8. Sending and Receiving Email
In this chapter, you add important email accounts to the phone so that you can send and receive email and attachments. Topics include the following:
→ Adding and configuring email accounts
→ Automatically and manually checking for new email
→ Reading mail and working with attachments
→ Composing new messages, replying to messages, and forwarding messages
→ Adding attachments and inserting material into messages
You can easily configure your phone to send and receive mail for your POP3, IMAP, and Exchange Server email accounts. In addition, the Email app supports many web-based accounts—as long as they also provide POP, IMAP, or Exchange support. If you aren’t sure what types of email accounts you can set up, contact your Internet service provider (ISP), call your information technology (IT) department, or review the Help information for your web-based accounts. (For information on creating and adding Gmail accounts, see Chapter 1.)
Automatically Adding an Account
1. On the Home screen, tap the Email icon. (If the icon isn’t present, you can tap Apps and then Email.)
Setting Up Your First Account in the Email App
If you haven’t set up an account in the Email app, when you open the app, the Set Up Email screen automatically appears. Skip steps 2 and 3 and go to step 4.
2. On Email’s main screen, press the Menu key and tap Settings.
3. Tap Add Account.
4. Enter your full email address and account password. If you have difficulty using the onscreen keyboard, tap the Show Password check box to ensure that you enter the password correctly.
5. Optional: If you want the phone to treat this as your main, default account from which email is normally sent, tap the Send Email from This Account by Default check box. This check box appears only when you set up a second or subsequent account; when you set up your first email account, Email assumes this account is the default and doesn’t give you the choice.
7. Email attempts to verify the account and determine the correct Internet standard protocol to use: POP3, IMAP, or Exchange.
8. If successful, you’re given an opportunity to name the account and specify the name that displays on outgoing mail from the account. Make any necessary changes and tap Done.
No Option to Set the Display Name
Certain account types, such as Hotmail, automatically take the display name from your current account information.
9. The account’s Inbox appears, and email is downloaded to the account.
Try Manual Setup
Automatic setup can fail for a variety of reasons. If there’s a problem, an error dialog appears. Tap the Edit Details or Continue button, check your username and password for errors, and try again. If automatic setup fails repeatedly, use the manual setup method described in the next task.
Manually Adding an Account
1. Perform steps 1–5 of the previous task (“Automatically Adding an Account”) and tap the Manual Setup button.
Continuing from Automatic Setup
If you just performed an automatic setup and it failed with an error in step 7, you can also begin a manual setup here.
2. On the Add Email Account screen, specify the Internet standard protocol for sending and receiving account email by tapping its button. If you aren’t sure which protocols are supported, contact your ISP or IT department for the correct option(s).
Multiple Protocols
If your ISP supports multiple protocols—such as POP3 and IMAP—performing a manual setup is sometimes the only way to ensure that your preferred protocol is used.
3. Check the proposed settings on the Incoming Server Settings screen, and make any necessary changes. Tap the Next button.
Entering Your Username
Depending on the account provider, the username may be the part of the name that precedes the @ symbol, or it may be the complete email address. If this step fails and an error dialog appears, tap the Edit Details button, enter the username the other way, and try again.
Delete Mail from Server (POP3 Only)
If you’re adding a POP3 account, scroll to the bottom of the screen and you’ll see a Delete Email from Server option. Normally, POP3 email is deleted from the mail server immediately after it’s delivered. If this account is also on other devices, such as your computer or tablet, leave this option set to Never to ensure that the messages are also delivered to the other devices. If this is your only device, choose When I Delete from Inbox.
This option isn’t available for IMAP accounts. Because IMAP is designed to synchronize across all your devices, if you delete an email message on any device, it’s simultaneously deleted from all devices. Otherwise, the message remains on the server indefinitely.
4. The Outgoing Server Settings screen appears. Check the details, make any necessary changes, and tap Next.
5. On the Account Options screen, specify settings and tap Next.
6. Name the account, and specify the name to display on outgoing mail from the account. Tap Done.
7. The account’s Inbox appears, and email is downloaded to the account.
Configuring Email Accounts
With the exception of General Settings, the settings for each email account can differ. After adding each email account, check its settings to ensure that the default choices are satisfactory. (To view or change the General Settings, display any message list, press the Menu key, tap Settings, and then tap General Settings.)
Editing Account Settings
You can change a variety of settings to ensure that your messages are retrieved on a reasonable schedule, display proper identifying information, and so on. Note that an Exchange ActiveSync account (such as a Hotmail or a corporate Exchange Server account) has some additional options that aren’t available for POP or IMAP accounts.
