Gmail IMAP and Windows Live Mail Beta (client)
Gmail has finally started giving users IMAP access and I think that its going to be very useful for a lot of users. Up until now I have been using Gmails POP service in conjunction with Foxmail. I loved Foxmail for the fact that you could create multiple accounts and have each of them password protected. This allows many users for a computer but at the same time keeps your data private (you could use different users on the system, but I also have multiple mail accounts, some of which I want password protected). I have not been able to find another application yet that provides the same password protection feature of Foxmail.
Unfortunately Foxmail does not support IMAP as of now, so I have decided to switch to either Thunderbird or Windows Live Mail Beta (henceforth referred to as WLMB). I managed to get WLMB up and running satisfactorily with Gmail IMAP. Here’s how I went about it.
Download WLMB here and install it.
Once done we can begin setting up our account for using IMAP.
Head to your Gmail account and on the Settings->Forwarding and POP/IMAP page (if you don’t see it, its probably because Google is still rolling it out to users, it will show up in a few days).
Once that’s done, fire up WMLB and Add an account.
Enter your e-mail address, password and select ‘Manually configure settings for email account’.
Put in the following settings (don’t forget to specify the login ID):
Once done, WLMB will download your folders and display the list:
The problem is that the folders on your drive do not get automatically mapped to the right folders within Gmail, but rather get mapped to the subfolders within the Gmail folder.
To fix this right click on your account and choose properties->IMAP and specify the following settings:
Once done, your final list of folders should look like this:
Some points to note however are :
- Flagging an item in WMLB Star’s it in Gmail.
- Labels in Gmail show up as folders.
- To add a new Label, add a new folder.
- To apply multiple labels to a message you have to copy them into all the corresponding folders
- When you “delete” an item, it gets “archived” (I have looked high and dry for a solution to this however I have not found one. If anyone has a clue, do let me know)
- Messages moved to Trash get deleted.
Well there you have it. Gmail IMAP all set up and ready to go in your Windows Live Mail Beta.
Just map the trash on WLMB to All Mail in gmail
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Nice tutorial. Is there any way to have it work so that when you hit the delete key on a message in your inbox, the message goes into Gmail’s trash? I have it set up just the way it’s shown above, but when I hit delete, the message disappears, he inbox label is removed, but the message still shows in all messages. I want the message to go into the trash, so it’s totally deleted, not archived.
The only thing I’m not sure if it’s matches what you have is in tools->options->advanced, I do not have use the deleted items folder for imap accounts checked. I did try it both ways though.
I know I can drag it to the trash, but I’d MUCH rather just be able to hit the delete key and have that happen.
Any thoughts?
Nevermind, I figured it out. If you set it up as in the tutorial and check use deleted items folder for imap accounts, it’ll move the message to the trash when you hit the delete button. What confused me, is that the setting doesn’t take effect until you close WLMD and reopen it.
Thanks for setting this tutorial up. I was having some issues getting IMAP to work in WLMB, but reviewing your steps was helpful in diagnosing the issues I was having.
@David - Thanks for the update
@Chris - You are welcome :). I didn’t find one so thought I would write my own.
I cannot sent message using Gmail IMAP. I configured exactly as you say. So receiving is ok but when I want sent mail with attachments i always have errors . For now i use Thunderbird just for sending emails and Windows Live Mail for reading, but realy i hate have 2 clients for my mails.
this is the error i recive lately
The server does not support a SSL connection.
Subject ’seara’
Server Error: 250
Server Response: 250 ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES
Server: ’smtp.gmail.com’
Windows Live Mail Error ID: 0×800CCC7D
Protocol: SMTP
Port: 25
Secure(SSL): Yes
I try using other setings for SMTP port number as Gogle gives example for Outlook, Outlook2003 , Outlook 2007 and Windows Mail….but always problem sending mail.
My Windows Live Mail Version is 2008 build 12.0.1606
@Daniel
Hi Daniel, Basically you should have the port set to 25, Specify that it requires SSL and if you right-click->properties->Servers, check the box that says ‘My server requires authentication’. That should make it work. Are those your settings?
set the deleted path to deleted items rather than trash.
When I try to send an email using gmail in Windows Live Mail I get the following error:
The connection to the server has failed.
Subject ‘hey’
Server: ’smtp.gmail.com’
Windows Live Mail Error ID: 0×800CCC0E
Protocol: SMTP
Port: 587
Secure(SSL): Yes
Socket Error: 10060
Can somebody help me out how to fix this problem. I can receive all emails and read it but just can’t send the emails. I tried outgoing ports 587, 465, and 25 and the problem still persists.
