[Q] Stock Email passwords still stored in clear text. - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I realize that this has been an 'issue' for a while now, but I would like to know if there are any new ways secure and use stock email client with Exchange ActiveSync and not have credentials stored in clear text on the device. The same goes for IMAP and POP accounts using the app.
Yes, this is really only an issue on rooted devices, Google's official answer is to enable Device Encryption and that there are other email clients out there that handle credentials better. I personally switched to Touchdown, but would rather use the stock client.
I am trying to come up with a MDM solution for my company and really don't want to have to block devices if I don't have to. But as it stands my only options are have the user buy a 3rd party email client, force encryption and/or block rooted / jailbroken devices or use Citrix and OWA. I've spent a couple days researching this and haven't come up with anything promising that puts a smile on my face.
Any other Exchange Admins out there? How have you dealt with this?
For those who were not aware of your network username, password and domain being stored in clear text. Using Sql Lite open the Email app, Open EmailProvider.db and select HostAuth. Within you will find your connection info staring back at you, clear as day.
Android Issue Log:
https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=10809
Google's Response:
https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=10809#c128

Related

[Q] Help with Exchange email

Hey guys-
I had been using TouchDown Exchange to access my work email. When I first got android I asked my IT department if they could set it up for me but they replied that they "don't support Android, and because there are so many different android phones, they probably wouldn't ever support". Anyways, I found I could use the web-exchange server (http://xxx.xxxxxxxx.com/exchange/) as my domain on the android app and it would end up sync'ing my email to my phone.
I guess they eventually found out I was doing this somehow and they blocked it. They do support the iPhone, though, and through a coworker I was able to get the server and domain that they use.
Is there anyway I can trick the server into thinking I'm using an iPhone so it will allow me to connect and sync? I tried using the "ActiveSync Device String" and setting it to "iPhone" before connecting to the server, but that didn't work. I don't know much about exchange servers if you couldn't tell, but is there a way they can authorize only certain users to connect? Could I potentially borrow my girlfriends iphone, have them set it up on her device, and then once I get the login permissions, switch the info over to my fascinate?
Sorry to any IT administrators out there, I bet this post will annoy you haha. I just want to have email on my phone because I hate walking into work in the morning and getting blindsided by an email that was sent to me at 2am.
Thanks in advance for your help guys.
Our IT department also has a "no android" policy but I figured out that if I left the Domain blank and used the Webmail url as the Exchange server address everything would sync perfectly. I started out using Touchdown but dropped it for the stock email client.
They specifically denied your phone from syncing via ActiveSync? Even with Touchdown, which more fully supports the ActiveSync protocol than even the iPhone? Sounds like your IT guys are morons. I can fully understand not wanting to support Android phones because of all the variances. I know, because I work for an ASP hosting company that does just that. But really, if they wont support Touchdown, they're just shooting themselves in the foot, because that app will work the sane no matter what Android phone it's installed on, meaning you will have a standardized mail platform for Android that supports any and all necessary security features, including full encryption of the local mail database and any data it stores on the SD card.
I don't know if you'll get anywhere with it, but I would recommend showing the the feature list for Touchdown, including the security features, and ask them to support that one app. If you make the case that they only need to support one app for any Android phone, they should be willing to work with you on that.
Besides, every serious corporate user should be using Touchdown anyway. The stock mail client, no matter what Android phone you have, is lacking some of the most basic features, is buggy,and is essentially useless. And if days encryption is required, you're out of luck with the stock clients. Exchange syncing is really an afterthought by Google, and until they make enterprise features and data security a primary focus, things wont get any better.
Sent from XDA Premium on my Super Clean Fascinate
Oh, and btw, I'm not an expert on the matter, but I know that mobile device syncing can be disabled on a per-user basis. What I'm not sure about is if it can actually allow only certain devices to connect or not.
Sent from XDA Premium on my Super Clean Fascinate

[Q] Help! Yahoo mail sync bug?

Hey guys,
omni here with what should be a relatively easy question/fix...
There may be a post on this already, but I searched around for a good 10 minutes, and at least I know I'm in the right section (not spamming dev)
I have Yahoo! Mail liked through my MotoBlur Accounts so that it will show emails in my Universal Inbox (standard Messaging app). It works intermittently, and what is really strange is that when it ISN'T working (when it has the orange error/caution symbol over the syncing icon), the stored password under Accounts is randomly modified to a 20-ish character string (my password is much fewer characters). I can go back and change the password while its in the mood not to work, but it never seems to sync. Then I forget about it and it randomly connects later. As you can imagine, this gets quite annoying... I'm running GreyBlur 1.0 and SteelBlue 1.15 (compatible; the problem was happening long before layering this theme). I do move around campus alot, which switches to new wifi networks or to 3.5G.
