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HTC Hero, Android 2.1(!)

I have 3 Gmail accounts on my phone — none of them allow me to Synchronize the "All Mail" label. How can I do this?

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Do you have so many labels that setting all of them to sync individually is too much of a hassle? –  Matthew Read May 29 '12 at 18:52
@MatthewRead: The "All Mail" archive is not necessarily the same as all labels. –  w3d May 29 '12 at 21:48
@Chris: Do you see "All Mail"? ...Do you have "All Mail" set to show inside Gmail? And is it set to show for IMAP (although I don't know whether that is necessary)? Under ICS (Android 4.0.3) I have Gmail 4.0.5 ... "All Mail" is visible, but there is no option to sync with it, it simply loads as required. –  w3d May 29 '12 at 22:09
@w3d Hmm, yes it has archived mail with no labels. I suppose I assumed that if one had mail you wanted to be readily accessible it would be in at least one label so that it would be easy to find. Search does the job otherwise. That said this does seem like a strange choice for Google to make -- the older version of Gmail on 2.2 is the same, with access to the label but no sync settings for it. –  Matthew Read May 29 '12 at 22:09

3 Answers 3

up vote 3 down vote accepted

It appears it's just not possible to sync messages without any label whatsoever, even in Android 4.*

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Workaround: Create a filter that applies a label (e.g. ZZ_All) to all emails you receive. Also apply this filter to all pre-existing emails and you have a label you can sync.

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Create a new filter f.e. "all" and every mail what goes out or comes in get this lable. Use it for every existing mail and here you go. Change settings on your android device! Dirty variant...

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That's exactly what Erik already suggested. –  Al E. Sep 10 '12 at 13:04

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