Thank you,
NP
Hello,
I use Windows Live Mail for both my Gmail and Hotmail Accounts. Hotmail works perfectly fine for both sending and receiving emails. Gmail works fine for receiving emails but I cannot send any email using Gmail in WLM. Gmail is configured as IMAP in my settings. Following is the error I get when I try to send email messages using Gmail in WLM:
The connection to the server has failed.
Subject ‘hi’
Server: ’smtp.gmail.com’
Windows Live Mail Error ID: 0×800CCC0E
Protocol: SMTP
Port: 587
Secure(SSL): Yes
Socket Error: 10060
P.S. I have disabled and uninstalled Trend Micro Firewall and Anti Virus before sending email to make sure it’s not causing any problem. Also, Options for SSL are selected/checked for both Incoming and Outgoing servers under Advanced tab, Option for Authentication is also selected/checked under Servers tab, I have tried port 25, 465, and 587 for Outgoing server but problem still persists. I connect to Internet via Ethernet cable in university dorms.
So somebody please help me…I am sure there’s a way out there to fix this problem which I don’t know but you guys might know it so please reply to this post with some suggestions which I can try to make it work.
Thanks a lot in advance!
NP
I have set up WLM as exactly as shown above and everything works fine except that when I send a new email or a reply to from WLM I get two copies of the same email in my Sent mail. I go to the web interface of Gmail and I see two threads for the same email, identical emails. It would be great if somehow that could be resolved.
Hello,
I have been having the same problems
But I may have stumbled upon a better solution.
You have to clear the SSL Slate.
Here’s How:
1. Close the Outlook
2. Go to internet options, under the tools menu
3. Select the Content Tab
4. Press the button Clear SSL Slate
5. Press Ok
Restart Outlook and it should be working fine
how can set folder password in manualy
You are correct Rishav, everything will work if your password strength is strong. I got a problem initially when connecting through IMAP. It resolved once i changed my password. Try it once.
@Steve
The problem where you see 2 copies of the same message in the Sent Mail can be resolved by unchecking “Save a copy of sent messages…” under Tools -> Options -> Send tab. However, when you do this, it applies to all the accounts you have configured in WLMD, and not just GMail. I wish this could be set at account level.
make sure that you dont have any trailing spaces at the end of your servername, this got me for ages.
just hit delete a few times and make sure there are no spaces google mail works fine for me now.
Sometimes I think Outlook Express is better than WLM. I’m getting the same 0×800CCC0E error… why and how to solve it???
@Sally
I believe WLM is a dramatically scaled down version of Outlook. Probably just to get people used to WLM so they can make the switch to Outlook. However I’m not a big fan of WLM yet. I still use Thunderbird as my mail client.
I don’t have an IMAP option in my Windows Live Mail.
The first dialog box shown has a dropdown list for pop3 or imap. I don’t have a dropdown list, just a text field, and I can’t type in the text field.
This in in Windows Live Mail 2008 Build 12.0.1606. Is this version supposed to have an IMAP option? Is this the Windows Live Mail Beta version this article is discussing?
The instructions on Google’s “Windows Mail” page don’t show the same dialog boxes as what I get using Windows Live Mail 2008 Build 12.0.1606 .
Sigh, it seems like stuff that should take one minutes takes hours.
@Chuck
I haven’t tried the latest version as of yet, but I believe there is only one version of the beta floating around. I’m not sure if they have released a newer version.
This tutorial worked great for setting up Windows Live Mail. I’ve got a nice “clean” set of folders. Is there a way to achieve the same with Outlook 2007? I’d like to not have the “personal folders” appear in the side panel of Outlook.
Thanks.
Setting Root Folder to [Gmail] made all Labels of Gmail missing .. I do not have access to labels i set in gmail ..
Does IMAP work with Sympatico mail? It’s the same appearance as hotmail.com
I’m trying to download all the folders in my sympatico account to Windows Live Mail Beta but so far only the inbox is the one that I can get.
@Rob
I believe it depends on how they have configured the IMAP servers (as in whether to map all folders or only the Inbox). I’m not sure about this however.
Hi, Ramesh
You have some idea how to download all message content from Gmail IMAP on Windows Live Mail instead of just the headers?
dear PN
i was searching for the same..
1)use POP3
2)they have downloading option in Mozilla Thunderbird…