Database Users

Mail app supporting drag and drop

Hi,
I'm using the Athena heavily for mail and am wondering if any of you have come across an application that supports 'drag and drop' of mails into folders like Outlook (or other apps) do on a PC.
The current 'right-click', selecting 'move' and then pointing to the folder is a bit slow and with the amount of mails I get the drag-and-drop would definitely help.
I tried Flexmail and while they support the 3-pane look (folders on the left, email list on top and preview on the bottom - perfect!), this particular function doesn't seem to be in and a question / feature request I put in a few weeks back seemed to have gone straight to /dev/nul
so... anyone... anyone...???
Thanks!

Flex mail is so damn slow.. You'll notice it when your inbox gets bigger.
Currently I dont see any mail application requesting your functionality but I am in a similar situation to handle lot of emails. Usually the mails that you want to sort into a particular folder will most likely have a same or similar subject. Do you know that when you type something when in Inbox screen, it automaticalyy searches and lists the matched mails alone? Then Select-All, move will save a lot of time for me..
Regards,
Carty..

Gmail confusing

I accept that I just don't get it but...
WTF is up with the Gmail app? No folders, only labels, is there a way to empty trash? Is there a way to take things out of the trash? I don't get the labels thing. I just want a normal email client interface for Gmail push mail.
These threaded 'conversations' are annoying as hell to sift thru.
Are the labels the 'new' folders? Am I supposed to create labels like I used to create folders? Is this only done thru the web desktop version of gmail?
I know, I know I'm the dumb*ss here... but WTF.
I guess this new Gmail thing is this great new revolutionary thing but I just don't get it and looking through emails in this new way that's unlike any email client I have ever worked with has never been more frustrating.
Pardon my rant... just frustrated that I am having such a difficult time understanding this and I feel like I'm the only one who doesn't get it. Please forgive.
BTW, I tried the Gmail help & faq but I still don't get it. Can anyone point me towards something that will help me become an expert in this new amazing label bullsh*t? Thanks!

I recently noticed that you cannot bring an item from the trash back to the inbox. I would consider that a bug. Fortunately you can fix it by logging in thru a web browser.
Deleted items are dumped automatically once they are 30 days old. You can empty trash if you go in via browser but there's really no point.
Yes, labels are "the new folders". They work the same way except an e-mail can only be in one folder but it can have any number of labels.
I would recommend that you start using the browser-based gmail on your PC for a little while. It's a little easier to undertsand that way and then it will make more sense on the phone.
ETA: Another thing people have trouble with is the "Archive" button which really means "Disappear from the Inbox." So if you want to "put a message into a folder" tag it with whatever labels you want and then archive it. Conveniently, if a new message appears in an archived conversation, it will automagically un-archive itself.

Thanks for your response... I'll take a look at the online desktop version of Gmail, try to familiarize myself with this new way of organizing email. Definitely not a fan so far...
on my G1 whenever I select a message and go to change the label my only option is Inbox (+ or -) whatever that means. And yeah I accidentally hit Archive on one message and accidentally reported another as spam... and there's no confirmation on anything so it does it all immediately, which is great if you know what the hell you're doing.
Push mail comes at a price I guess. Thinking my dumb*ass will stick with IMAP checking every 5 mins. Oh well.
F*cking lame system if you ask me.

yeah, i don't get it either. watched some coworkers use gmail and it didn't make any sense to me why they would change how email client works. but at least their calendar app behaves normally as far as i can tell.
i'll just stick to my pop3 email, although the pop email client on the g1 is total crap.

strangethingz said:
on my G1 whenever I select a message and go to change the label my only option is Inbox (+ or -) whatever that means.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you remove the Inbox label (it show + when it's removed) it's the same as archiving.
I think you can only add labels via the web interface, which is why you only see the inbox label.
F*cking lame system if you ask me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Once you start using it, the "old way" should start to drive you nuts.
@Ultraman: They changed it because that's pretty much what Google does for a living. They try to come up with a different (and hopefully better) way to do things.

Yeah the pop3/imap client isn't so great, but it looks a lot better than the Gmail interface in my opinion...
I notice a problem though with the pop3 client where it always displays messages as unread even if I've looked at them... for some reason I don't have this problem when I have the account setup as IMAP though.