So to sum up the question: how can I stop MotoBlur's Accounts/Yahoo! Mail from changing my password and losing connectivity (not sure which comes first/causes the other)?
Great thanks to this community's wonderful attitude and android wizardy!
-bump- (oh noes, its happened again!)
Bumpitty bump
Sent from my MB860 using XDA Premium App
Issue Summary
In order to improve security, Yahoo recently disabled non-secure (non-SSL) connections to their IMAP e-mail servers. As a result, customers with devices running the Android operating system may encounter errors when attempting to setup or access their Yahoo e-mail account via the device's native e-mail client.
Customers attempting to setup a Yahoo e-mail account for the first time will receive an authentication failed or similar error when using the automatic setup method (only e-mail address & password are entered).
Customers who previously setup a Yahoo e-mail account may receive an error or be unable to retrieve new e-mail messages.
Critical Must Know/Must Do
New users (or existing user attempting to add a new Yahoo/AT&T account): use the Manual Set up option to enter the required server settings.
Existing users: If their Yahoo/AT&T account stops syncing, direct them to Edit the account settings and enable SSL.
Server/Protocol - IMAP
IMAP/Incoming Server - imap.mail.yahoo.com
Security Type - SSL (or "secure connection" option)
Incoming Port - 993
Outgoing Server - smtp.mail.yahoo.com
Security Type - SSL (or "secure connection" option)
Outgoing Port - 465
To find out how to edit the settings go here:
https://www.wireless.att.com/answer-center/solutionDisplay.jsp?solutionId=KB116471
After following these instructions, hit the thanks button to show some love.
Thanks a hundred times over!

Did anyone get Exchange emails working yet? [CM 7.1.0]

SGH-i777 running CM 7.1.0 on Android 2.3.7. Carrier is obviously AT&T.
I can't for the life of me figure out how to add my Exchange account to the stock e-mail program. I've tried:
* Countless variations of server, domain, and username settings. I've followed this guide **can't post link** and several other guides. I do have access to my company's server information, and while I'm not sure which server is actually being used, I've tried them *all*, several times, and gotten nowhere. With a WiFI connection (no firewall) and just 3G data, signed in or signed out of Outlook Anywhere. No luck, just "Unable to open connection to server".
* K-9 connected to my account, but I was unable to see any e-mails - none would load, even when I had it force check. So I uninstalled it (would rather use the stock app anyway).
Is this a problem with my signal? I read that someone got help from their carrier - they made a custom APN, but that was in another country so I'm a bit skeptical. Can't call Samsung (it's Sunday) and their website offers no help. It's possible my IT doesn't allow phones to read mail, but that's highly unlikely - we've got lots of employees in the field, so this seems like common sense.
I did a lot of digging and this might be an old issue, but it gets pretty technical and I'm obviously a n00b.
What am I missing here???? PLEASE fill me in - I've put hours into this!!
It's quite possible that your IT group who manages your Exchange environment isn't allowing non-approved devices to connect. Typically these are security-certificate based and/or mandatory VPN requirements. I would suggest asking your Exchange administrator in your IT department about this policy.
Under Domain/username, did you try putting the "\" in front of your username? To configure mine I did this and had to use the host name as the Exchange server. Some things to try anyway if you haven't already.
Also ran into issues setting up under a public wifi at work, had to use the ATT network to make it connect for some reason.
I have my work exchange account set up.
Are you making sure to connect to the external exchange server (sometimes different from internal)?
Have you asked your administrator for exchange login details (my IT dept sent out a company-wide email once with those details)?
You might have to type the server name in manually if it doesn't auto-detect (the case with my work email).
Now, my work isn't as strict, but as the previous poster said; you're exchange server might not allow unauthorized devices to connect. In which case you'll have to contact your IT dept.
They may have simply blocked all android devices (until recently didn't support hardware encryption, and spoofed exchange permissions). If that's true, educate them.
