Why does it take so long for my Blackberry to get Gmail messages?

I too have found Gmail's IMAP a little slow at times but nowhere near *that* slow!

Give them a while to sort out the problems -- after all, it's still in Beta.
:-D

On a Nokia S60 phone I was able to set the frequency that my phone checked the server under Automatic Retrieval settings.
(I know that makes no sense for push email but there ya go!)

Perhaps this is Blackberry's fault. Their systems are just very inflexible. e.g. you can't choose what email address to put in the 'From' of mail you send from your blackberry. Unless you forward to your blackberry email address, there's a 0-15-minute polling delay. (because it polls every 15 minutes) Unless they've improved things from the last time I played with a crackberry - 6 months ago (and less thoroughly 3 months ago). Anyone know if gmail or blackberry support the IMAP IDLE command (which is used to provide instant notification of new mail, but both ends need to support it.)

Strangely, for me it's been really fast connecting and downloading from Gmail's IMAP servers.
(Twice now my phone has alerted me to a new email before Gmail Notifier on my desktop!)

Maybe this is a sign of the hidden powers of GetSatisfaction?

i'd love for google to respond to this issue directly. i need to know what to expect from each protocol if I'm going to depend on both Blackberry and Google for my business email.

Despite my earlier comment about the speed of response from gmail servers, like MrElvey, I suspect your problem is at Blackberry's end.
Though why they are polling the server infrequently, I wouldn't know.

And in your position I wouldn't hold my breath while waiting...

Good luck!

More info: it depends on HOW you're having IMAP used.
If your Blackberry is set up via the blackberry website, e.g. http://www.att.blackberry.com/ then it will poll periodically.
If your blackberry is communicating with the IMAP server directly, you'll get different (faster) results.

Which are you using, OP? (JOD)

I do POP through the "personal email setup" option on the device. But yeah, I modify setting throught http://www.att.blackberry.com/

Is there better way to set this up?

You should have RTFM!
Just happened to see this when setting up IMAP for my gmail account:
Try this: https://mail.google.com/support/bin/a...

You know, I used those instructions a while ago, but the mail just didn't come fast enough. So I switched back to POP. Hence this thread, lol.

Is this still an active topic? I just got a Verizon Curve, and am a bit disappointed with how the BB integrates with the IMAP gmail server. I've basically got this going on...

- With the standard POP setup, I get INSTANT push e-mail from gmail. Deletions on the BB are also pushed to the server. HOWEVER, there is no read status update between BB and server, and items deleted on the server don't delete on the BB. There's inadequate syncing, in other words.

- With the IMAP protocol, messages seem to take forever to get to the phone. As I've learned, this is because it's not PUSH technology anymore, but POLLING technology, which is every 15 minutes (supposedly). The syncing with the server, however, is much better. If I read a message on the blackberry, it shows up read on the server. Deletions on one are deletions on the other, etc. So everything works except the push, which is the main thing I want!!!

Basically, I'm sticking with the POP setup because I want e-mails instantly. At least I can delete e-mails on the server from my blackberry, but it is annoying to have to go through all my messages online and mark them read, even though I've already read them on the blackberry!!!

So is Blackberry working on a solution to this? Or are we just SOL? The irony is, my palm treo, which doesn't advertise push e-mail, did a PHENOMENAL job of it just by using IMAP's IDLE command. I had unbeatable push technology using Chattermail on that phone. Now I switch to blackberry, and get subpar push e-mail? Lame!

Unreal... so is Blackberry rumored to be improving this BIS (B.S. is more like it) e-mail system? I'm shocked at how poor this is!

At first, it seemed to be RIM, not Google that's at fault: according to http://blogs.sun.com/chienr/entry/gma... - gmail supports IMAP IDLE. It should be faster than POP. In other words, gmail DOES support IMAP's PUSH technology. This made me think RIM just isn't using it correctly. I'm surprised you're getting 'instant' response using POP. But I believe you. Did you find out whether RIM uses the IMAP IDLE command?

TESTING RESULTS:
I just sent a series of emails from another provider: fastmail.fm, to my fastmail.fm account and my gmail account; I check both via IMAP. The first message got to my fastmail inbox in a second, and to my gmail inbox in 18 seconds. But then two follow-up test messages took forever to arrive in gmail. I think the connections used by IMAP IDLE are timing out. IDLE was never used to report the arrival of the messages, but manual polling caused them to appear.

Hopefully someone from google or RIM will follow up. At least you have a half-decent workaround.

I'm not convinced this is a BlackBerry or Gmail problem as much as it may be Verizon problem. As recently as two months ago I carried a Pearl 8130 with service through T-Mobile. Gmail was IMAP-configured on the device. Email was nearly always received instantly. Any delays at all were extremely rare. Since I switched to Verizon, I've experienced the problems you and others have reported with delays. I'm carrying another 8130 provided through Verizon. I pose this theory because several folks who have reported the problem have said their service is through Verizon. That's my theory anyway.

POP through Gmail is not an ideal solution unless you don't mind every email you receive (or send!) hitting the Blackberry. IMAP only forwards messages that hit your Gmail inbox.

I have a bb curve from verizon and have this same problem. In my gmail settings it says POP and IMAP are both enabled but my email still takes at least 15 min to get to my phone (my yahoo email is crazy fast). I read in another forum that disabling IMAP would solve this but when I tried that I didnt get email at all. Any new ideas on how to fix this problem??

When I first set up my gmail I did it from the phone and only entered my email and password, and I got the emails instantly but i also got a copy of the email i sent in my bb inbox. How did you create that "exception" ???

No one here ever came to a smart solution. I have blackberry curve on ATT and used to have the same problem. I came up with an idea to disable on gmail server pop support and leave imap enabled and since then I receive gmail emails on my blackberry instantly. So the problem is you cannot have both POP and IMAP enabled. I do not know what that bug is, keep in mind gmail is still in beta version.

Gmail Help Discussion @ http://groups.google.com/group/Gmail-...

Now that Gmail provides both POP and IMAP access, it's about time to
decide: which one's better for you? Let's break them down...

POP:
- offers one-way downloading of your messages from the Gmail servers
to your computer
- always downloads the entire message, making it easy to back-up your
mail
- only downloads your messages -- not your labels
- good for people who don't want to leave mail on Gmail's servers, or
don't want two-way synchronization

IMAP:
- offers two-way syncing between Gmail and mail client actions. If you
read a message in your email client, it will be marked read on the
web!
- save space by downloading only the message headers, or download
whole messages to work offline
- your labels appear as folders, and vice versa -- so it's easy to
stay organized
- provides access to Gmail's Drafts, Sent Mail and Spam folders
- great if you check your mail from multiple computers or mobile
devices -- you'll see the same messages and folders, no matter what
email client you're using
- a flexible, more reliable, more complete access choice

Still not sure? We think IMAP is best for most. If it's not quite
right for you, you can always switch.