I notice weird things happen... Where emails disappear from my inbox but I can see them when I view 'All Mail'. I check the label and it is set for Inbox and yet the message isn't listed on my G1 Inbox. I go online and sure enough it is listed in the Inbox online... so I have to view All Mail in the online version and select Move to Inbox (even though online it already appears to be in my Inbox) and then sometimes it shows back up on my G1 device.
Really loving that I have to continuously go online to reset emails... I love this new system... so much fun trying to hunt down emails. Wayyy better than folders. With folders everything was too predictable... drop an email in a folder and it stayed there... this new system is nice, keeps me on my toes

strangethingz said:
I notice weird things happen... Where emails disappear from my inbox but I can see them when I view 'All Mail'. I check the label and it is set for Inbox and yet the message isn't listed on my G1 Inbox. I go online and sure enough it is listed in the Inbox online... so I have to view All Mail in the online version and select Move to Inbox (even though online it already appears to be in my Inbox) and then sometimes it shows back up on my G1 device.
Really loving that I have to continuously go online to reset emails... I love this new system... so much fun trying to hunt down emails. Wayyy better than folders. With folders everything was too predictable... drop an email in a folder and it stayed there... this new system is nice, keeps me on my toes
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Make sure your client isn't set to automatically delete email off your server after its fetched

hmm..yeah there might be a bit of understanding curve if you are new..
i been using gmail since early beta days and now i just cannot go back to those rigid folders used by yahoo etc..
i have so many labels and they are all intertwined..just cannot imagine living with the "old folder"
good luck with getting thru gmail

I know the labels seems confusing, but as one poster put it before -- When you put something in a folder, it's just in that folder, and nowhere else. Labels gives you the option of having things organized a little better.
For example, an email from my Dad telling me his new address can have the lables "DAD", "FAMILY" and "ADDRESS".
The labels come into play really well on the web interface, you can go to your labels on the left, click the label and get everything that has that label.
With the folder system, you have to chose ONE place for it. With the labels system you can tag an email with as many labels as it needs so when you need to find it, it's easy.
The labels come in really handy for sorting incoming email, I have a bunch of filters that do all kinds of things, for example -
Facebook Filter - I set this up to tag those Facebook notifications with a "FACEBOOK" label and then to mark them as read. I can see that I got them, but I don't have to worry about getting a notification on my phone about silly facebook stuff.
Work Filter - Anyone emailing from my theatre company automatically gets the label, so I can see all of the correspondence about the company very easily.
I love the threaded emails, makes it so much easier to follow the conversation. Not everyone's email is set up to respond with the text from the previous email, so this helps keep it all intact. I think it helps organize and keep the inbox looking tidy.
I would definitely play around with the PC version. The android version is limited, even the android-browser version is limited (but does have more features than the app). Once you get a handle on the PC version, the G1 version will make more sense. I don't know if they've fixed anything, but years ago I tried the IMAP way of checking my gmail in Outlook -- totally sucked, would pull everything, even deleted emails through. I just tested, and apparently this has changed, but it used to be the case that "deleted" emails weren't truly "deleted" they actually went to some other archive and you could bring them back if you wanted. They put a little notice or something letting you know it had been deleted and "do you want to recover the email?" sorta messaging.
Anyway, a lot of people like gmail a lot, but not everyone is going to like everything. Especially when it involves a new way of thinking. If you have Outlook 2007, they've done something very similar with lables - so gmail is definitely influencing and changing the way people think about email.

punkzanyj said:
If you have Outlook 2007, they've done something very similar with lables - so gmail is definitely influencing and changing the way people think about email.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So true! Actually Outlook has had categories/labels for a long time but they were never well-implemented/supported until 2007. I actually use conversation view, categories and search folders now to mimic gmail in Outlook as best I can!

He,y guys, thanks for your input. I guess I wasn't aware of that in Outlook 2007. I've been using outlook based purely on folders and mail rules. Good to know.
I've been forcing myself to get comfortable with the new system. I find the less I mess with things, the better it works for me. Specifically I find if I remove the Inbox label from an email then later add it back on it doesn't always show up again in the Inbox... but it's probably something I'm doing wrong.
Aside from that one thing, the labels are working pretty well for me now. Like you mentioned I setup work, family, ecommerce, etc labels and I do like the way these labels show next to the message on the g1.
Slowly but surely becoming a believer... Thanks for helping me understand.

Question...
How do I delete an individual email message from a conversation? I tried to go into the conversation via the Gmail app, selected the message that i wanted to delete and deleted it, but it killed the whole conversation instead of the one individual email. What am I doing wrong? Thanks!

I don't think it can be done in the phone interface though you might be able to do it in the web interface.