The server name may be a link rather than a server name. Ours is mibile.XXXXX.com for example.
probably related to your company's settings. I run my own exchange server and got it sync'd fine with the current cyanogen nightly
I had problems with the stock email and our ms exchange server. I could set it up, but after a while it stopped syncing and I could never really get it back to work. I switched to Touchdown, and after a little trial and error with setup, it's working fine for me. There is a trial version for 30 days or so that you could give a shot. Happy to give you some pointers.
AtlanM87 said:
I had problems with the stock email and our ms exchange server. I could set it up, but after a while it stopped syncing and I could never really get it back to work. I switched to Touchdown, and after a little trial and error with setup, it's working fine for me. There is a trial version for 30 days or so that you could give a shot. Happy to give you some pointers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 for touchdown. I've been using it for about a year. It's far superior to any exchange solution the Google offers. I only wish it would populate Google calendar as it does the Google contacts. The UI is getting dated as well. I wish they would come out with a cosmetic update or theme capability.
Sent from my SGH-I777 using xda premium

Microsoft Exchange...

Here I am asking this same old question again on yet another Android phone. Maybe I should just take a hint and get a phone with real exchange support yeah?
I have a Droid RAZR MAXX , about 30 minutes old.
Anyhow, apparently NO ONE uses exchange or I'm the ONLY ONE with this issue.
Press Settings
Press Accounts
Press Add Account
Press Corporate Sync
...
.....
What the **** am I supposed to do with just "Email" and "Password?"
Where am I supposed to enter my domain, my server, and the other options that go along with exchange?
Who approved this? This is even less usefull than just activesync, it doesn't work at all.
Anyone use exchange or understand where the mystery settings are?
**UPDATE** I THINK, I just lost about 80 IQ points when I found this. This could possibly be the saddest fail in exchange history..
https://motorola-enterprise.custhel...roid-razr-maxx-corporate-sync-email-settings?
Don't feel bad. I just returned a Galaxy Nexus because I was unable to get my Exchange account working. I figured out how to get all the info into the corporate sync settings and got excited when it said it worked. Alas, it refused to actually get any mail or sync any folders.
So I downloaded Touchdown. I was unable to even get that working with my Nexus. With the Maxx I still wasn't able to get it working with Activesync, but at least I can get it working with polling. I hate the idea of paying an extra $20 for Touchdown, but in the end I think it's probably worth it.
Wow. I knew the workaround, but had no idea they'd actually make that official. That's hilariously unprofessional. All the same, points to them for putting it up there when they knew people were having problems..
Sent from my XT910 using xda premium
Well.. So much for moto blur..
Sent from my XT910
What the heck are you complaining about? Just enter the email and password and it will try to configure on the basis of that. If it is not able to do that it will ask for the server and other info.
Szadzik said:
What the heck are you complaining about? Just enter the email and password and it will try to configure on the basis of that. If it is not able to do that it will ask for the server and other info.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Except when it doesn't, and just says it is unable to connect, offering no option to enter the server name. Have a look at the linked knowledgebase article.
Sent from my XT910 using xda premium
What is the section "Server settings" in Account settings for then? I am using the Exchange server on my RAZR from the first day I bought it. The corporate mail is excellent a reliable.
I set up the name of the server and login including domain name and password. The last option is proxy. That is all you need.
Wow... wish I'd known this before purchasing Enhanced Email. It's a nice program, but the only reason I needed it was because the stock mail program wouldn't let me set up my exchange email after the first OTA update from VZW.
Live and learn.
For some reason on the Maxx when you go into Corporate Account/Sync, there only 2 options
Email Address
Password
No other options are available. Menu button does nothing. Period. It wasn't until I stumbled upon the dumbest feature ever that I knew to use any current account that I have access to (NON EXCHANGE ONLY , i.e. YAHOO, HOTMAIL, GMAIL,) in order to get those options (Domain, server, etc, ) to appear so I could edit it.
Ludacris..
Some accounts work straight off the bat, others won't. Assume it's exchange version and server implementation to blame. The problem does exist, as evident by the Moto knowledgebase link in the OP, so he posts claiming people who can't set exchange up are missing something are, well, missing something themselves.
Sent from my XT910 using xda premium
onslaught86 said:
Some accounts work straight off the bat, others won't. Assume it's exchange version and server implementation to blame. The problem does exist, as evident by the Moto knowledgebase link in the OP, so he posts claiming people who can't set exchange up are missing something are, well, missing something themselves.
Sent from my XT910 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On what planet does it make any sense to to input a yahoo.com email address and password to trigger server setup, domain etc, for an exchange server? Just to make those options visible?