1. Within Email, press the Menu key and tap Settings.
2. The Settings screen appears. Tap the account whose settings you want to review or change.
3. Email Notifications. Select this check box if you want an email icon to appear in the status bar whenever new mail arrives.
4. Select Ringtone. Change the notification sound that plays when new mail arrives. In the Select Ringtone dialog box, tap a ringtone to hear it. When you’ve made your selection, tap OK.
No Ringtone
Select Silent if you don’t want an audible notification of new mail.
5. Vibrate. Select this check box if you want the phone to vibrate when it receives mail.
6. Sync Email. Select this check box to instruct Email to sync this account using the schedules specified in Sync Schedule.
7. Sync Schedule. Tap to display the Sync Schedule screen, on which you can specify how often the phone automatically checks for new, incoming email to this account.
8. Set Sync Schedule. Tap to display the Set Sync Schedule dialog box, and select a frequency with which to sync the account’s email. Your choices are Never or a specifiic interval, such as Every 5 Minutes or Once a Day.
9. While Roaming. To control how your phone syncs email when you roam on other networks, tap While Roaming and choose Manual or Use Above Settings.
10. Peak Schedule. To sync email on a different schedule during peak hours, select this check box. You can then tap Set Peak Schedule and select a frequency. Tap the Peak Days buttons to apply or remove the green bars that indicate peak days. Tap Peak Start Time and Peak End Time to set the start and end times for the peak days.
11. Tap the Back icon or press the Back key to return to the Settings screen for the email account.
12. Size to Retrieve Emails. To avoid data charges when out of range of a Wi-Fi network, you can specify the maximum size message that will automatically be delivered to the phone. Larger messages—primarily those with attachments—must be manually retrieved by tapping the message header.
13. Signature. To automatically add a personal signature (static text) to the end of each outgoing message, set the Signature switch to the On position. To change the signature, tap Signature, edit the current signature, and tap OK.
14. Default Account. If you have multiple email accounts on the phone, you must enable Default Account for one of them. When composing a new email message, Email uses the default account automatically as the sending account—although you’re always free to choose a different account before sending. (When replying to or forwarding a message, Email uses the current account instead of the default account.)
15. Tap More Settings to review or change the important account settings explained in steps 16–23.
16. Account Name. To change the name used to label the account in Email’s account list, tap Account Name, make the necessary changes, and tap OK.
17. Your Name. To change the name used to identify you to recipients of your email, tap Your Name, make the desired changes, and tap OK.
18. Always Cc/Bcc Myself. Specify whether outgoing messages automatically include this account in the CC (carbon copy) or BCC (blind carbon copy) recipient list. The purpose is to ensure that a backup copy of each outgoing message from this account is also delivered to the account’s Inbox. If your email account automatically keeps a copy of each outgoing message in a folder called Sent (or a similar name), choose None for this setting.
19. Forward with Attachments. Check this option if you want to forward received email with any attachments that the original message contained; otherwise, only the message body is forwarded.
20. Show Images. Check this option to automatically display all linked images that are present in messages. As explained later in “Show Images Judiciously,” it’s best to leave this option unchecked.
21. Number of Emails to Load. Tap to set the number of recent messages to be shown at one time. You can specify from 25 to Total (all).
22. Auto Download Attachments. Check this option to instruct Email to automatically download attachments when your phone is connected to a Wi-Fi network (in other words, not over your cellular connection). This is usually a good choice unless you receive many massive attachments, in which case you may prefer to download them manually as needed.
23. Auto Resend Times. Tap this option to specify the number of times Email tries to resend a message on encountering an error.
24. Security Options. If you need to encrypt the messages you send, sign them with a digital signature, or both, tap Security Options. You are more likely to need these options for corporate email than for personal email.
25. In the Server Settings section at the bottom of the More Settings screen, tap Incoming Settings or Outgoing Settings to modify the settings for the incoming or outgoing mail server (described in “Adding Email Accounts,” earlier in this chapter).
Deleting an Account
You can delete any email account that you no longer want on your phone. Deleting an account simultaneously removes the account’s messages and other data from your phone. (Note that deleting an account merely removes it from the phone; it doesn’t cancel the account.)
