Apple Mail not showing any emails in Inbox when using Gmail IMAP.

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Level 1

9 points

Apple Mail not showing any emails in Inbox when using Gmail IMAP.

I am using Mail to check my Gmail which is set up in Google Apps. The problem is that it never seems to synchronize properly with Gmail. Right now, if I click on Inbox in Mail, it is empty. Not one mail. But if I search for something in the search bar, the mails in Inbox appear. This happens on two computers, an iMac and a Macbook Pro, both running Snow Leopard.

I am using about 1.7GB of space on Gmail, so I do have a lot of mail, but for some reason Apple Mail never seems catch up and just run smoothly. Other people on the same domain hosted by Google Apps, also using Apple Mail are fine. Please let me have any ideas.

Operating system: Apple OS X 10.6.1
Program and version you use to access Gmail: Apple Mail 4.1

Macbook, iMac, iPhone, Mac OS X (10.5.5)

Posted on Oct 27, 2009 2:59 AM

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Answer 1

Oct 27, 2009 10:06 AM in response to Rtaxerxes

Please control-click on the Inbox of the Gmail account, and choose Get Account Info -- are you able to connect to the server, and see the various folders, and the size of, and number of messages said to be in each, under the Quota Limits tab?

Ernie

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Answer 2

Oct 27, 2009 11:19 AM in response to Rtaxerxes

It seems that Mail 4 now separate the Gmail (IMAP) to their own inbox at the very bottom of the mailbox window.
They are no longer included in the main inbox - I find this a really annoying thing and can't figure out why they did it.

To top things off - I tried changing my Gmail to a POP (option is available in the Gmail setting at the google site) but so far anyway - Mail will not connect.

Mail 4 has some real issues...
Junbao

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Answer 3

Oct 27, 2009 2:50 PM in response to Joel Burris

Joel,

It really doesn't have "real issues" in normal behavior. Only the All Mail folder should be found further down the Sidebar -- the Inbox should be at the top. How many accounts do you have?

If you wish to set up as POP, remove the IMAP account, then click to add an account, complete the first screen, and then hold down the Option key until the Create button changes to say Continue. Click continue, and the choice to add it as a POP account will now be offered.

Ernie

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Answer 4

Rtaxerxes Author

Level 1

9 points

Oct 27, 2009 10:15 PM in response to Ernie Stamper

Hi Ernie,

Yes I can see quota and all folders are listed. Connection to server seems fine.

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Answer 5

Oct 28, 2009 4:15 AM in response to Rtaxerxes

I was expecting you to report the size and number of messages, at least for the Inbox folder?

Ernie

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Answer 6

Rtaxerxes Author

Level 1

9 points

Oct 30, 2009 3:22 AM in response to Ernie Stamper

Hi Ernie,

I tried to get the numbers for you. What I got was:
Currently in use 1,3GB
Sent 1422 251MB
Sent Messages 224 39,7MB
Drafts 1 27.4MB
Junk E-mail 50 2,6MB
inbox-forex 46 640kb
Inbox_ 113,2kb
Drafts 6 11,4 KB

It then listed the remaining folders with 0 and 0. Then it started downloading mail, it got to 60 of 61 and then never any further, even though I let it go for 35 minutes.

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Answer 7

Oct 30, 2009 9:32 AM in response to Rtaxerxes

Please confirm the exact name of the Inbox -- you have written it as Inbox_ but is that typo? You say it has 113 message with a total size of only 2 KB, or its size in 113.2 KB and no report of the number of messages?

Ernie

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Answer 8

Rtaxerxes Author

Level 1

9 points

Nov 4, 2009 5:59 AM in response to Ernie Stamper

I have taken some screenshots so you can see what I am dealing with...

http://gallery.me.com/rtaxerxes/100023

I am actually using 1.3GB of space on GMail and have about 50 sub-folders. I have deleted the account from Mail and re-created it and resynced it and it seems to work and then starts messing up.

