All Devices Gmail messages being read on iPhone Mail app not marking as read on server

[Quackington]

Hi guys,

Over the past day or two, I've had a weird issue start happening.

I have an iPhone 11 on iOS 13.5 and I access my e-mails via the Mail app. Whenever I used to read e-mails on it, the e-mails would be marked as read unless I chose to mark them as unread. Two days ago, I added the same account to my iPad Pro's iOS Mail app. Since then, if I read e-mails on my iPhone's Mail app, they show as read within the iPhone's Mail app but not in the iPad's Mail app OR on the Gmail web interface. So it may show that I have 13 unread e-mails on my iPhone, but if I check the iPad or the gmail.com directly, I see a higher number, say 23, and all the e-mails I've already read on my iPhone are showing as unread on both the iPad app and gmail.com.

Any idea on how to fix this, please? Should I just remove my Mail account from the iPad?

Thanks.

 

[Quackington]

Ok, so I resolved this by removing the Gmail account from my iPhone and re-adding it. Must've been a weird glitch. However, now my Gmail e-mails only go back to the end of June, whereas before they'd go back a lot further. I've tried to look in iOS settings but can't seem to find anything to make it go back further. It's annoying me because I deliberately keep some e-mails marked as unread that I need to return to / action something for, and they may be a good few months old. Can I get the iOS Mail app to pull e-mails from more than a month ago?

 

[gwang73]

The setting should be in: Settings-->Passwords & Accounts-->Gmail-->Mail Days to Sync ->set this to 'No Limit'.
This should grab everything that's stored on the server.

 

[Quackington]

The setting should be in: Settings-->Passwords & Accounts-->Gmail-->Mail Days to Sync ->set this to 'No Limit'.
This should grab everything that's stored on the server.

Thanks for responding. When I googled a solution, I found this recommended somewhere but the thing is, I can’t find this ‘Mail days to sync’ option. When I go to Settings > Passwords & Accounts > Gmail, the option isn’t there. It shows the options to sync mail / contacts / calendar / notes. I can also click on the account and adjust some advanced settings but that doesn’t give me a ‘no limit’ option either.

Do you have it on your iPhone? I’m hoping I’ve just missed it, but I get the impression that this may have been an option in a past version of iOS, but is no longer there. Hopefully this isn’t the case.

 

[bransoj]

I dont have that setting for my Gmail account either, i've definitely seen it in the past but not sure when it was last there.

That said on checking my mail i have emails from as far back as 2013 so not sure how its working now. If you go into folders does it update them to download the mail in them?

 

[Quackington]

I dont have that setting for my Gmail account either, i've definitely seen it in the past but not sure when it was last there.

That said on checking my mail i have emails from as far back as 2013 so not sure how its working now. If you go into folders does it update them to download the mail in them?

Thanks for this. Going into the 'Gmail' folder instead of the 'all inboxes' folder and continuously scrolling down has downloaded more e-mails but only goes back to about 2018. It's better than nothing though. I wonder why they removed the 'no limit' option.

 

[one more]

Have you considered using the Gmail iOS app instead on both your iPhone and iPad? Works seamlessly in my experience.

 

[teeshot44]

Not an option on GMail. It is still there as on option on Outlook. Have no idea when it went away. Could have sworn it was once an option for GMail also.

 

[bransoj]

Have you considered using the Gmail iOS app instead on both your iPhone and iPad? Works seamlessly in my experience.

I have both installed as well as having my gmail account added in the Outlook app i have installed for my work email. 99% of the time i'm fine just using the normal mail app and the integration with iOS that it brings but if there is a quirk i need to work around for some reason i can use the gmail or outlook app.

 

[gwang73]

Thanks for responding. When I googled a solution, I found this recommended somewhere but the thing is, I can’t find this ‘Mail days to sync’ option. When I go to Settings > Passwords & Accounts > Gmail, the option isn’t there. It shows the options to sync mail / contacts / calendar / notes. I can also click on the account and adjust some advanced settings but that doesn’t give me a ‘no limit’ option either.

Do you have it on your iPhone? I’m hoping I’ve just missed it, but I get the impression that this may have been an option in a past version of iOS, but is no longer there. Hopefully this isn’t the case.

Sorry, I double checked and was looking at my hotmail account instead of my gmail account. When I checked my gmail account, I also don't see any options for 'Mail Days to Sync' under gmail setup.

 

[Quackington]

Have you considered using the Gmail iOS app instead on both your iPhone and iPad? Works seamlessly in my experience.

I have the Gmail app installed on my iPhone because of an old work e-mail address I didn’t want to add to the iOS Mail app. When I used it, I remember not liking it that much, and I’m not keen on the threaded conversation views. However, hopefully it’s improved since I last used it, and one would assume it has a better user experience on iPad. I’ll give it a go. If I don’t like it, I can just stick to the Gmail web interface on my iPad or try to find another iOS Mail app to use.

Sorry, I double checked and was looking at my hotmail account instead of my gmail account. When I checked my gmail account, I also don't see any options for 'Mail Days to Sync' under gmail setup.

No worries, thanks for responding.

I have both installed as well as having my gmail account added in the Outlook app i have installed for my work email. 99% of the time i'm fine just using the normal mail app and the integration with iOS that it brings but if there is a quirk i need to work around for some reason i can use the gmail or outlook app.

How do you find the Outlook app?

 

[bransoj]

How do you find the Outlook app?

Works fine for what I use it for. Have my work and another account a few of us monitor in there connected via office 365 so a doddle to set up. Also got my gmail in there cos I could and sometimes will use it if I’m looking at the other accounts and one comes into gmail as well.

 

[one more]

I have the Gmail app installed on my iPhone because of an old work e-mail address I didn’t want to add to the iOS Mail app. When I used it, I remember not liking it that much, and I’m not keen on the threaded conversation views. However, hopefully it’s improved since I last used it, and one would assume it has a better user experience on iPad. I’ll give it a go. If I don’t like it, I can just stick to the Gmail web interface on my iPad or try to find another iOS Mail app to use.

Try the latest Gmail app, you might like it. You can now disable threaded conversations within the app, it has the dark mode, can attach files straight from... Files ?, etc.

 

[Quackington]

Try the latest Gmail app, you might like it. You can now disable threaded conversations within the app, it has the dark mode, can attach files straight from... Files ?, etc.

Thanks. I've downloaded it. Is there a way to turn off the in-app browser? I find it really annoying that it opens links in the in-app browser and I then have to click the Safari icon to open the link in Safari. I've already set the default browser to Safari but that just makes puts the Safari icon in the top right of the in-app browser, which I have to click to open separately.

 

[1144557]

Try the latest Gmail app, you might like it. You can now disable threaded conversations within the app, it has the dark mode, can attach files straight from... Files ?, etc.

All great but I still cant STAND that you have a unified inbox and nothing else. They treat every account as its own you have to cumbersomely switch through at the top right.

So if I know and email came in yesterday but cant remember what account I have to remember some word(s) it said to search it and hope to find it. Rather than in any other mail app go to all mail (or all sent, whichever) and its right there no search box needed. Which is like 2 seconds.

I cant get the philosophy to their app (other than they want you to use search obviously)