I could never, even on accident could do a worse job in designing this software. And I'm an idiot.
Corporate Email Autodiscover
I would suspect that the reason you're only prompted for the email address and password is that newer versions of Exchange can work with autodiscover, if properly configured. That's why when you set up an account in Outlook 2010, it asks for your email address and password to begin with. It goes out and looks for the information from DNS for your domain, and automatically gets the mail server information.
My RAZR works fine??? what's your deal
Hey i just opened a Droid RAZR MAXX and turned it on and set up my gmail account then set up my exchange 2007 account.
Here's how( maybe your doing it wrong):
- First Unlock the device's screen.
- Press home key as many times as you want, but more than 0.
- Press the settings button. Looks like 3 little lines on top of each other. It is just to the left of the little house button.
- Select Settings by touching the gear icon. - bottom left.
- Scroll down to accounts and press it. (accounts that is)
- At the very bottom touch the words "Add account"
- Now touch the little blue stamp icon that has the words Corporate Sync under it
- Enter your microsoft exchange account email address in the box that is for Email address:
- Enter your password in the box that is for Password.
- Click next on the bottom right of the screen.
Now your droid will try to connect to your companies exchange server.
If it cant it will allow you to put in server and domain information.
You have to be patient, it could be 30 whole seconds or so before it prompts you.
- Enter your companies domain name in the domain box.
- Enter your microsoft user account information in the name and password boxes.
- Enter the name of your mail server w/ the domain name at the end ie. mail.yourDomain.com
- click Next.
If you have your information correct it will work. Else check w/ your admins. If you are your admin... try again.
Ya i have been using exchange for several years with moto android phones with no connection issues. My Razr has worked fine, like stated in post im running exchange 2003 which does not offer auto config for phones, you might be running a newer version of exchange which does have auto config setup but not setup right? If your running exchange 2007 or up make sure the auto config settings on server are right because if there wrong it will fill in the wrong info and not let you enter your own server info.
Sorry to dig up this old thread, but everyone seems to be so hard core about searching for solutions before posting new threads. So I guess, better to dig up an old one.
I am having a variant of this problem. I am setting up Office365 for my company as a replacement for onsite Exchange2007. I set up a new domain just to have something to play with in test/dev. The domain I'm using is set up for the Autodiscover that a few people alluded to above, just requires a few new DNS records. It worked perfect on my Xperia Play with Android 2.3.3 that I had prior to the Razr. I just put my email and password in and boom it configured. Not so with the Razr, I don't know if this due to the Razr not using the stock Android email application or just the difference between 2.3.3. and 2.3.6.
I found this thread on the Office365 support site:
http://community.office365.com/en-us/f/160/p/25689/118705.aspx
While *I* can make that work, being an admin and all, I think it's probably way too confusing for our end users. I can imagine a greatly increased support volume should we have to go down that path with IMAP servers. Or using the Motorola method in the link closer to the top the thread, which would probably work fine for connection to the onsite Exchange server, but is more dicey on Office365 since there is no "server name" per se.
I can't imagine that this issue is going to go away. A lot of companies are moving to cloud email and Office365 is a popular choice.
---------- Post added at 04:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:02 PM ----------
OK, I was able to get it working.
First, I logged into my Office365 account with a web browser, going to my inbox and then in the upper right hand corner hitting the question mark and then from the drop down menu choosing About. This is described in the link I put in my last post.
Then I went to log in using the Corporate Sync. It failed and then came back and asked me for the server name and domain. For the server information I put in the information from the Host Address field on the box that popped up from the Help-About box in the last step,
listed as: Host address: https://*********.outlook.com/owa but leaving out the OWA on the end. I left the Domain blank and entered my email account as the username, and re-entered the password (Important-it was failing before I re-entered the password.). Then it worked, came back and asked me to set a screen lock code. Yay!
Hope maybe this helps someone else.
As long as this thread was dug up (thank you BTW), I thought it important to update my situation from what I had in the 2nd post.
It turns out there was an Active Directory (AD) configuration error on my account. I figured this out by looking at the log from attempts to connect using Activesync. This lead me to the Touchdown support website which then linked to another website. Basically my account didn't have permission to create devices.
Fortunately I have a good relationship with the AD admins. I was able to configure email on my device without issue using another users credentials. This told me it should work with my accounts. So I sat down with the AD admin and we compared permissions on the 2 accounts till we eventually found the differences.
