Gmail Offline Access with Google Apps Premier Edition outside of the US

I encountered a tiny problem using Gmail Offline with Google Apps Premier, that might apply only to some non-US countries.

The Create Desktop Shortcuts action does not create any shortcut at all (at the time of this writing and using Google Chrome). So how do I access my mails when offline?

The URL to be used for accessing Google Mail (gmail.com) as given in the help pages does not apply to Google Apps accounts. Normally I just access my Gmail by browsing to http://mail.saddey.net, eventually being redirected to https://mail.google.com/a/saddey.net/. When offline, mail.saddey.net cannot be accessed.

The work-around is both trivial and effective: Just navigate directly to the very same URL that shows up in your browser after invoking Gmail while being online. For convenience, you can create a shortcut of your own just as easily by right-clicking your desktop and selecting New, Shortcut and entering the full URL (from Google’s domain).

Notes: As of now (31-jan-09), using Gmail Offline with Google Apps Premier requires:

  • A browser that is supported by the Google Labs feature (common but up-to-date ones will do)
  • The Google Labs feature (“new features”) to be enabled in your Google Apps domain settings (if you don’t know what this is, please call your admins).
  • The display language no longer needs to be set to English (US), your language might already be supported now.
  • The Google Labs feature to be enabled in your personal Gmail settings
  • Offline to be enabled in your personal Gmail Labs settings

About Reiner

Born 1954 in Ratisbon (Bavaria, Germany), in 1976 punched cards at Berlin Technical University, caught hacking one of its mainframes by Horst Zuse (son of Konrad Zuse), started studying computer science and soon was offered a job whithin their computer department doing systems programming for IBM VM/370. While studying, jobbed around Germany at various places doing all sorts of things, then returned to Berlin to work at SRZ (computer aided typesetting). Never finished my master degree, but chose to take up self-employed work (which didn't turn me rich nor famous). Now working for a mid-sized software company within a very promising department as head of server software development.
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