Not a fan of the conversation threading for this very reason. Sometimes I get an important email with a few not so important replies... and I have to look through conversation thread to locate the important info when 90% is trash...
I wish i could have push Gmail with the old so-called *inferior* folder method that never had these silly issues. If you're going to re-invent the wheel, seems it would make sense to add functionality without taking away from the basics.
I'm going to re-invent a wheel that requires physical carrying until I can figure out how to get it to roll properly.. but it's gonna be way better than the old way because these new wheels have lights! ooh! Sorry for the sarcasm
Thanks for the reply!

In the web interface click the 'down arrow' next to "reply" on an individual email in the thread. Choose 'Delete this message'.
You can only delete a single mail from the thread in the web app - not the Android app it seems.
I've been using Gmail since the invite Betas too, and so the Android App is more of a supplement for me...

Okay, well it's good to know there is a way to do it. Thanks for the instructions on how to delete a specific message in a conversation! Much appreciated!

Best Way to sync contacts?

I love the N1 but the contacts is really starting to annoy me, is there a way to add contacts with just their first names instead of having first and last? For instance i have a friend named James and when i try to add a new contact for a different person named Jimmy, it'll automatically lump him in under James unless i put a last name, any way to separate them and other contacts who are supposedly similar names?

At the bottom of a new entry you'll see a "More" option. Click that and add a "Nickname"

I use first and last names usually as well as nick names. I do notice that it lumps people under the same group as My dad is named Mike and i am too.. Its got all my emails lumped underneath him which is definitely annoying.

go to the contact it gets merged with, choose edit, hit menu and select seperate.

I find the easiest way to add/update/delete contacts / update calendar (apologies if I's stating the bleedin' obvious..) is do do it inline from my PC/Laptop with a nice big screen 'n keyboard.. then she syncs up pretty-da**-quick..
There also seem to be some fields (eg Birthdate) which I can't edit in the N1 version
Cheers!
Lodger

[unresolved] Mass link contacts to facebook

Is there some sort of application that allows me to link contacts to facebook pages from my computer, and then somehow mass updates the contacts on the phone? The link to facebook is just some XML in the contact notes, so in principle this should be possible.

The same question has been asked here yesterday - i can't post the link as there is a restriction from doing so *rubbish* but it's topic id is 636175 and isn't too far down the forum...
Anyways, it apparently works with myphone, but I don't seem the XML that everyone else does for some reason and so my facebook links don't save

wingm4n said:
Is there some sort of application that allows me to link contacts to facebook pages from my computer, and then somehow mass updates the contacts on the phone? The link to facebook is just some XML in the contact notes, so in principle this should be possible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
when you sync back your contacts after a flash/hard reset, the data to link them to their facebook equivalents should already be there. However, the links won't start to work until you have reassigned your 'me' contact card to your facebook account. When you do that, you should find the facebook links are restored. (not the facenbook app)

i'm afraid that's not what i'm looking for, myphone backs up my contact facebook associations just fine, i'm just looking for a simpler way to create those associations in the first place, preferably through the computer

Sorry if I misunderstand you, but doesn't the people/facebook app pop up and say 'click here to associate your contacts' and most of them are already pre-checked?
Note I'm NOT talking about the one on an individual person's page, but the one on the 'all people' list.
In the two seconds that process takes, 80% of my contacts were covered. The other 20% being people who I have as 'Jon XYZ' but they are 'Jonathan XYZ' on FB (or vice-versa.)
Or are you one of those people who doesn't do first name/last name and is looking for a way to get around that?

that's exactly what i need! it didn't do that with me, is there a way launch that synchronization manually?

I'm... not sure. I'm sure there is but I don't know how.
Just to make sure you're not missing anything obvious:
Go to the People tab
Click All People at the bottom
You're now at the "All" tab within a new screen -- you should see your fb contact as "Me" listed as the second contact -- do you see this 'link your facebook contacts' around here? (If it exists on this screen, it'll be one of the top three contacts.)
If not, use the slider on that same screen to scroll over to 'Updates and Events'. You'll see yourself at the very top here, and I'm almost positive that it was on this screen where it had 'link your contacts.' It wasn't in a menu or anything, it was very prominently displayed as one of the top items.
When/if you can find that screen, it's basically a dumb match that looks for Contacts(First Name,Last Name) = Facebook(First Name,Last Name). I'm not sure if it pairs on email address, but AFAIK it needs the full name to be exactly the same.
HTH.
**This all assumes you entered your facebook credentials when setting up your phone (or from the data sync menu under the settings tab afterwards) - completely separate from any fb app you may have on your phone. I'm pretty sure you have done this since you mentioned the XML in the contacts but just to be absolutely positive.

