Howto: Configure Gmail IMAP on Nokia N95

by jaganath on January 18, 2008

Though Gmail provides a nice J2ME client for accessing email on your mobile device, some of you may prefer to use the IMAP interface, speed being one of the reason. Here is how I configured Gmail IMPAP on my Nokia N95. This may apply for other S60 v3 devices like N80, N73, N82, N93 etc., The instructions should be similar for E-Series devices too.

Go to Messaging -> Options -> Settings -> Email and add a new mailbox. Follow the Wizard. Select IMAP4:

Screenshot0011.jpg

For the email address, add your gmail id. It will be a good idea to copy the email id to your clipboard now as you will be typing it a couple of more times. (Select the text, hold down the pencil key till copy appears on the left soft key).

On the next screen, type imap.gmail.com as your incoming mail server.

Screenshot0013.jpg

For the outgoing mail server, type smtp.gmail.com. For the Access Point, select a predefined one or leave it at “Always ask”. On the next screen, give a name like Gmail etc., This completes the basic settings, but you need to specify the port and security settings also.

Click on the Gmail mailbox and select ‘Connection Settings’. For the username, enter your full email id as in xyz@gmail.com. Type also the password. Scroll below to select Security (ports) and choose SSL/TLS.

Screenshot0017.jpg

Make sure that the Port is set to ‘user defined’ and 993. Repeat all these steps for outgoing mail, but choose the Port as 587. You are done! Go to your main screen of Messaging application, select Gmail and select “Retreive Email” -> New. You can see all the new mails you received in the last 3 days.

Update: As per comments from one of the readers, Chris Moore, you have to select “StartTLS” for your security(ports) settings for outgoing email.

Related: Streaming radio on your Nokia N95

{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Jens 01.23.08 at 7:02 am

Hi and tks yr instrux. Set it up, but it moves circular as folls: searching available access point; then I choose the home WLAN; then connecting to my mailbox; then user name and password pops up; I confirm; confirm save them to mailbox settings and then the process starts over again searching for access point! Can you figure that out?

2 jaganath 01.23.08 at 7:54 am

Jens, are u using N95?

3 Sujit 01.31.08 at 3:15 am

Hi Jaganath,

I followed all the above steps on my N95 to configure gmail. when i try to retrive new email , i’m not able to connect, i get a message saying “Incoming mail server not found.Check mailbox setting”

i m connecting vis AIRTEL GPRS,

any idea?

thank u

4 jaganath 02.01.08 at 12:05 am

@Sujit, Very likely that you got the incoming mail server (imap.gmail.com) or the port number wrong in your configuration. And are you using Airtel Mobile Office or Airtel Live as the access point? This will work only through ‘Mobile Office’ connection.

5 Sujit 02.04.08 at 3:03 am

Thnk you Jaganath,
I checked the setting and my settings r incoming mail server: imap.gmail.com and port 993.

i was trying to connect via Aritel Online, which is not possible ( confirmed with Airtel)

however when i try to connect it over my broadband WiFi , i get the same error message? do i need to change any settings when i connect to the Wifi

thnx
sujit

6 jaganath 02.04.08 at 10:54 pm

Sujit,

Not sure what your problem is. These settings work for me on both wi-Fi and Mobile office connections on Airtel. Are you able to browse websites on your handset through your W-Fi.

7 Jon 03.01.08 at 5:08 am

I get the same circle where it keeps looping asking for acess point however one thing I have noticed is everytime you try and connect and it loops if you go back to the connection settings the port goes from user defined back to default. Weird eh…

PS I have the N95 8GB if that makes a difference. Anyone got this working on an N95 8GB over WEP based WIFI?

8 dunxd 03.12.08 at 11:51 am

SMTP should be set to STARTTLS or SSL, not SSL/TLS.

Pretty slow on N73. Gmail app is faster.

9 Ash 04.06.08 at 8:23 am

hi i own a nokia n95 and have BPL MOBILE connection. I have access to wap and i can use gmail client. But after doing what you have said. I get error. Incoming mail server not found.
Can you help me. ashwini.dubey@hotmail.com

10 jaganath 04.08.08 at 9:13 pm

Ash,
Is the GPRS offered by BPL provide access to mail servers? since you are saying you have wap access, it may be just that they are allowing only HTTP traffic.

11 Sunny 04.18.08 at 2:09 am

“I get the same circle where it keeps looping asking for acess point however one thing I have noticed is everytime you try and connect and it loops if you go back to the connection settings the port goes from user defined back to default.”

I have the same problem with my N95 8G. Have abyone solved this problem? Please contact me on my mail. spatpatia@gmail.com

12 barabus 05.03.08 at 7:01 pm

What theme is that you’re using? Its very nice.

13 Rob 05.15.08 at 11:44 pm

Just to let you know, the settings work fine with my ‘google for applications’ email, with the substituted server addresses of ‘imap.googlemail.com’ and ’smtp.googlemail.com’. Username is full email address, of course, using your custom domain name.

14 paul 06.04.08 at 5:01 pm

hi. i have a n95 8gb i have put the settings in has it says above and all it keeps doing is going back to my user name and password i click on save and then it says it again and again. can you help. thanx paul

15 paul 06.11.08 at 3:47 pm

as above but i can send emails (help)
paulovhudds@gmail.com

16 Elliot 06.19.08 at 1:37 pm

Thank you so much 4 this detailed instruction..It was a huge help..

17 Paulo Galán 06.20.08 at 1:59 pm

Hi, I have a N95 and your instructions are ok. but my nokia don´t save port setting (993). I put value 993 to port, but this value is lost for my nokia and I can´t do this value save permanently.

18 unfunk 06.24.08 at 1:17 am

I’ve also got problems with my 8GB model and GMail IMAP. When I go to “Retrieval Settings/Folder Subscriptions” is just sits on “Connecting to mailbox” for a couple of minutes then says “Folder List Not Updated” - and loops around again. Does it have something to do with the “IMAP4 Folder Path” setting? I’ve tried it on the default “unix path” to “gmail” and “[gmail]” but still no luck.

19 Chris Moore 06.24.08 at 1:28 pm

I followed your instructions and it worked except that I couldn’t send any email.

Checking google’s instructions I see:

# Select ‘Outgoing e-mail.’
# Enter your email address (including ‘@gmail.com’ or ‘@your_domain.com’) and password.
# Select ‘StartTLS’ for your security (ports) and define your port as ‘587.’

Seems that the ‘StartTLS’ setting is crucial. I switched to using that and it was fine then. I guess you need to update your instructions to match. (You didn’t specify what to use, other than that I should do the same as I did for incoming, which was to use SSL/TLS).

20 pradeep 07.17.08 at 12:26 pm

please help me, as i am unable to create gmail using idea gprs.
i used all the above said settings, still it says no incoming server found

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