1. Within Email, press the Menu key and tap Settings.
2. The Settings screen appears and displays your list of email accounts. Tap the trash icon at the top of the screen.
3. Tap the check box of each account that you want to remove from the phone, and then tap the Delete button.
4. Tap the OK button in the Delete confirmation dialog box.
Retrieving Mail
Email can be delivered to your phone in two ways. First, the Email app performs a check for new mail automatically for each account according to the account’s Sync Schedule settings—every 15 minutes or once per hour, for example. For information on setting a retrieval schedule for an account, see step 7 of “Editing Account Settings.” Second, you can manually check for new mail whenever you like—regardless of an account’s schedule—by tapping the Refresh icon.
1. Launch Email by tapping its Home screen icon or by tapping Apps, followed by Email.
2. If you need to switch to a different Inbox or folder, tap the menu icon to display the accounts list.
3. Tap the Inbox or folder you want to view. Tap Combined Inbox if you want to check all your accounts at once.
Interpreting the Accounts Information
If present, the number to the right of an account in the list indicates the number of unread messages it contains. By scanning the list, you can quickly determine which accounts have new messages.
4. To check for new messages, tap the Refresh icon at the bottom of the screen.
Reading Mail
When new mail arrives or you want to review older messages, you can read the email on your phone. You can read messages in portrait mode or—by rotating the phone—in landscape mode.
1. Launch Email by tapping its Home screen icon or by tapping Apps and then Email.
Other Ways to Launch Email
You can also open Email by responding to a received mail notification or tapping a message header in the Email widget:
• Open the Notification panel by dragging downward. Tap the Email notification.
• If you’ve installed the Email widget on a Home screen page, tap a message header to open that message in Email.
2. Optional: To change the Inbox or folder displayed, tap the menu icon and make a new selection. Select Combined View to simultaneously view all accounts’ Inboxes, select a specific account to view only its Inbox, or select Show All Folders to view a different folder within the current account or selection.
3. In the current message list, tap the header of the message that you want to read. Headers with light backgrounds are unread messages; headers with gray backgrounds are previously read messages.
4. The message appears. You can change the magnification by pinching your fingers together or spreading them apart. Drag to see parts of the message that are off-screen. Alternatively, you can rotate your phone to view the message in landscape mode.
5. To read another message in the current list, do either of the following:
• Tap the Back icon or press the Back key to return to the message list. Tap the header of the next message that you want to read.
• Swipe the screen to the left or right to view the next or previous consecutive message in the list, respectively.
Viewing and Saving Attachments
Some email messages contain attachments (accompanying files), such as photos and documents. If you want, you can download the attachments and—if you have compatible app(s)—view the files on your phone.
1. In the Email message list, files that contain attachments are denoted by a paper clip icon. Tap the message header to open the message.
2. Tap the Attachments tab to view the list of attached files.
3. To preview an attachment, tap its Preview button. Your phone downloads the file and, if a compatible app is installed, displays or plays the file’s contents.
4. Optional: To save a copy of the file on your phone, tap its Save button. To save all the attachments, tap the Save All button. The file or files are stored in the Download folder of the phone’s built-in memory.
Revisiting a Downloaded Attachment
To later view a downloaded attachment, launch My Files, open the Download folder, and tap the filename. If it’s an image file, you can also open it by launching Gallery, opening the Download folder, and tapping the file’s thumbnail. You can also open attachments by launching the Downloads app.
>>>Go Further: Standard VS. Conversation View
Composing and Sending Mail
Within Email, you can create new messages, as well as reply to or forward received messages.
Creating a New Email Message
1. In Email, display the message list for Combined Inbox or a specific account, and then tap the Create Message icon at the bottom of the screen.
2. A new message screen appears, addressed from the current account. (If you’re viewing the Combined Inbox message list, your default email account is proposed instead.)
3. Optional: To send the message from a different account, tap the account name in the From box. In the Select Email Address dialog box, select the account from which the message will be sent.
4. Optional: Tap the Cc/Bcc area to display separate Cc (carbon copy) and Bcc (blind carbon copy) boxes.
5. Tap the To, Cc, or Bcc box, and add one or more recipients by doing the following:
• To select recipients from Contacts, tap the Contacts icon to the right of the To, Cc, or Bcc box. Select each person that you want to add and then tap Done. (If there are multiple email addresses for a person and you haven’t specified a default address for her, a dialog box appears in which you can choose the appropriate address.)
Filter the Contacts
In addition to selecting people from the normal Contacts list, you can select people from any of the other lists (Groups, Favorites, or Logs) by tapping the appropriate tab at the top of the screen.
• Select the To, Cc, or Bcc box, and begin typing part of the recipient’s name, email address, or other identifying information stored in the person or company’s contact record. Select the recipient from the match list that appears.