Once my account was fixed I was able to get Activesync working using Touchdown. Unfortunately I couldn't get Auto Discover to work, but manual setup worked fine. Then I set up my account using both the built-in email client and Enhanced Mail (bought it for 10 cents during Google sale). It worked fine on all 3. Even download Moxier. Turned out, of all the options, I liked the interface and options most using Touchdown so I stuck with that.
Motor's corporate email client makes one assumption I wish they would not make. They assume your Exchange administrator has properly setup autodiscovery. If autodiscovery is properly configured (that requires a proper autodiscover.domain.com address) all you need is your email address and password and everything will work. This is a really bad assumption as most people who set this stuff up are idiots.
That said, after a failure to use autodiscover the client should eventually fail to a manual setup screen for server name, domain login etc.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T using Tapatalk 2
wingdo said:
Motor's corporate email client makes one assumption I wish they would not make. They assume your Exchange administrator has properly setup autodiscovery. If autodiscovery is properly configured (that requires a proper autodiscover.domain.com address) all you need is your email address and password and everything will work. This is a really bad assumption as most people who set this stuff up are idiots.
That said, after a failure to use autodiscover the client should eventually fail to a manual setup screen for server name, domain login etc.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do have autodiscovery properly set up for my Office365 domain, it's no longer optional. Not even your Outlook client will connect to Office365 Exchange without autodiscovery working. As I mentioned before, there's not a server name in the traditional sense. Obviously, you can find A server name in the help-->about information when you are logged into the OWA version of Office365, but you couldn't drop that server name into a traditional Outlook setup and have it work.
My domain autodiscover works with other phones. In fact I just added a Windows Phone7 device to it last night and all I had to do was enter the email address and password. I pulled my Xperia Play out of a drawer last night and put it on the charger. It's been factory wiped and I'm going to run through the setup for my Office365 domain on it again. I just got busy doing other things last night like working out and watching the basketball game
Work Around for adding Corp Sync Account without using Touchdown
i had this problem when i went to create a Corp Sync account and did not see a place to type in the Server name ....there is a "work around" for adding a Corporate Email account without using Touchdown... type in your gmail account information let the app verify the account... once it is verified you can go back and modify the account ... you "should" see a box to type in webmail.ihostexchange.net...
Wow my iq dropped by reading this noob thread. Just open the email app click add account select other enter your email and password then press manual setup enter your domain and server your good to go it automatically syncs contacts and calendar.
Sent from my DROID RAZR using xda premium

[Q] Location of E-Mail Account Files

Does anyone know where the E-Mail account settings files are kept? A replacement phone is scheduled to hit me on Wednesday, and if I can help it, I would prefer not to setup my myriad of e-mail accounts all over again. It sure would be nice if I could just copy them to my computer and copy them back to the replacement phone.
TIA
I solved that problem by forwarding all my email accounts through gmail.
I prefer to have separate accounts, as discussed in posts #11 and #13 of the thread below:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=27810568#post27810568
xv-6800 said:
I prefer to have separate accounts, as discussed in posts #11 and #13 of the thread below:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=27810568#post27810568
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So in other words, you can't simply use gmail because its too much hassle to remember to select the correct account to reply from?
I believe most settings info is stored like this:
/data/data/nameofapplication/
What do you mean? The way I have it set up ENABLES me to select the proper account to reply from. Google does not offer this capability.
Regarding the path:
I have a .data folder on the root. Inside that is a nested mail folder which contains nothing but another empty nested folder entitled attachthumb.
Do I need a special app to see what I need to see?
xv-6800 said:
What do you mean? The way I have it set up ENABLES me to select the proper account to reply from. Google does not offer this capability.
Regarding the path:
I have a .data folder on the root. Inside that is a nested mail folder which contains nothing but another empty nested folder entitled attachthumb.
Do I need a special app to see what I need to see?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't know what you're talking about because i'm using the stock Android AOSP version of the gmail app and I have 5 accounts set up on it and can select which one to reply from. It automatically selects the correct account if I simply hit "reply" from an email, however I can force it to reply from any other of my accounts too. Not all gmail accounts either. I can send mail from my cox.net account directly from the gmail app on my phone.
