Gmail Support Questions (FAQ)

This page is to document CIT support questions and answers.

Q. My empty folder (placeholder) created in Thunderbird does not get created in Gmail.

Empty folders don't transfer with GAMME. Kirk can modify the script to drop in an empty message ... is it worth the effort?

Q. Geneseo.edu messages are being marked as spam in Gmail!

Dave and I just checked with Sue today, and we are NOT going to set up a white list for @geneseo.edu addresses, nor should we be telling people about the user level filter!! Please tell our customers to check their spam folder. Let me know if you have any questions. (Laurie)

Most users will have to check their spam folder for at least the first week to train Gmail's spam filters.

Q. I added my Gmail account to Thunderbird and now I have a bunch of folders/labels that start with "INBOX"!

This indicates that Thunderbird is still using a system-wide IMAP Folder Prefix of "INBOX". There is no folder prefix for Gmail and Geneseo no longer needs it. It should be removed from Thunderbird before adding the Gmail account. If you have INBOX/{Sent,Drafts,Trash} it is probably easiest to delete them in the Gmail web interface and restart Thunderbird (after removing the INBOX prefix from Thunderbird).

Q. Hi David, Sherri Bush pointed this out to me, she typed a message in mac mail and would see "drafts" of it in her Trash folder (she estimates at 30 second intervals). Nik has seen this on his macmail too, and now Marie Shero is seeing this in Thunderbird. I believe it has to do with how Gmail is handeling autosave from the clients, here is a link to others complaining about it: https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!msg/Gmail-Help-Settings-en/LjQjes6ND0M/xrKcpWmQSj0J
Do you think anything can be done by Google on this- if not, any thoughts on stopping this on the client side?

Google's official recommendation (http://support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=78892) is to not save copies of almost anything on the server. I personally disagree with them and think we should save at least sent messages on the server but this issue might explain why Google doesn't want you to save things to the server. Is it really that bad to have old drafts in the Trash folder? Roundcube could very easily accumulate multiple copies of the same draft message in the Drafts folder and while it was slightly annoying it didn't impede message composition. We have so much quota that I don't think it would cause a space issue and Google's trash does have a 30-day lifetime so old drafts will be automatically pruned as time goes on. The easiest fix (if this bothers people that much) would be to not save drafts on the server.

Q. I decided to use appointment slots for office hours this spring because it worked pretty well last fall.  I set them up fine but when I happened to go to a link about using them I get a message saying that I won't be able to set them up after 4 Jan 2013. In spite of what they say, it appears that I was able to do it but is the feature going to be eliminated?  And if so, is it being replaced by something comparable?
Google did announce they were canceling appointment slots last month. I posted this on our Facebook page a few weeks ago, it has some options that might work for you: http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/google-calendar-cancels-appointment-slots-implications-for-scheduling-office-hours

Q. Mike Horn came in and told me that the Gchat/Gtalk is on by default. This means that students can stalk their profs and chat with them if they leave their Gmail web page open. Ideas? Comments?
Although chat is on, chat invitations must be accepted by each individual. There is an option in the Google Apps Administrator Dashboard that we did not enable, further protecting professors. Here is more information about inviting someone to chat: http://support.google.com/chat/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=159497&topic=2386430&ctx=topic

Q. When we send an e-mail from the mail room it reads from Unknown Campus Mail room is there any way to get that Unknown of the e-mail.
Laurie Fox can fix these manually - please put in an RT ticket. This problem will be addressed permanently in the reengineering of account creation.

Q. Can you help me understand the difference between folders and labels?

 
I found this forum online that explains how Gmail works for users who are having trouble wrapping their heads around "labels" vs. "folders" and where things actually exist in Gmail. It explains it pretty well, I think.

http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/gmail/vhouMnEi-w8
I had the problem with 700 messages re-appearing in my Sent Mail label (and folder in Thunderbird) after I opted-in to Gmail. I had moved these Sent messages to other folders to clear out my Sent Mail folder and when I moved to Gmail, it pulled them all back in to the Sent Mail folder.

Q. I cannot see my folders in Gmail
Here is how to trouble shoot this question:

1. Look in RT to ensure the mail transfer completed successfully (Subject like: Status of Google Mail Migration for User bp6)
2. Go to myGeneseo – UserCheck.
   
   1. In the Server Details section, click on the link Details
3. What folders do they have on our old system?

I've answered two calls about this today, and BOTH users were using local folders in Thunderbird. They will probably need help moving the folders to Gmail.