6. Enter the message subject in the Subject box.
7. Type or use voice input to enter the message body.
Be Gone Plain Text!
While composing the message, you can tap icons in the toolbar to format selected text, insert material, and assist in editing or making corrections. The icons’ functions are similar to those in a typical word-processing application. You can use Undo and Redo to correct errors and typos, insert boilerplate text and other material into the message body, and format currently selected text by changing its size, color, highlighting, or style. Read “Entering Text” and “Editing Text” in Chapter 2 for additional helpful information.
8. Tap the Send icon to transmit the message.
Attachments and Inserts
An email message can optionally include embedded material or be accompanied by attached files. For instructions, see “Adding Attachments and Inserts,” later in this section.
Replying to Mail
1. With the email message open for reading, tap the Reply icon.
2. A message appears, formatted as a reply to the original sender. The text insertion mark is positioned for your reply. The original message text displays at the bottom of the window.
3. Enter your reply text in the top section of the message window.
4. If desired, you can edit the original message text, or you can delete it by clearing the check box in the Original Message bar.
5. Tap the Send icon to send the message.
2. A message formatted for forwarding appears. Specify recipients in the To, Cc, and/or Bcc boxes, as described in “Creating a New Email Message.”
3. You can optionally add your own text to a forwarded message. Enter it in the top section of the message window. (You can trim or edit the original message text in the bottom section of the window, if desired, or remove it by clearing the check box in the Original Message bar.)
Original Message Attachments
Whether attachments received in the original message are also forwarded depends on the Forward with Attachments setting. If you notice that the original attachments aren’t automatically added to forwarded messages, see step 19 in “Editing Account Settings.”
4. Tap the Send icon to send the message.
Adding Attachments and Inserts
Any message sent from Email—whether a new message, reply, or forward—can optionally include one or more file attachments, such as photos and Office documents. The recipient uses a compatible program or app to open and view the attachments. (The maximum size for a message and attachments created in Email is 50MB. Note, however, that the recipient’s email account may have a size limit for incoming messages that is smaller than this.)
In addition to sending file attachments with a message, you can insert any of the following directly into the body of a message: an image file from Gallery, selected text from a Contacts record, a location, or a Calendar event.
Adding Attachments
1. Create a new message, a reply, or a forward, as described earlier in this section.
2. At any point during the message-creation process, tap the Attach icon.
3. Choose the type of item that you want to attach. (Choose My Files to select any file that’s stored on your phone or choose a specific item type.)
Create an Attachment On-the-Fly
You can choose Take Picture, Record Video, or Record Audio to use the phone to create a photo, video, or audio recording to send as an attachment.
4. Select the particular file that you want to attach to the message, and respond to any dialog boxes or menus that appear. When sending a picture, for example, you can specify a resizing percentage.
5. To add other attachments, repeat steps 2–4. To remove an attachment, expand the attachments list and tap the red minus (–) sign to the right of the item.
Adding Inserts
1. In the message you’re composing, position the text insertion mark at the spot in the message body where you want to insert the item.
2. Tap the Insert icon in the toolbar.
3. Choose an item type to insert. Options include an image from Gallery, an S Memo, Calendar events, selected elements of a Contacts record (such as an email address), and a physical location/address.
4. The image or text appears in the message body at the text insertion mark.
Resizing Inserted Images
You can change the size of an inserted photo by tapping it and then dragging one or more of the handles that appear around its edges. To resize proportionately, drag any corner handle.
Managing the Mail
Although the Email app has fewer message-management options than a typical PC or Mac email client, you can manage message list clutter by deleting unwanted messages, moving messages to different folders, changing the status of messages from read to unread (and vice versa), and flagging important messages.
Deleting Messages
You can delete messages while you’re viewing a message list or reading a particular message:
• While reading a message, tap the Delete icon at the bottom of the screen, and then tap Delete in the confirmation dialog box.
• You can simultaneously delete multiple messages while viewing a message list. Tap the check box to the left of each message that you want to delete, tap the Delete icon at the bottom of the screen, and then tap Delete in the confirmation dialog box.
Delete a Message Group or Conversation
In standard view, you can select an entire group of messages for deletion (such as all messages for a particular day or from a particular sender) by selecting the check box at the left end of the blue group header above the messages. In conversation view, you can select all messages in a conversation for deletion by selecting the check box in the conversation header.
To delete the selected messages, tap the Delete icon and then tap Delete in the confirmation dialog box.