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Answer 9

Nov 4, 2009 10:20 AM in response to Rtaxerxes

What have you entered in the IMAP Path Prefix, in Mail Preferences/Accounts/Advanced? If INBOX, remove the Gmail account, and then set it up again. This time do not enter anything into the IMAP Path Prefix, in Mail Preferences/Accounts/Advanced and check behavior again. While I think on an iPhone the path should be INBOX, I don't think it should in Mail. See this article and also this one. In my experience, unlike one who commented, Mail does not require me to input any prefix.

However, another forum recommends the IMAP Path Prefix be [Gmail] when you have lots of user defined folders as you do -- see:

http://www.geekology.co.za/blog/2009/02/configure-gmail-imap-accounts-properly-i n-apple-mail-and-on-the-iphone/

Ernie

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Answer 10

Rtaxerxes Author

Level 1

9 points

Nov 4, 2009 11:28 AM in response to Ernie Stamper

I don't have anything in the Path Prefix. I have set up all the other folders as INBOX/foldername. This is working for two other users using Google Apps.

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Answer 11

Nov 4, 2009 11:59 AM in response to Rtaxerxes

This is confusing and probably problematic. If you look at the Account Info dialogue, it does not appear that Mail is even seeing your Inbox folder, and much of the hierarchy is not there either. In my experience, folders subordinate to the Inbox should only be found when there is an IMAP Path Prefix (normally when INBOX).

If you sign on via your browser, what folders do you see on the server? Any mailboxes created On My Mac would not be on the server, but also would not display beneath the Inbox.

More info, please.

Ernie

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Answer 12

Rtaxerxes Author

Level 1

9 points

Nov 4, 2009 12:24 PM in response to Ernie Stamper

Welcome to my confusing and problematic world. We currently have 20-odd users on the Google Apps domain. 3 of them are using Apple Mail to access their mail. 1 is having problems. The only thing different about this user is that we imported messages in from Outlook using the Google mail importer. This is the only thing I can think. The importer seemed to ignore certain folders, even if we retried, and it created folders as inbox/insurance_ etc. I changed all the folders to INBOX in caps, as that is what Mail preferred, and removed the trailing underscore.

This is the only thing different about this user.

On a web browser looking at Gmail, I have:
Inbox
Starred
Sent Mail
Drafts
--------
[Imap]Drafts
Apple Mail To Do
Deleted Items
Deleted Messages
Follow Up
INBOX/folder1
INBOX/folder2
INBOX/folder2/folder1
etc...
INBOX/Folder113
Junk E-mail
Misc
Priority
Sent Messages
4 More (containing Chats, All Mail, Spam, Bin)

I did another "Account Info" and got this: http://gallery.me.com/rtaxerxes/100023/Screen%20shot%202009-11-04%20at%2010.19.5 9%20PM
You'll notice, now it does have an Inbox. But the folders it says are 0 messages and 0 KB do actually have stuff in them on the web browser.

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Answer 13

Nov 4, 2009 12:51 PM in response to Rtaxerxes

In Mail, open the Inbox, then click on Mailbox, and then place the cursor over Use This Mailbox For -- what is offered?

Where was this import done -- in Mail, or while in browser access to the Google account?

As a further thought, if the IMAP account was being used with Outlook, then why was any import even needed. Should only have needed to setup the account in Mail and see everything that was already on the server? Or are these On My Mac mailbox (user created on the hard and not the server)?

Ernie

Message was edited by: Ernie Stamper

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Answer 14

Rtaxerxes Author

Level 1

9 points

Nov 4, 2009 10:58 PM in response to Ernie Stamper

If I check what is available on the Inbox of the account, there are four options, Drafts. Sent, Trash, Junk and they are all greyed out.

The import was done on a windows machine using Google's importer. The reason we did this is because we were using an exchange server. So this client was downloading mail using POP and that was syncing with an on-site exchange server. We were hosting our own domain and not using Google at all.

We then decided to move to Google Apps since that offered Calendar and Mail 'in the cloud'.

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Answer 15

Nov 5, 2009 8:29 AM in response to Rtaxerxes

These would appear to be the proper choices, and also proper to be grayed out for the Inbox.

I think the way import was done is related to this issue. Can you have this user only setup the basic account and delay trying to add the archived folders from when using Outlook?

Ernie

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