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up vote 11 down vote favorite

When I use Gmail on the iPad via Safari, I get a -to me- unusable version of Gmail like the image below:

enter image description here

Is there a way I can get the normal desktop view on my iPad?

(Note: the bottom row as shown in the screenshot, to switch view, is not there for me.)

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2  
Out of curiosity, what are the reasons you find it unusable? – Alex Sep 14 '11 at 7:31
For one, no access to contacts. – samskivert Jun 24 '12 at 19:58
I want to change my imap preferences. The special ipad app view doesnt have that. – n13 Mar 6 at 1:15

3 Answers

up vote 8 down vote accepted

Scroll the inbox side of the client and there is a link to the desktop which will get you to the more familiar Gmail view.

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Thanks! That looks like what I wanted. In the meantime I've also quite adapted to the mobile version, but I think this will help me more. – Lode Nov 30 '11 at 13:49
Thanks, I needed that to make my gMail Gadgets and Marketplace Apps work! – clst Mar 7 at 12:34
up vote 6 down vote

Is there any way to get the normal desktop view on my iPad?

You can force the simple HTML mode using https://mail.google.com/mail/h/

You used to be able to force Standard mode using http://mail.google.com/mail?nocheckbrowser, but this no long seems to work on iPad.

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I primarily use the HTML mode in the iCab browser. It's definitely not as nice as the desktop version, but when I've tried that, it doesn't seem to work right on the iPad. Wish it did and it seems like the iPad should be able to handle it. Having gmail in the browser is nice when accessing other web pages that link with google. And I use the stars for tagging important items. – Cincinnati Joe May 2 '12 at 17:23
up vote -2 down vote

Why will you want that?

I do get it that plenty of sites are much better to view the desktop view, but GMail is not one of those!

Gmail for Mobile has touch aware methods as their base app takes a lot of ajax async calls and the desktop view does not work that well on a mobile device.

What can't you do in the mobile version that you can in your desktop version? Unless you want to enable/disable Labs, and other stuff that is not reading and sending email :)

The new version of GMail for iPad below:

enter image description here

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protected by Community♦ Mar 22 '12 at 16:45

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