I've been looking at this problem since you first posted, and the main problem I see is that I can't see a way to un associate the me contact from face book (in order to re associate so that the contact association screen comes up)
dashed annoying!

i see what you mean, i'm going to look for a way to do that

Have you tried Fonebook!
http://www.developingtrends.co.uk/Software/Facebook/Fonebook/Default.aspx
I can do all the sync with facebook and Outlook. Give a look at this!

samsamuel said:
I've been looking at this problem since you first posted, and the main problem I see is that I can't see a way to un associate the me contact from face book (in order to re associate so that the contact association screen comes up)
dashed annoying!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you could momentarily switch off the Facebook connection altogether do accomplish that. It's under "Data services" (on the settings tab).

Robrecht said:
I think you could momentarily switch off the Facebook connection altogether do accomplish that. It's under "Data services" (on the settings tab).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea, thanks, that got it, however when i logged back in (through 'me' contact card) it doesnt ask about associations as when you do it the first time. Oh well.

i just found an option do associate the contacts for you! if u scroll to the contacts tab in HTC sense then scroll to updates and events (its the picture of the person with a clock next to their head) i had a button at the tob which said 'Associate contacts: XX new associations found (xx being the number of new associations)' tap this and select the contacts you want to update (by default it selects all) then tap ok. it will create the associations for any contacts that arnt associated. it will also set the default contact picture to the facebook profile. it will make your contacts lag a bit while it downloads the info but after that it runs fine
if it helps im running 1.66 official hd2 rom from HTC, with radio 2.08

mazzarin said:
Or are you one of those people who doesn't do first name/last name and is looking for a way to get around that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry to reopen this thread, but I'm one of those people! I would also be interested in finding a way to add/backup my fb associations on the PC as MyPhone does not seem to sync them for me I get the fb id's in the <sn> field but not in the <facebook> ones =/

My Guide to Clean Your Contacts *Updated 8/24/10*

Edited 8/24: The new gmail changed this guide and I have attempted to update it. Since my contacts were so clean from when I first wrote this guide, I can't say it's 100% perfect, like it was . I would really like it if people could chime in suggestions for the community!
Please note, this was in the Sticky. In an effort to save a LOT of needed space in the sticky AND to allow new
suggestions I am making this thread. Please let me know if this helps, and if there are other ways to clean up the contacts. Apologies, but I absolutely hate Facebook so others will need to chime in on how to incorporate that, if needed. Alright, on with my guide:
EDIT YOUR CONTACTS (ON YOUR PC FIRST)
If you are new to Android, the first time you logged in it was probably amazing (and frustrating) when you saw ALL of your google contacts sync with your phone.
First things you need to know, google does not allow you to stop the auto-adding of the random people you email to your contacts. Of course, those randoms are now likely showing up in your contact list (hence the frustrating part). Here is how I fixed it:
*please note, if you hide all contacts who do not have a phone number (see below) you can likely skip this, but I included for those who REALLY want to clean up their contacts*
1 - Login to gmail on your PC. Click on "Contacts" on the left border.
2 - Notice you have "My Contacts" (the good) and you have "All Contacts" below that (the bad).
*EDIT* There is no longer a "All Contacts." Google has improved this to now have "Other Contacts." This makes weeding out the people you may not want in your contacts a LOT easier. The next few steps was a workaround that is no longer needed. Simply review these "Other Contacts" and delete those you do not want, and add the ones you do to "My Contacts."
3 - go to the "search contacts" search bar and just enter one SPACE and then press enter.
4 - The middle column will now have your contacts sorted by THE GOOD (My contacts) on top and then THE BAD (All Contacts) below that. You may have more tiers, but I am keeping it simple for illustration.
5 - Scroll all the way down to the bad list. Review the names. Some may be legit people you just have not added to your My Contacts list yet.
6 - If you have a hard time recalling who someone is, you can click on their name and then click on the link "view recent conversations." This shows any previous email exchanges so you can decide to either delete or add them.
7 - Work through this list. I would suggest deleting them as you go, but not adding them to your My Contacts list until the very end (to prevent from having to do step 3 over and over). To add a contact to your "My Contacts" I just click on their name, edit their info and it showed up automatically. I did not need to click anything like "Add to...." etc.
8 - Okay, great. Lets assume you got rid of all the clutter. NOW, go to your My Contacts.... click on the "More Actions" button and then "Find & Merge Duplicates". If you have any, fix them... no reason to have several entries for the same person.
9 - Now just review the My Contacts list and make any edits or format changes. I am Type A, so you could only imagine how clean your Android Contact list is about to appear.
Great, enough with the PC. Go to your Vibrant.
Chances are it is already synching up with the changes you made.
The phone came with a bunch of #s stored on the Phone and SIM stock, I could care less about these. If you agree:
1 - Open Contacts. Press menu, go to "Display Options"
2 - Uncheck Phone and SIM (others may not agree, I just dont see the point), leaving Google as the only one checked.
*Also* You can also Delete these by long-pressing on them (wish I believe I did, and then unchecked them to now show... of course, they were deleted, so....)
Alright, almost there now. As it is, you have removed a LOT of clutter, but you may still have a ton of contacts. That is because, by default the Contacts app shows All contacts, even if they do not have a phone number. Now again, this is a personal choice.... but if I need to call someone, I would rather not have to deal with people listed who I do not have a phone number for. Also, if I am emailing them, I am using gmail, not Contacts (so again, not needed). IF you agree:
1 - Open Contacts, Press Menu and go to "Display Options."
2 - The top will say something to the affect of, check here if you only want to show contacts with phones.... Click it. Then click Done.
3 - Bam, your Contacts may not be perfect (like mine), but I bet they look a ton better. I tried to point out there is a lot of personal preferences, so please take this with a grain of salt. I like things clean.
Please read the sticky for other tips/tricks for contacts AND many other topics. Thanks for everyone helping!

You're the best. Thanks.

Great, thanks for this!
If only I'd seen it before muddling through the new contacts screens for hours getting it to work it would have saved me a lot of time.
Only comment is that step 3:
"go to the "search contacts" search bar and just enter one SPACE and then press enter."
Doesn't seem to work on the new gmail contacts screen, when I do this search it just takes me to the my contacts page. I had to click 'older contact manager' link at the bottom of the screen and then do the blank search. Also step 4, with the new interface you don't get the middle columns. Any ideas on how you'd sort the contacts with the new interface? I'm not sure how long the link to the old contacts manager will be around for...
Thanks for taking the time to draw this up.

Another great "clean up" tool is Merge contacts. After updating my Treo contacts into gMail, Find dups was not enough.
Merge is more of a manual action, but it is great to look at the entire list to see whats going on.
At the same time, "groups" is another manual action that can help organize "YOUR" (good list) contacts. At times, I had contacts lists from other peoples PDAs and phones on my treo (mine was reliable, theirs', not so much, so when they crashed and lost their contacts, i could beam their list to them).
Hope I helped someone

Anyone know how to get facebook pics to show up for contacts? When I first got this phone all my contacts who are on my facebook had their pics synced up. Not anymore though, and idk why. Fb still syncs in the updates column but not their pics.
Anyway, thanks for the guide.

The way I found that works is to follow the above instuctions (other than that I kept both the gmail friends as well as all my facebook friends and then chose to display only those with a phone.) You can then go through each contact without a photo and click on it (the one without a photo). This is the gmail contact, choose "link contact" and the Facebook contact comes up (note that this method assumes that your favorite contacts are also on facebook with a photo, if not you will need to get your own picture with your phone or camera). Again, this is assuming you have your contact as a facebook friend AND a gmail email friend.
I hope this makes sense. Good Luck

Hey, thanks for the comments. Yeah... The new gmail changed this guide and I need to update it. Will try and work on it soon. If you guys can keep making recommendations that would be awesome.

Do you know of a way to *remove* all SIM contacts on the phone? When transferring from my old phone I dumped to SIM and then loaded onto the Android device, then I dumped that to a CSV and merged it with gmail. That got things sorted out on the gmail end, however I now have a bunch of redundant SIM contacts.
Even if you uncheck SIM contact visibilityin the contact app, they do still exist, and they show up elsewhere. So far I've seen no way to actually get rid of all of them easily, short of manually removing them one at a time

I also like using the app "Contacts clean-up" to auto format all the numbers up be consistent. ;-)
Sent from my Samsung Vibrant

Jeremy, did you see if there were duplicates on the pc within gmail?
Sent from my Vibrant

Okay, I made an attempt to correct my guide for the new Gmail. I really did not have much to play with this time, so please let me know if there needs to be any changes or improvements made.
Thank you guys!

Remember the days?
Did anyone else make a complete different Phone list within google contacts, and only use this list as the list for your phone? This was on my G1.
I'm trying to figure out why we can't do that anymore. Kinda sucks

s15274n said:
Jeremy, did you see if there were duplicates on the pc within gmail?
Sent from my Vibrant
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No dupes in gmail itself, just the dupe sim contacts. Gmail did a good job handling the dupes that I had in my gmail account.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App