Menu
I’ve said on many occasions that the ecosystem is one of Apple’s greatest strengths. Being able to start writing something in my office on my Mac and then continue it in a coffee shop on my iPad, for example. That should Just Work. We shouldn’t need to actively force an iCloud sync.
Jun 04, 2020 When Apple Mail—the default email app on the Mac—doesn't work as expected, the problem is usually easy to fix. Here's what to do to get your email coming and going again as it should. Here's what to do to get your email coming and going again as it should. Question: Q: How to sync mail on all devices. Mail syncs on my iPad and iPhone but not on my mac- when I get back from a trip I have to go through all the mail again. My primary account is a POP account and they want $8 a month to change it.
But, as I’ve mentioned on more than one occasion, that isn’t always the case …
iCloud is both Apple’s greatest strength and biggest weakness. When it works, it delivers a variety of different services, but it doesn’t always just work. It falls over far more often than is acceptable in something so fundamental to that ecosystem […]
Things that should be instant sometimes take hours, like creating a new Note on a Mac and waiting for it to appear on an iPad – resulting in ridiculous things like force-quitting the app and going offline and on again in the hope that might spur the app into checking its iCloud repository. And don’t get me started on the Pages document I created on my iPad and then couldn’t access on a plane an hour or two later because the device had apparently offloaded it to iCloud and not retained a local copy.
I have to say that things have improved dramatically since I wrote those pieces. Most times, things sync within seconds or a few minutes. But still not always.
Apple Macos Mail App Doesn't Sync Immediately Windows 7
A colleague this morning experienced another example I’ve encountered myself. You create a new playlist in the Music app on your iPhone, then open up iTunes on the Mac and it’s nowhere to be seen. In his case, quitting and restarting the app didn’t work. Nor did switching iCloud Music off and on again. Nor signing out of iCloud and back in again.
At some point, it will happen, but there’s no telling when, and no reliable way to force an update. So users are forced to try random things: closing and reopening documents, force-quitting and re-opening apps, iCloud logout/login and even device restarts. All without any ability to predict which – if any – of them will do the trick. Set outlook as default mail app mac.
I do get Apple’s goal here. Syncing should Just Work, so there shouldn’t need to be any user intervention. That’s why there’s no sync button in iCloud apps.
And I’m not actually asking for one. That would work in some apps, like Pages and Notes, but it would be out of place in things like iTunes – and there just isn’t the screen space in iPhone apps like Music.
How to force an iCloud sync
But I do think we need some way to force an app to consult iCloud and check for updates. My suggestion here would be a new universal gesture. That way, it is available in any app without cluttering up the UI.
Ideally, using this gesture should tell the current app to immediately sync with iCloud, but also send a message to all other devices signed into the same Apple ID to do likewise.
If not a gesture, then a Control Center button that tells all currently open apps to sync.
Yes, that would involve Apple tacitly admitting that sometimes things don’t Just Work – but Apple frequently says that its decisions are all about the best user experience. Indeed, Tom Cook reiterated the point over the weekend.
We focus on the customer, and always ask ourselves, “What more can we do for the customer?”
iCloud syncing is a good example of where the customer experience is more important than Apple’s blushes.
What’s your view? Would you like to have a simple and reliable way to force an iCloud sync? Do you have any thoughts as to the best way to achieve it? Please take our poll and share your thoughts in the comments.
Take Our Poll
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links.More.
Photo: Shutterstock
Sync Email across Devices
Once upon a time, most people used a single computer for email. Your email client would connect to your email server, download all your messages onto the computer, and then delete them from the server. And that was fine because you used only one computing device, so where else would your email messages be?
Nowadays, that approach seems quaint. Most of us use multiple devices to check our email, and we typically expect to see exactly the same messages—sorted into the same mailboxes and with the same status (read/unread, forwarded, replied to, or flagged)—on each one.
If you always use a Web browser to check your email (for example, with a Gmail account), your email is stored only in the cloud—so syncing is irrelevant, and there’s nothing for you to see here. However, if you use a client app on OS X or iOS such as Apple Mail, Microsoft Outlook, or Thunderbird to check your mail, you’ll probably want to be sure you keep everything in sync.
Even then, if you use IMAP, Exchange, and/or iCloud email accounts exclusively, you need do nothing more than confirm a few settings—these protocols are designed to keep everything in sync for you. If you use POP, you have a harder row to hoe.
Sync Email with iCloud
Sync Settings with iCloudApple Mail App Not Syncing
iCloud can also sync other email-related data across Macs (only), as long as the appropriate checkbox in System Preferences > iCloud is selected:
Use Server-side Filters
Mail, Outlook, and most other desktop email apps have built-in rules or filters that let you process incoming mail—for example, filing less-important messages into special mailboxes or sending automatic replies if certain criteria are met.
But if you have the choice, I suggest setting up rules on your email server rather than in your client app. That way they can pre-sort email delivered to your iOS devices (which don’t have mail rules). And, you can switch clients or platforms without having to redo all your rules.
If you use iCloud for email, log in to iCloud.com, select Mail, and from the gear menu, choose Preferences > Rules to set up rules.
In Gmail, log in to your Gmail account (using this link or whichever URL you normally use if you have a Google Apps account with a custom domain). From the gear pop-up menu, choose Settings and then click Filters and Blocked Addresses.
Many other mail servers also offer Web-based configuration of rules or filters; consult your email provider for details.
Sync Email with Google
First, make sure IMAP is enabled for your Google account:
Then set up the IMAP account in your email client of choice. Use your full Gmail address as the username and the following server addresses:
Sync Email with Exchange
Apple Macos Mail App Doesn't Sync Immediately DownloadSyncing POP Email
If you use POP accounts, syncing messages between computers is much harder. The only reliable way to do it for two Macs is to quit Mail on both machines and then copy one Mac’s entire
~/Library/Mail/V3 folder (in El Capitan) or ~/Library/Mail/V2 folder (in Yosemite or earlier) to the other’s. But this overwrites all messages on the second Mac, which may result in lost data.
Doing a bidirectional, message-by-message sync is possible but messy. You could use a synchronization utility (such as ChronoSync) to sync the two computers’
~/Library/Mail/V3 or V2 folders—but then both copies of the envelope index, which keeps track of which messages are where, will be incorrect.
May 21, 2020 The best free DVD ripping software Tech deals, prizes and latest news Get the best tech deals, reviews, product advice, competitions, unmissable tech news and more! A) CD ripper software b) Compact disc drive c) CD ripping mode (speed, overlapping, re-reading number, recovering, etc.) if available. Compare ripped WAV files with original files (sources of tracks of the test CDs) via binary comparison tool (goal 1.4). Free dvd ripping software. Cd ripper for mac free download - Express Burn Free CD and DVD Burner for Mac, Mac CD DVD Label Maker, 4Media DVD Ripper Ultimate SE, and many more programs. Mac cd rip free download - Express Rip Free CD Ripper, SurfSecret CD Rip & Burn, CD Rip Master, and many more programs.
To fix them, you’d have to quit Mail, delete the three files in
~/Library/Mail/V3/MailData/ or ~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/ whose names start with Envelope Index on each Mac, relaunch Mail, and then let it reimport all your messages. Needless to say, that’s more bother than most of us want to go through regularly!
Copyright © 2015, alt concepts inc. All rights reserved.
Comments are closed.
|
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |