Admittedly, I’ve never really done email on my phone before Nokia Messaging came around. Sure, I’d installed Profimail and others, just to check out, but I usually promptly removed them, not seeing the need. However, Nokia Messaging has turned me into a mobile email junkie, but there are two main things that really bother me about the current version that’s available.
First, you cannot, currently, download email from more than 3 days ago. This limitation was added recently, so you might be able to use an older version of the app that allows for longer periods, but this is it, if you’re running the latest version. Also, you cannot currently store your messages on anything other than the C: memory, which is quite limited on devices such as my Nokia N97. As such, today I decided to check out Nokia’s Mail For Exchange application, which addresses both of those shortcomings.
While tweeting about my initial experience, I noticed that many of you were unsure of how to set up Nokia’s Mail For Exchange to synchronize with your Google Contacts, Calendar, and Email, so I figured I’d put together a quick walkthrough for you. This walkthrough should work on any Symbian-powered smartphone, provided you can install Mail For Exchange. If you have a device with Nokia Messaging built-in, such as the N86, E72, or E75, you can refer to Dotsisx’s walkthrough here.
How To Setup Mail For Exchange To Sync With Google
For starters, you’ll need to download Mail For Exchange to your phone. On the Nokia N97, this can be found in the Software Update application, or you can download the latest version straight from Nokia. Before you install this, though, you need to set your phone to store messages on your external memory, rather than the limited C: storage. To do so on the N97, open the Messaging app, press Options, and scroll down to Settings. Now, go all the way down to ‘Other Settings’, and in there you’ll find the option to change the storage location.
Now you can install Mail For Exchange to your phone, and when it is finished, it will prompt you to setup a new profile. Simply enter your Google username and password, and put a few characters for the domain – you’ll change those later. Click OK and let the app attempt to connect the account.
It should pop up an error, and dump you in the settings panel. If it doesn’t, simply press options, Edit Profile. You’ll get the screen below:
Enter ‘m.google.com‘ as the Exchange server, and click to the right to change to the Credentials panel, and erase the domain that you entered previously, to leave that field blank.
Now, press to the right again to switch to the Sync Schedule panel. Here, you can adjust different peak and off-peak schedules for when you receive mail.
Again, click to the right to setup your Calendar exchange, including how far back you want to sync and whether to keep or discard current phone entries on first sync. The next tab to the right is the Tasks sync, which is not supported by Google yet, so keep that set to ‘No’. Again to the right we get the Contacts sync.
One last click to the right brings us the treasured Email sync settings. Here you can adjust a few settings, including the signature and how far back to sync your messages. I put mine on 1 month, though there’s also an ‘all messages’ option, if you’re feeling brave.
When you’re finished, click the right ‘back’ softkey to have your settings saved, and Mail For Exchange will automatically go to work, synchronizing all your goodies to your phone. Note that the email syncing process can take quite a while, but it should automatically use WiFi if available, which will help things move a bit faster.
With this setup, I’m successfully synchronizing my Google Contacts, Calendar, and Email to my Symbian-powered smartphones. You should have no issues setting yours up just like this, for full sync. I’ll be doing some comparisons between this and Nokia Messaging shortly, so be sure to check back soon!
Brilliant work – followed your steps on twitter before you posted this.
And it still sucks! Use SEVEN – http://preview.seven.com/ it's free and really works. Also, no need to deal with MfE which is buggy as hell.
Does it still say “Don't use when syncing with Ovi Suite for PC?”. Calender sync didn't work for me the last time I tried on my N95 8GB (stopped working on GoogleCalenderSync for Win, too).
Hi there Guru.
It's allways nice with a walkthrough. :)
But do you know if it will work on the N900?
Happy new year!
Am I the only one having trouble with reply emails on the E71? New emails work just fine over mail for exchange but when I reply to an email, a blank email is sent.
Hmm how do i create a new email with using the Nokia Messaging?
Every time i try, it will setup a Nokia Messaging account.
br Lars
MfE is free for a reason. Thats why i'm trying to get my company to buy license for Roadsync instead.
believe you would need to have the email account setup first.
I dont use M4E because :
- No IMAP folder support
- No HTML email support
- RAM hungry
Hence, the alternative is RoadSync. I am very satisfied with it. My gContacts, gCalendar and gMail all synched perfectly. No duplicates, no headache.
I wholeheartedly recommend RoadSync for those experiencing headache with any other synching solutions on Symbian.
You can read my experience using RoadSync on :
http://www.i-symbian.com/roadsync-truly-a-must-...
http://www.i-symbian.com/cloud-synching-with-my...
Cheers!
- Asri al-Baker
I used Nokia's own MFE application for over a year with last two primary phones, the N95 8GB and E71, for over a year and really enjoyed it. That said, lack of HTML email support was less of a concern for me when I has a QVGA screen. Now that I am using an i8910, I have to use RoadSync. I have to say that I am rather impressed with it overall. If I didn't have HTML email on my nHD screen I would be pissed! Also, the folder support is rather nice. I only have two complaints about RoadSync. First, it integrates pretty well into the phone, but not as perfectly as the Nokia MFE client. Second, you must choose an access point rather than a destination. Therefore, when I select AT&T internet, it will not automatically switch to WiFi. This is particularly annoying since I have a few friends with 5MP and 8MP camera phones who love to email me full-resolution shots. Downloading several 3.5MB files when you may or may not have 3G is no fun at all.
I'm pretty much a fan of both Nokia's MFE solution and RoadSync. They each have a few problems and/or limitation, but they also work really well overall. Due to the HTML support, I would only use RoadSync for 5th Edition phones. On a 3rd Edition device, I may not be willing to shell out the money for a RoadSync license, and I'd probably be happy with Nokia MFE.
A very warm thanks to you. I tried this before, but i was able to sync my Contacts and calander only, I don't know where i did wrong. But now i am syncing all three (E-mail, Contacts and Calander)
Thank You
Tarun Anand
Not sure what exactly you have been trying ! But I'll suggest you should visit http://email.nokia.com (Nokia Messaging) preferably using PC. On home page you would easily find the option for “Sign up” (Both at top right cornor & on bottom left too). There are three steps for signing up :-
1. My Phone:- Insert your phone/mobile number & than select your device. After than click on “next” & you will sail to next page.
2. My Email address: – Herein you're supposed to give details of the email ID which you want to use as username for Nokia Messaging a/c. For eg. I have five different email ID's, I've picked one of them randomly to be my username/password for nokia messaging account. Accept terms & conditions & click next to save changes.
3. Create Account; – Fortunately or unfortunately I already have my account in place and as soon as I clicked next after punching my email ID in second stage I found myself sign-in coz I already have an account. Though no worries after creating your account you can add all other email accounts. Its simple process as you are only to offer your email username & password to set up email address within nokia messaging account.
After completing aforesaid process you can open the link which you recieved in a text message. You can proceed easily through setting up Nokia messaging using given link on you mobile phone. In case you feel any difficulty, kindly feel free to revert.
I was using older version of Nokia Messaging. I've installed the new ver on one of my devices just now & I'm horrified or say almost paralyzed by the experience of new version. I'm using mails on phone since couple of years. To start with in beginning , I only used to sent mails occassionally for which no email client was required. All most all S60 devices were comprised of email setup wizard & it wasn't difficult to run the setup.
With advent of E-series, nokia started endeavour for power packed email services. It wouldn't be wrong to say this can be defined as genesis of Nokia Messaging. To be honest I wasn't disappointed by my first experience with Nokia Messaging & I thought this service has great utility & potential as well if nurtured properly. What I liked the most about earlier version was how your all mailbox sync's into messaging folder of your N-series S60v3 devices. And apparently for me this feature made Nokia Messaging stand apart from other third party email clients. In the process if I could change settings to memory card from phone memory, I was able to store hell lot of e-mails much to my delight.
But advertantly, Nokia concentrating on visual treat for their services instead of making them more practical & usable. In new ver of Nokia Messaging, I see clutter of mailboxes which occupying decent size of my already pretty limited internal phone memory. If that wasn't sufficient, each mail in inbox will hit phone memory & ultimately either I've to uninstall messaging application or some other intensive memory consuming application lets say N-Gage for example.
Nokia deserves a pat on back for fortifying the possibilities to explore mobile e-mailing experience !!!
@Tarun, I also had same experience as you. Earlier i wasnt able to get emails synced.
Now it worked even though i used same config. But after initial sync, any subsequent attempts dont get any updates on email. So what google says is true, Email sync with M4E isnt supported yet. :)
Thanks so much for this tip. It works perfect & gives you a DOS like feel for email BUT it does allow a Nokia to interact with Google which is great. I also use an HTC Magic on Android 1.6 which is just beautiful in every way. Push Mail, Contacts, Calendar with HTML support like an iphone experience. Cheers & thanks
Hi Joe, every time I try to reply to an email through mail for exchange , the subject of the message is blank. Did you find by any chance a solution to this problem over the past 3 weeks?
my email is uri.paran@silentcom.com
thanks in advance.
What does “gh” domain means?
what about sync to google apps? i tries and it does not work, is there a deferent way to do it?