07.01.07
A Tip for iPhone IMAP Users
I’ve wanted a phone with decent IMAP support for years, and the iPhone has really good IMAP support. The IMAP protocol, for those unfamiliar with it, is an email protocol that stores messages on the server (as well as, in most cases, caching it locally for offline access). This way, you can access your mail from any computer that has an IMAP-capable email client (including several webmail clients) and have all your archives, sent items, and even unfinished drafts available to you. Furthermore, if your computer crashes, your mail is still on the server, and is accessible from any other computer.
When I first set it up on my iPhone, however, it only showed my Inbox, and not any of the folders into which I file messages for later reference. That’s because Dreamhost, my email provider, uses Courier-IMAP to handle IMAP connections. If you’re experiencing the same problem, here’s how to fix it:
- Make sure your email account is set up and able to send and receive email. Also, be sure that you’re actually using an IMAP account, not a POP account. If you’re not sure, chances are you’re using POP, which means none of the following applies to you.
- From the Home screen, click Settings, then Mail.
- Select the account you want to configure.
- Scroll to the bottom of the account settings screen and click Advanced.
- At the bottom of the advanced settings screen there’s an option for “IMAP Path Prefix.” What you need to put there depends on your email provider’s settings, but the default for Courier-IMAP is INBOX. Check with your provider if that doesn’t work.
- Back up at the top of the advanced settings screen, there’s a section for “Mailbox Behaviors.” There, you can choose the server folders to use for drafts, sent items, and deleted messages. When you click on those options, the next screen should have settings for “On My iPhone” and “On the Server”—if there are no folders listed on the server, your IMAP Path Prefix isn’t set correctly.
And you’re done. Now all your email is automatically stored on the server, and you’ll have the same archives available whether you access it from home, on your iPhone, or through a webmail interface.
Timm Said:
July 9, 2007 at 10:32 am
wow…
you left sprint after all this time for an iphone...
whats it been like .. 6 years?
there must be something amazing to these phones that i havent seen yet in all the commercials and internet stuff. i really just cant get into it. maybe if it had a vagina and looked like Laura Grahm or Aaliyah in that outfit from queen of the damned… and was human.
Timm Said:
July 9, 2007 at 10:34 am
just to be clear.. Aaliyah and Laura Grahm are totally worth the price of an iphone.
totally.
Timm Said:
July 9, 2007 at 10:38 am
i spelled Lauren Graham wrong… but in my defense i was looking at her ass. .=)
Nicholas Said:
July 9, 2007 at 2:34 pm
I was with Sprint for almost exactly eight years, actually … and the iPhone was absolutely worth the switch.
Timm Said:
July 10, 2007 at 12:24 pm
hmm, well so much for the break i had on calling you cause we were with the same carrier.
curse you iphone…
you know i might actually go for it if i could have it on sprint.
but i doubt sprint would be willing to give AT&T a portion of the service charge simply because the customers are using an iphone.
AT&T is like the slut of cell phone services.
...and T-Mobile is the fat chick.
Timm Said:
July 10, 2007 at 12:34 pm
sprint is just a tramp… so its a bit better than the slut or the fat chick.
im sure theres a good service out there somewhere… but im also sure its just for rich people.. or .. the man.. or the government or something… some exclusive group that hates us Nicolas.
and ill bet they think we dont know.
but we do, ok!
Nicholas Said:
July 10, 2007 at 2:25 pm
It’ll be a while before the iPhone is available on other carriers—AT&T has a 5-year exclusive contract, because they were willing to modify the way their network functions for certain features, like visual voicemail (which is awesome, and all phones should have had it years ago). Plus the current version of the iPhone is CDMA, so even if you could unlock it, it wouldn’t work with Sprint.
WillS Said:
July 18, 2007 at 5:47 am
You say the phone as ‘really good’ IMAP support. Do you know if that includes support for the ‘IMAP-IDLE’ protocol (the one that notifies you when new messages arrive, your Courier mailserver supports it at the server end)?
Nicholas Said:
July 18, 2007 at 6:04 am
Ah—good question, WillS. Unfortunately, IDLE is not supported. The only push email support included is from Yahoo Mail, which depending on whom you ask is either P-IMAP or a proprietary system. I guess for a lot of people that would move the iPhone’s IMAP support out of the “really good” range, but for my needs it’s not really an issue. It would be nice to see IDLE support added via software update, though.
WillS Said:
July 20, 2007 at 2:19 am
Nicholas, thanks for letting me know. We’ve now done our own tests on the iPhone and, whilst looking into the IDLE issue, discovered a pretty serious security hole involving the Yahoo mail service for iPhone. Explained at http://blog.isode.com/2007/07/iphone-signific.html