• While viewing a message list, you can simultaneously delete all messages in the current folder (an account’s Inbox or Junk folder, for example). Press the Menu key, tap Delete All, and then tap the Delete button in the confirmation dialog box that appears. (Not all carriers support the Delete All command.)
Moving Messages
You can move an email message to a different folder in the current account, as well as to a folder in another account. For example, you may be able to move a message from the Trash back into the Inbox or a project-related message into a project folder. You can move messages while you’re viewing a message list or reading the message.
While Reading a Message
1. Press the Menu key and tap Move.
2. In the Move To dialog box, select a destination folder in the current account or a different account.
While Viewing a Message List
1. Select each message that you want to move to a particular destination folder. (Each selected message is preceded by a green check mark.)
2. Tap the Move icon below the message list. (Note that the position of the icon varies.)
3. In the Move To dialog box, select a destination folder in the current account or a different account (as described in step 2 of the preceding task).
Creating Account Subfolders
Although custom account folders are typically created in your Mac/PC email application or, for web-based clients such as Hotmail, using your browser, you can also create them in Email. Tap the menu icon at the upper-left corner of a message list to display the list of accounts and folders, and then tap Show All Folders for the account in which you want to create the folder. (Don’t tap Show All Folders in the Combined View section—you can’t create folders from there.) Tap the plus (+) icon at the top of the screen, select a parent folder in which to create the new folder, name the folder, and tap OK.
Changing the Message Read Status
Sometimes it’s useful to change a previously read message’s status to unread or a new message to read. For example, if you’ve fallen behind in reading incoming messages from an account, you can mark the unimportant ones as already read.
• While reading a message, you can mark it as unread by pressing the Menu key and tapping Mark as Unread in the pop-up menu that appears. The message list immediately reappears, and the message shows that it hasn’t been read.
• While viewing the message list, you can toggle the read status of multiple messages by tapping the check box of each message of the same kind (read or unread), and then tapping the Mark as Read or Mark as Unread icon at the bottom of the window.
Marking Important Messages
If you’d like to mark certain messages as important, you can designate them as favorites (POP3 and IMAP accounts) or flag them (Exchange Server/ActiveSync accounts).
• Favorite messages. In a message list or while reading the message, tap the star icon to the right of the message subject. To remove the star from a previously marked favorite, tap the star icon again.
Marking Multiple Messages as Favorites
While viewing the message list, you can simultaneously mark multiple messages as favorites. Tap the check box in each message header that you want to mark as a favorite. Then tap the star icon at the bottom of the screen. You can remove stars in the same fashion—select several starred headers and tap the hollow star icon at the bottom of the screen.
• Flagged messages. In an Exchange ActiveSync message list or when viewing one of its messages, tap the flag icon to the right of the message header. The icon works as a toggle. Tap it to cycle between flagged (red flag), completed (blue check mark), and cleared (blank). When viewing a message list, you can simultaneously change the flag status of multiple messages by selecting each header, tapping the Flag icon at the bottom of the screen, and choosing Flag, Unflag, or Mark as Complete from the menu that appears.
Using the Gmail App
In addition to the Email app, your phone includes a dedicated Gmail app—designed to access Google’s Gmail service only. The Gmail app shares many similarities with Email, but also has some key differences. (For the sake of convenience, however, you might prefer to simply add your Gmail account to the Email app.)
When you first set up your phone, the setup wizard walks you through the process of adding your Gmail account—so the Gmail app is ready to run. To launch Gmail, go to the Home screen, tap Apps, and then Gmail. Following are some general and account-specific settings that you’ll want to review when configuring and using the app:
• Add another Gmail account. If you have multiple Gmail accounts, you can add the others, specify the default account, and switch among them as needed. To add an account, press the Menu key, tap Settings, and then tap Add Account.
• Configure general settings for your accounts. Gmail works well with the default settings, but you can get better results by spending a few minutes choosing settings that suit your needs. Press the Menu key, tap Settings, and then tap General Settings.
• Configure account-specific settings. After tapping Settings, select an account name. You can configure sound and vibration notifications, specify a signature, and set the number of days of mail to sync.
• Organize your messages with labels. Whereas most email services use folders to store messages, Gmail uses a system of labels—tags you can apply to messages to categorize them. To apply a label to an open message, tap the Menu key, tab Change labels, select the label(s) you want to apply, and tap OK.
• View your messages by labels. In the Inbox message list, tap the upper-left icon to display the list of Inboxes and labels—or carefully swipe the list in from the left edge of the screen. Then tap the label whose messages you want to view.
