Wednesday April 2
 
18:31
 
Gmail IMAP on Japanese WM6 - Odd But Still Good

Yesterday I sent a bug report to Google about Gmail. I’ve since discovered things are odder than I first realised.

Using Mobile Outlook on Windows Mobile 6 Japanese Edition (S11HT), I’m accessing my Gmail account by IMAP. I have the gmail.com interface set to English.

If I use Mobile Outlook to create and send a message from my Gmail account to a different address, and then I check my gmail.com account, in the “Sent Mail” folder there are two copies of the message. Ie, the message has a (2) indicator after it, and expands to two messages. It is also labelled with “送信済みアイテム”. This translates in English to “Sent Item”.

It does this whether I use the English or the Japanese interface at gmail.com. ie. If I switch the gmail.com interface to Japanese, then create and send a message using Mobile Outlook, and then check gmail.com - I get the duplicate.

I think Google is intending this label to be “Sent Mail”, which in Japanese is “送信済みメール”. Since “送信済みアイテム” doesn’t match “Sent Mail” or “送信済みメール”, I think I’m ending up with a duplicate.

That’s all strange as it is, but if I use the Mobile Gmail Java application and check my “Sent Mail” folder, the item is not there at all. I have to look under the “送信済みアイテム” folder.

So one Gmail view shows me the item twice in “Sent Mail”, and another gmail interface doesn’t show me the item at all.

I know Gmail has had issues with the iPhone, because that’s documented on the Gmail website during IMAP account setup. I also know that there has been problems with Gmail IMAP on Windows Mobile in the past, but I don’t see any reference to this problem anywhere. It’s probably isolated to the Japanese Mobile Office client.

Even with this issue - and that I can’t sync any folder other than Inbox (though that could be a Japanese setting in WM6 that I’ve not found yet) - IMAP Gmail on WM6 is very cool. When I read something on my phone, it marks it as read in my inbox (with POP, I’d need to go to my Inbox later and archive things). When I read something on the web interface, it marks it as read on my phone. To switch between Gmail accounts (work; play), I just press the “mail” button on my phone to cycle through them - no need to logout and log back in.

Just wish they’d sort out the issues. You would think that IMAP is “standard” and so the client shouldn’t matter. Must be something to do with them being “clever” and mapping “Delete” to “Archive” and labels to folders.