Anyways, you need a root file explorer. You will go to the "/data/data/" directory, then look for a directory containing the name of your email app (like /data/data/com.google.android.gm/ for gmail, etc)
That directory contains the settings and data from that app. Copy it, place on your new device in the same folder after installing the app on the new device.
a.mcdear said:
Don't know what you're talking about because i'm using the stock Android AOSP version of the gmail app and I have 5 accounts set up on it and can select which one to reply from. It automatically selects the correct account if I simply hit "reply" from an email, however I can force it to reply from any other of my accounts too. Not all gmail accounts either. I can send mail from my cox.net account directly from the gmail app on my phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think there may be a misunderstanding here. My phone has 2 apps. One is entitled Mail, the other entitled GMail. The GMail app only allows for GMail accounts. I am using the other Mail app. KZOODROID said he was forwarding his other accounts to a GMail account, which does NOT allow what you and I are doing with the Mail app. Not even logging into GMail via a web browser allows you to do this, because on the web replies still go with GMail text saying "Sent of behalf of..."
FWIW, the Mail app on the phone does NOT select the correct account if you are using your GMail account to POP another account, or you have other accounts set to forward to your GMail account, and those messages are pushed via GMail. In both those instances, when you hit Reply, the reply will be sent via your GMail address. You MUST select the desired account you want to reply from (provided you have it setup in the Mail app), if you want the reply to be seen as being sent from the same address that it was originally sent to.
Now, if you truly are pulling mail from your other non-GMail accounts (or the messages are being pushed from those mail accounts' servers), then yes, when you hit Reply on any of those messages, it's just like hitting reply on a regular mail client on a desktop computer, and the replies take on reply information from the respective mail accounts.
Anyways, you need a root file explorer. You will go to the "/data/data/" directory, then look for a directory containing the name of your email app (like /data/data/com.google.android.gm/ for gmail, etc)
That directory contains the settings and data from that app. Copy it, place on your new device in the same folder after installing the app on the new device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I figured as much. Does the root file explorer get installed on a PC, or is it an app you download to the phone, and then use on the phone to copy such values to an SD card?
Any suggestions on which root file explorer?
In the gmail app, hit menu then compose, at the top of the new email is a pull down menu with your @gmail.com account listed first and a down arrow. If you open this menu all your email accounts linked to gmail are listed with the option to send as for any account. I believe you can only add the accounts to gmail from a PC, at least that is how I set it up under the settings button, check mail from other accounts, send mail as, import mail and contacts, its all there. This way you never have to worry about adding multiple accounts again or copy files, its always there from now on.
Root Explorer is an app in the market, cost a buck I think, well worth it. ES File Explorer does the same thing and can connect wirelessly to other devices and is free. I use both.
Edit: calling it forwarding was probably the wrong term to use as you are granting gmail permission to check for email on the other accounts and if it finds new emails it grabs them and pushes them to your phone. You can then repond to them either using the account they came from or with your gmail account as I described above.
kzoodroid said:
In the gmail app, hit menu then compose, at the top of the new email is a pull down menu with your @gmail.com account listed first and a down arrow. If you open this menu all your email accounts linked to gmail are listed with the option to send as for any account. I believe you can only add the accounts to gmail from a PC, at least that is how I set it up under the settings button, check mail from other accounts, send mail as, import mail and contacts, its all there. This way you never have to worry about adding multiple accounts again or copy files, its always there from now on.
Root Explorer is an app in the market, cost a buck I think, well worth it. ES File Explorer does the same thing and can connect wirelessly to other devices and is free. I use both.
Edit: calling it forwarding was probably the wrong term to use as you are granting gmail permission to check for email on the other accounts and if it finds new emails it grabs them and pushes them to your phone. You can then repond to them either using the account they came from or with your gmail account as I described above.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, what you're describing must be set up on the PC. And, when you send an e-mail you can select which account you want it to SAY it's being sent from. But, the header on the message will still show your GMail account.
When you grant permission to have GMail check your others accounts, you're telling GMail to "POP" or pull the mail from the other account. Problem is that GMail again puts its "spit" on the message, instead of maintaining the original message header. That becomes a problem for me, and likely others in business, in that because of this, when you reply using the GMail convention of selecting a particular address, the recipient sees plain as day that the message was sent "on behalf of" whatever email address you chose to send from. Not very professional.
But, when you have multiple accounts setup in the AOSP Mail app on the phone, when you choose a different address to reply from, the app actually sends the message from that e-mail account, so the recipient sees only the info from that account, which is the way it should be.
