How to deal with Gmail and Exchange?

[vtrac]

Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but the thing that annoys me the most about the Droid (esp. coming from the iPhone) is that there is a separate Gmail app and an Email app, for other accounts such as Exchange. In order to have a combined inbox using a single app, I have to use the Email app to set up Gmail as an IMAP account along with the Exchange account. This works, but has a handful of problems with the Gmail account:

• Doesn't obey Gmail tags for Sent, Trash, etc without a way of configuring it to do so
• Syncing is horrible (no push, takes ages to sync, etc)
• Interface isn't great
• No threaded conversations

Also, in order to have my Exchange calendar show up with my Google Calendar, I have to have a desktop running Outlook and Google's Exchange to Google Calendar syncing application to copy my calendar to my GMail calendar, which in turn shows up in Droid's Calendar app.

Am I just doing it wrong or are these the current limitations?

 

[Laurence5905]

You're not the only person I've heard complaining about this. I've solved my issue by forwarding all my e-mail to my GMail account. Only way I could figure out how to make it all work seamlessly.

EDIT: Oh, and I've always used Google Calendar -- so I have no tips for you to sync your Outlook Calendar with your phone, sorry.

 

[Backnblack]

I use TouchDown for exchange....works 100%

 

[shrugger]

+1 for Touchdown. It worked with my work Outlook via webmail when the stock program couldn't. It actually works better with webmail than my old Blackberry did using BIS, which is really saying a lot!

 

[Berzerker]

$20 isn't worth it to me when the Gmail app works fine.

 

[Backnblack]

$20 isn't worth it to me when the Gmail app works fine.

Gmail app works with exchange? That's news....

 

[Laurence5905]

$20 isn't worth it to me when the Gmail app works fine.

Gmail app works with exchange? That's news....

I'm assuming he either doesn't use exchange, or forwards all his e-mail to GMail...

 

[Berzerker]

$20 isn't worth it to me when the Gmail app works fine.

Gmail app works with exchange? That's news....

I'm assuming he either doesn't use exchange, or forwards all his e-mail to GMail...

The latter, actually.

I used my school account with exchange, which worked fine, except my school uses Zimbra, and a version that has a problem with truncating emails over 512 bytes, no less. That's pretty much the reason I switched to the Gmail app, which pushes/syncs my email just fine. It's not necessarily exchange, but it's a sync protocol they wrote, and it works quite well.

 

[Backnblack]

$20 isn't worth it to me when the Gmail app works fine.

Gmail app works with exchange? That's news....

I'm assuming he either doesn't use exchange, or forwards all his e-mail to GMail...

Not an option....Reply to a work email from gmail.....Not going to happen.

 

[Berzerker]

Gmail app works with exchange? That's news....

I'm assuming he either doesn't use exchange, or forwards all his e-mail to GMail...

Not an option....Reply to a work email from gmail.....Not going to happen.

You can set up replying from multiple accounts if you have them forwarded to your Gmail account.

 

[bllarkin]

I'm assuming he either doesn't use exchange, or forwards all his e-mail to GMail...

Not an option....Reply to a work email from gmail.....Not going to happen.

You can set up replying from multiple accounts if you have them forwarded to your Gmail account.

You can do that (I have 3 other email addresses filtering into my primary Gmail with settings to be able to send from those addresses as well), but you can't do that within the Gmail app on the Droid.

On the case of Exchange and Gmail unified inbox/calendar, I'm a fan of the way they did it (with the separate apps). I prefer to keep my work vs. personal data separate.