Q: On my laptop gmail is going straight into the trash folder but not on my iMac why?

Are you using Mail? I don't think that any mail goes to the trash automatically. It could go the junk mailbox, but not the trash - UNLESS you have set some rule to that effect. Check under Mail->Preferences->Rules.

That is not correct.  Mail DOES automatically go into the Trash for me also.

neark wrote:

 

That is not correct.  Mail DOES automatically go into the Trash for me also.

What kind of mail? All? Some specific? What type of mail account - IMAP or POP?

If a message is considered junk it should be moved to the junk mailbox, but there is no automatic way that I know of that would, upon arrival, take messages to the trash, unless there is some rule that mandates it; said rule may be on the server side, but only in case of IMAP, not POP.