AMAZING that RIM still has no idea how to fully support IMAP

Ok, this is a rant on RIM. To start I have been using a BB for amost 10 years (first one was blue with a wheel on the side). Anyway, to this date, even with the release of OS2.0 on the PB RIM has no idea how to do IMAP. It is one of the most used protocols on the internet (RFC 3501 - RFC 3501 - INTERNET MESSAGE ACCESS PROTOCOL - VERSION 4rev1)

Main rants
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1) You cannot access all the folders on your IMAP account - only the preset ones that RIM put in (Inbox, Draft, Sent, Outbox). I have additional folders on my IMAP server and I cannot access them. This is a HUGE miss in my opinion and interestingly enough it is the exact same problem with the email client on the BB itself.

2) The only folder that is updated is the "Inbox". In other words the Sent box only shows emails sent FROM the PB, not emails sent from any other client that are in your Sent box on the server

3) When you delete a message on the server from another client the PB client gets an error message that reads "Unable to connect to server. Please try again later". This is totally repeatable. Other IMAP clients connected to the server show the message as deleted.

Therefore if you are an IMAP user you are better off using an Andriod app on your Playbook. I use Kaiten email which is based on the K-9 email program.


For you BB phone I would suggest LogicMail - it's a great email program as well.



RIM - PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE fix your IMAP implementation.

I'm using Windows Live Mail (Hotmail) for IMAP and everything is syncing perfectly. Sent mail, folders, etc. I can put a message into a folder on my PlayBook, or laptop, and they both stay in sync. Messages read on PlayBook are marked read on laptop. If only my 9930 worked as well as the PlayBook.

I have not tried Gmail other than a calendar.

what is IMAP and why do I need it?:confused:

/signed. I'm extremely disappointed that I can't manage my IMAP accounts from the PlayBook. The native mail app brings nothing for anyone that has a BlackBerry, unless I'm missing something.

You might want to get your facts right or do a little troubleshooting before ranting. Just sayin'...

IMAP folders are often configured on the server. The PlayBook is perfectly capable of accessing and syncing IMAP folders, but if you have configured your account not to expose those folders then obviously you won't see them on your PlayBook.

If you are using GMail: using your desktop browser, go to GMail > Settings > Labels. You'll see a "Show in IMAP" checkbox for each label (=Google lingo for "folder").

The system labels All mail, Sent mail and Trash are required by the PB messages app. Disabling those labels will result in an authentication failure.

Originally Posted by chrisgotabb

what is IMAP and why do I need it?:confused:

It stands for Internet Message Access Protocol. Basically it's a more modern and flexible way of accessing your e-mail. Old e-mail programs used a protocol called POP, but that had significant drawbacks. Newer e-mail programs often have IMAP, which - when correctly implemented and configured - allow for things like:

• Concurrent access to the same mailbox from multiple devices/clients
• Synchronizing read/unread status of messages back to the server, so that if you read an e-mail on device X it will also be marked as read on device Y
• Staying connected to the server, so that the app doesn't have to re-connect for each operation
• Organizing your messages into folders, which can sync across devices
• Selectively downloading parts of a message (e.g. only a specific picture or attachment)

The downside is that the specification is a little vague, so various vendors have implemented it in different ways, sometimes leading to interoperability issues. But hey, we have that with pretty much every protocol on the net. That's what design by committee leads to.

Is it possible to archive read Gmails in the email app - it's easy using webmail but I cannot figure out how to do it from the integrated inbox

Originally Posted by Innovatology

You might want to get your facts right or do a little troubleshooting before ranting. Just sayin'...

GMail >

There are IMAP services out there besides just Gmail.

Originally Posted by murnende

There are IMAP services out there besides just Gmail.

Yep. Windows Live / Hotmail works great.

If RIM isn't at fault with this IMAP fiasco, they should certainly tell us how to configure the client (or server) to receive it.

Originally Posted by Innovatology

You might want to get your facts right or do a little troubleshooting before ranting. Just sayin'...