Don't get me wrong, GMail is great for personal use, but when it comes to professional environments, you don't want people you're doing business with to see some generic e-mail address, you want them to see something coming from the company's domain. For example, would rather do business with someone with an e-mail address like [email protected], or [email protected]?
In fact, that's the biggest complaint with GMail and Android in the business world. Not enough native business support. And, that's fine for Google because there are more individuals in the world than companies, meaning more unit sales at higher prices. Problem for people like me is that cell carriers have heavily adopted Google's OS, which right now limits how much we can rely on Android phones in the work place. It's sad, because the hardware is technically awesome these days, and the OS itself has a lot going for it, but it's little things like the mail issue that show much of a babe in the woods Android is in the business world, and that makes it not quite ready for business prime time use... yet! It is getting there, though. Whoever wrote the Mail app is obviously an early business adopter who recognized the need, and as more people start to see things like what I've been able to do with it, albeit it's a workaround, I'm sure more business-savy developers will jump on the wagon, and make it easier to do more things conducive to "business" in the future. The ironic thing is that individuals are the ones driving Android because people with real jobs don't have time to dive in and figure out the workarounds that would show them the potential, you know?
I think Microsoft and a lot of the business world has realized that Google has not done enough to demonstrate an keen interest in the business world, and I predict that at the end of the year when Windows Phone comes back, it will likely come back with a vengeance and address all the stuff Android is lacking at the moment. After all, Microsoft ruled the business world for so long, they know what needs to be done. With the economies suffering, they've been smart not to try to bring something to market in an industry hampered by business spending freezes. But, the time is near.
Anyway, thanks for pointing me to the root file explorers. Will I need to root the phone before being able to use them to save those email account settings, or will they work on an unrooted device since I am only copying files? I ask because I don't want to go to the hassle to root and unroot again since I have to send the phone back to VZW when the new one arrives, does that make sense?
You have to be rooted to access the files using a file explorer.
When I send emails through gmail on my phone using the send as function I'm not getting anything like you are talking about in my emails. They show up as being sent from the account I choose not from gmail. However if you right click the email, select properties then open up details you see that it came from the gmail account but its buried in all the lines of code. And how many people actually do this? My clients that I work with don't really care where an email came from just that I answered. If I worked for a larger company like say Verizon than I could see that it matters but then again I'm not having that problem with gmail it works just as described for me.
xv-6800 said:
I think there may be a misunderstanding here. My phone has 2 apps. One is entitled Mail, the other entitled GMail. The GMail app only allows for GMail accounts. I am using the other Mail app. KZOODROID said he was forwarding his other accounts to a GMail account, which does NOT allow what you and I are doing with the Mail app. Not even logging into GMail via a web browser allows you to do this, because on the web replies still go with GMail text saying "Sent of behalf of..."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know what I did, but mine no longer say "sent on behalf of..". I believe it was something I configured on the gmail settings from the website, not from the app on the phone, but the settings have carried over.
If I send email from my cox account, it comes to you from [email protected]. If I send you an email from my work address, it similarly comes from [email protected].
I use the stock gmail app for all emails. I've removed all else, exchange, mail, etc. So I know for a fact that gmail will work the way you want it to, its just been so long since I've set it up that I can no longer tell you what I did.
as far as copying your files from one phone to another, you will need to be rooted, and you will need a file explorer. This is something like ESFile Explorer from the play store. Its installed on your phone, not the computer. You shouldn't need a computer for anything, actually, after you're rooted. All of this stuff can be done with simple apps and your sdcard and your phone(s).
Re: a reply e-mail sent from a different address set up on your GMail account:
I've tested this many times over the the years, as well as again last night. Regardless of whether the message is sent from GMail on the web or the GMail app on the phone, the result is the same, GMail ALWAYS inserts that "on behalf [email protected]". That's part of their marketing strategy, and there is no option to remove that. Period.
If you look at a reply sent in this way in a REAL e-mail program, not a mail applet on your phone or a web browser, you see that statement plain as day. For example, below are 2 snippets of what you see when you view such a message received in Outlook. No right-clicking or anything, I just open the message to read it. One was sent from the GMail app on the phone, the other from GMail via a web browser. You cannot help but see this statement, because that's what Google wants people to see to further their market awareness strategy.
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Let's put this particular issue to bed, shall we? I am not criticizing anyone's use of this "feature". I am simply showing the facts of how it works. If the option works for you, fine. I own multiple companies, and personally, I don't want people to whom I send messages see some gimmick like that on any of my e-mails, nor do I want any of employees sending company messages like that either. And, many businesses obviously feel the same way.
