I have the feeling using GMail and iOS may be an unpopular combination on Lemmy. GMail is tracking every single thing you do in the app. Apart from all the messages.

So at least not using their app, and as a next step switching to a paid mail provider like recommended on PrivacyGuides will be good steps.

you may be able to replicate by emailing yourself with another device while you record on the device in question- if a video would actually be useful to someone

title could be 'problem: iOS miscounts gmail emails received' perhaps, or something