Questions

Which apps does MailPush work with?

Apple Mail on iPhone and iPad, and only Apple Mail. MailPush shows up there as a Microsoft Exchange account, which Apple Mail knows how to use. It is built for Apple Mail and tested only with it. Other mail apps and other kinds of devices are not supported.

Do drafts sync?

No. Drafts are not synced. Drafts you write on gmail.com or in the Gmail app stay there and do not appear in Apple Mail. A draft you start in Apple Mail stays on that iPhone or iPad until you send it. Sending works as usual, and the sent message shows up in the Sent folder in Gmail.

Why does one email show up in more than one folder?

Your Gmail labels are the folders in Apple Mail, and an email shows in every label folder it has, as it does on gmail.com. An email with the labels Work and Receipts is listed in both folders. It is still one email in Gmail.

Labels come from Gmail. Make, rename and delete them on gmail.com or in the Gmail app, not in Apple Mail. The folder list in Apple Mail follows within about a minute, or within about two minutes when many people are connected.

Why do I get no push for a label folder?

Apple Mail pushes only the folders you choose, and at first that is the Inbox only. To get push for a label folder, open Settings, Apps, Mail, Mail Accounts, then Fetch New Data, then your MailPush account, and turn the folder on under Mailboxes to Push. The names of these screens differ a little between iOS versions. A folder that is not chosen updates when you open it, or when Apple Mail fetches on its own schedule.

What does Calendar do?

Calendar is optional. When you turn it on from your account page, every calendar in your Google calendar list is in the Calendar app on your iPhone or iPad: your own, shared ones and subscribed ones such as holidays and birthdays. It works in both directions. In the Calendar app you can create, change and delete events, with a title, start and end, all day, time zone, place, notes, one alert, busy or free and repeats. You can also change or delete one occurrence of a repeating event.

Accept, Maybe and Decline in Apple Mail or the Calendar app set your answer in Google Calendar, which tells the organizer.

Changes on either side normally reach the other within seconds while your device is online, or within about two minutes when many people are connected. A change that Google does not announce arrives within 15 minutes.

What can Calendar not do?

Apple's Calendar sync has some limits. MailPush works inside them, and it tells you here what they mean.

• Alerts. Your device carries one alert per event. It shows the earliest popup alert. A change on the device replaces only that one, and Google's other alerts stay.
• Repeating rules. A repeating event whose rule your device cannot express, for example several rules, extra dates added to a series, or "the last weekday of the month", is sent as its separate occurrences. Edits to them are refused.
• Fields the device does not show. Video call details, colors, event types such as working location or focus time, guest permissions and Google's other alerts are never changed by an edit on the device. Working location, focus time and out of office events are shown and cannot be edited on the device.
• View only calendars and special events. A calendar that is view only for you stays view only. A calendar that shares only busy or free times shows its events as Busy. Birthdays appear as yearly all day events, and holidays are view only. If you try to change one, MailPush refuses and Google's version comes back to your device. If you try to delete one, the event can stay hidden on your device until it changes in Google or you press Resync of that calendar under Your devices.
• Guests. When you organize a meeting, changing what guests share or cancelling it on the device makes Google send its normal emails to the guests. Changing only your own alert or busy or free does not. The emails your device writes about the change are held back, so each guest gets one.
• Attachments. A Google Drive attachment of an event appears at the end of its notes as a file name and a link. Opening it needs access to the file and a Google sign in on the device. Adding a file on the device attaches nothing in Google. MailPush removes that list from the notes before it saves them in Google.
• Hidden calendars. A calendar that you hide in Google Calendar is not synced and leaves your devices until you show it again.

MailPush does not sync Google Tasks, contacts or calendar colors, and it cannot create video call links from your device.

What happens to the calendar permission when I turn Calendar off?

Turning Calendar off removes your calendars from your devices and deletes what MailPush kept about them. Google cannot take back the calendar permission alone without also taking back mail access, so the permission stays until you delete your account or remove MailPush in your Google Account settings, which also stops mail. Privacy and security says what MailPush keeps.

Why did a notification banner sometimes come late?

In our own testing, the banner on the lock screen sometimes showed up to a minute after the email had reached the device. We saw the same with iCloud mail. We make no claim about the cause.

What if MailPush stops working?

Your mail stays in Gmail, where it always was. To switch back, open Settings, Apps, Mail, Mail Accounts and add your Google account directly: choose Add Account, then Google, and sign in. When your Gmail works there, delete the MailPush account from the same list. Deleting an account in Apple Mail removes only the copy on that device, never your mail in Gmail.

Why do I have to ask for access?

MailPush is a small service for a limited number of people. Google limits an app it has not verified to 100 Google accounts over its whole life, and removing someone does not free a place. So MailPush counts every account that ever connects and stops at 90. A person looks at each request.

Does MailPush cost anything?

No. MailPush is free. The Terms are short.

Where do I find my server address, username and phone password?

Once you are signed in, How to connect and your account page show your server address and username. The phone password is shown once, when you connect your Google account. It is not your Google password. If you lose it, sign in, open your account page and make a new one. The old one then stops working on every device at once.

How do I stop using MailPush?

Sign in, open your account page and choose Delete account. MailPush emails you a code first, and you type your Gmail address to confirm. Then your phone password stops working at once, MailPush asks Google to remove its access, and it deletes your message list, your label names and the sync data of your devices.

A few things remain. They are a counted identity, which is a one way hash of your Google account id, a short audit record of the deletion, and copies outside MailPush's live data, such as the operator's backups and log lines that age out after 90 days by default. Privacy and security lists them all.

After that, delete the MailPush account in Apple Mail, or switch back to Google as the answer above says.