I would say it is you that needs to get your facts right.....so let's start

1) as you can see from the advanced email setup both Gmail and Hotmail have their own configuration separate from IMAP. Therefore it is safe to assume RIM is using specific connectors for those services and said connectors handle subfolders.

2) I assure you I know how to set up IMAP on a server side. In fact you can see from my example that I am using other IMAP clients with these accounts when I mentioned that deleting an email with another client (which by the way is both Outlook and LogicMail)

3) There are many other services than Gmail and Hotmail..like my corporate system that uses IMAP.

4) After extensive testing and looking over all the settings i have no doubt that the native playbook email program does not handle IMAP completely. And as I mentioned this has always been the case with email on blackberry phones (RIM even has a KB on this fact)


Thank you

You are right, Gmail and IMAP go through different connectors. I stand corrected.

Same problem with exchange servers. User created folders won't sync.

Originally Posted by zzbsb

Same problem with exchange servers. User created folders won't sync.

I saw this as well, but they eventually did sync. I changed the 'message sync timeframe' and refreshed several times. Not sure what triggered it to start, but it eventually did.

Originally Posted by bryanh99

RIM - PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE fix your IMAP implementation.

I totally agree. The poor email support (for non-bes users, at least) was why I regretfully switched from my BB phone to Android.

One other annoyance is that there seems to be no way of colour coding email accounts (unlike the calendar which colour codes appointments according to which calendar they're in). That's a mild irritation compared to the inability to access imap folders. HoHum.. :(

Isn't this whole point on why RIM is using Exchange ActiveSync (instead of RIM's own protocols) to pull consumer email from Hotmail and GMail servers, wrapping it in their own encryption stuff and tunneling the stuff through their infrastructure and then push it to your playbook?

Originally Posted by zzbsb

Same problem with exchange servers. User created folders won't sync.

They do sync. Go to the folder and then pull down the messages by swiping down and it will refresh.

Originally Posted by cjterminator

They do sync. Go to the folder and then pull down the messages by swiping down and it will refresh.

OK I got it. So I have to manually go in each folder to sync? They won't sync like the inbox folder?

Originally Posted by Foppa_21

I'm using Windows Live Mail (Hotmail) for IMAP and everything is syncing perfectly.

No you are not. Windows Live Hotmail does NOT support IMAP.

You are probably using Exchange ActiveSync for that account, and don't realize it. EAS is much more sophisticated than IMAP.

Same story for the service that replaces Windows Live Hotmail, Outlook.com. Supports EAS, does NOT support IMAP.

Microsoft explains in forum post: no IMAP support for Microsoft Live Hotmail

Windows Live Hotmail - section "client access" (wikipedia)

What about Outlook.com?
It does not seem to update very quickly though.

Originally Posted by Powdah

What about Outlook.com?
It does not seem to update very quickly though.

What about it?

RIM is awful for mail. Still no full IMAP support and for ability to keep messages longer than a month.

Originally Posted by Powdah

What about Outlook.com?
It does not seem to update very quickly though.

outlook.com uses ActiveSync not IMAP.

Posted on playbook using Tapatalk

I don't know about the current version of the Playbook email client but the Blackberry 10 client definitely supports syncing any IMAP folder you want, though ie with Gmail and their special "folders that aren't really folders", there might be some exceptions. (ie the "All Mail" folder, I'm told)

There's even an IMAP configuration button you can flip on that says "Sync all folders".

I must agree. IMAP is still not useful at all! With 2.1 they finally allowed to see all of my IMAP folders, but this doesn't mean that the PB probably recognizes them. I use GMX (German Email provider) and TO ALL OF YOU SUGGESTING GMAIL WORKS --> There are more than one Email provider on this planet!

Therfore it is clear that problems exist with properly mapping server folders to standard folder like INBOX, SENT, etc. And because these problems already exist for longer with IMAP we need a proper "Folder Mapping dialog", allowing to set server folders for instance as SENT folder. Currentl my PB still uses its local one for sent mails which doesn't help me at all because I want my sent emails also on my computer at home!

PLEASE IMPROVE this Blackberry!!!