Again, I am not here to criticize users of GMail. The "on behalf [email protected]" is undeniably inserted in any reply sent from a different address set up on your GMail account. The only reason I ended up hijacking my own thread is because someone suggested I use my GMail address for everything, and I stated why I preferred not to. A misunderstanding of the option's behavior came up, and I figured I would show how the option REALLY works so that anyone else who happens upon this thread doesn't get misled by Google.
So back to the original topic of this thread:
Thanks for the info on the file explorers. I think I better just re-enter the email account info again on the new phone. This is a warranty replacement issue, and it's not worth risking something going wrong on the phone being sent back, or Verizon seeing some trace that I modded it. I'm sure they would have no problem blaming me for the original problem with the unit, then sticking me with the cost, which would likely be that so-called phony $600 retail price. :crying:
xv-6800 said:
Re: a reply e-mail sent from a different address set up on your GMail account:
I've tested this many times over the the years, as well as again last night. Regardless of whether the message is sent from GMail on the web or the GMail app on the phone, the result is the same, GMail ALWAYS inserts that "on behalf [email protected]". That's part of their marketing strategy, and there is no option to remove that. Period.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use a "real email program", both Outlook 2003 and Windows Live Mail and neither of them show "on behalf of gmail". It only shows the send as email account that I choose. Something is either wrong with the way you set up gmail to use send as or the email program you are using is doing it. Its not a conspiracy by Google as you seem to be the only one having this issue.
I wasn't here to start an argument with you. Check the image in my attachment and tell me if you see a "on behalf of" in there cause I can't find it...
LOL I didn't say it was a conspiracy. And, I doubt I am the "only one" that has this problem. ;-)
Google obvious does it for market awareness, which is understandable. As a company, they SHOULD try to brand everything they can, just like companies do.
Anyway, I used to use Outlook 2003, and am now on 2007. I also checked my GMail settings (again). The only options you have in regards to send as are:
When replying to a message:
Reply from the same address the message was sent to
Always reply from default address
And, I have the first one checked.
I don't want to continuer to beat this dead horse, but out of curiosity, in your Outlook can you see the From field in the spearate section above the message itself?
Aha! I just discovered that on January, 2012, Google added a new option that supposedly addresses the aliasing "on behalf of". Of course, it's not where you would think it is. It was added to the spot where you setup the Send As address to begin with. I will check it out.
If you know how to set up a basic mail server, there's also a simple workaround for you:
1) set up an smtp server, perhaps just in a virtual machine on a home computer, and then create the necessary rules on your router so that you can access it from the web.
2) Configure this smtp server to accept all your various email login credentials and send email from all your various addresses.
3) create a line in your /system/etc/hosts file on your phone to redirect smtp.gmail.com to your IP address at home. Do not modify anything for imap.gmail.com.
4) profit?
This should essentially force anything on your phone that tries to send any email from smtp.gmail.com (mainly the gmail app) to reroute to your own smtp server, which is now configured to send emails from any of your addresses.
xv-6800 said:
Aha! I just discovered that on January, 2012, Google added a new option that supposedly addresses the aliasing "on behalf of". Of course, it's not where you would think it is. It was added to the spot where you setup the Send As address to begin with. I will check it out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Now I feel like an ass, I used Windows Live Mail on my laptop to test this, sent emails from all my accounts and never saw anything except the send as address and I never saw the "on behalf of gmail". So for giggles I sent a test message to my work account on Outlook on my desktop and there it was plain as day. Now why does Outlook show it but Windows Live Mail doesn't?
I feel like an ass, too, so don't worry.
When I sent that last message, I went in and set the "no alias" thing, then sent a message, and am STILL waiting for that test reply message to arrive. I wonder if it ever will, now that I set it with the new option.
I should clarify that the new "anti-alias" thing also adds other options, like whether or not you want the reply sent via google's servers or through your own. Problem with sending via your own is that Google only offers certain sending ports, which are different than those which my companies use, and Google only allows you to choose from 3 ports. So, that's useless to me. I opted to use the Google servers, but now I'm not sure if that throws yet another kink into things, because I am STILL awaiting the test message arrival. It's been 30 minutes now. So much for using the new feature for time-sensitive communication, never mind of the message is sent at all! ;-)

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