Hello Danielle.
The following are some info on how to set up the Mail application that is part of OS X for use with Gmail.
_*Apple Mail and GoogleMail via IMAP*_
*Activating IMAP for Google Mail*
If you haven’t activated access via IMAP for Google Mail already, follow the instructions given by Google [here|http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=77695&topic=13294]. It boils down to this:
1) Sign in to Gmail.
2) Click "Settings" at the top of any Gmail page,
3) click "Forwarding and POP/IMAP",
4) select "Enable IMAP".
5) Click "Save Changes".
*Creating a new account in Apple Mail*
To add a Google Mail IMAP account in Mail.app, go to File > Add Account. A wizard will open which prompts you to insert your Name, the eMail-address of the new account and the password. Don’t use the option for automatic configuration if it’s available. Info on what to type into the different fields can be obtained from Google [here|http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=78799&topic=12814]. The most important are:
1) Incoming Server: imap.gmail.com, port 993 (using SSL)
2) Outgoing Server: smtp.gmail.com, port 465 or 587 (using SSL)
3) Your account name is your full email address including "@gmail.com" (without the quotation marks)
*Configuring the Google Mail account in Apple Mail*
After you have added your Google Mail IMAP account to Mail.app, you’ll find a section for Google Mail in Mail.app’s sidebar with subfolders like "All Mail" (which has in turn several subfolders) and folders for each label you created with GoogleMail. Now you have to configure the account properly. Despite what [Google recommends|http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=78892&topic=1281 4], I found the following settings to work best for me.
In the sidebar, navigate to the subfolders Trash/Sent/Drafts/Junk of "Google Mail" (the one with the white folder icon instead of a blue one) in turn and go to "Mailbox" menu > "Use this mailbox for..." > Trash/Sent/Drafts/Junk respectively. Afterwards these folders show up as subfolders to the main Trash/Sent/Drafts/Junk folders in the sidebar (and at the same time disappear from the GMail section). Among others this step is necessary because of Google Mail’s implementation of labels. E.g., as Google states [here|http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=78892&topic=12814]:
Messages that are deleted from an IMAP folder (...) only have that label removed and still exist in All Mail
So if you want to delete a message you have to set the option to "Use this mailbox for… Trash" as described above. Same applies to sent messages etc.
Furthermore, make sure every checkbox in Mail's Preferences > Accounts > GoogleMail > Behavior is checked . (Some will already and automatically be checked when you apply the option "Use this mailbox for..." as described above).
Good computing.
floba
(MN456)
