yorku.ca, @hotmail.com) what would be the settings? or where would I find the settings?

Thank you,

Karen
3 Jeff Garrett Oct 3, 2009 at 5:35 pm: Hi Amos,
It seems to be a bug. I’ve been able to overcome it by canceling the attempt and trying again later. When reattempting I first entered the email address and password instead of immediately going to manual settings. It will obviously fail to authenticate and sync, but will then ask if you want to use manual settings. At this point, go ahead and click manual settings and enter the same information I’ve outlined above. That should do the trick. Let me know if it works for you too.

Thanks!
Jeff
4 Tyler Oct 12, 2009 at 5:03 pm: Thank you Jeff. I spent about three hours on the phone with Sprint and/or combing through the book trying figure out how to set up my gmail account. I found this website while sitting on the phone with the sprint CSR….followed your directions and had it up and running within 30 seconds. Thank you Thank you Thank you.
5 Bernard Dec 10, 2009 at 9:05 am: i have the same problem.
all was working fine for weeks and suddenly – it stopped.
called Palm support, Sprint support, went to Sprint store – so far no solution.
6 albert Mar 20, 2010 at 10:11 am: Your tutorial on setting up an IMAP corporate account on the Pre was far superior to the Palm web support.
Thank you.
7 Jenn Apr 22, 2010 at 8:16 am: Hi Jeff,

I found your walkthrough to be very easy to follow and understand. I just got my palm pre 2 days ago and am still trying to figure out how to work most of it. So while I followed the outline and entered all settings correctly, the sign in button at the bottom of the manual screen is grayed out. So I cant go any further in my process. Any thoughts on this?

Thank you.