Mail going into [ARCHIVE] folder?

Any ideas why I have an Archive folder which all my mail from my Gmail account goes into on my Mac Mail? seems really odd?

I have 10 email accounts, from outlook to icloud but for some reason, all the gmail account emails I received go into my ARCHIVE folder?

When I log into my Gmail account directly, there's no mention of those ARCHIVE folders? so why is OSX MAIL showing this?

Also, no mention of Archive folder on my IOS devices?

Any idea why as this folder is growing in the thousands at the moment?

MacBook Pro 15", macOS 10.14

Posted on Mar 15, 2019 12:18 PM

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WordWeaver777

Level 4

1,161 points

Posted on Mar 15, 2019 1:27 PM

If you look at the "Rules" tab in Mail's preferences window, you will see that it is possible to set up a rule which archives some, or even all, of your messages which meet the criteria you have set. This rule can be set to send the mail to any one of your email accounts. For example, I use both Gmail and Yahoo. So, if I set up a rule which uses certain criteria, I can tell Mail to either archive it in my Gmail account, or in my Yahoo account.

My suspicion is that you -- or someone else possibly -- has set up a rule which is telling the Mail app to archive all incoming messages from Gmail to that particular archive folder.

In short, I would say to examine any rules you or anyone else may have set up, and determine if for some reason it is performing this action.

Oh, and by the way, I suspect that given that you have said that it is growing by the thousands, it may in fact be filtering spam to that folder.

If this is helpful or resolves your issue, please let me know. Thanks!

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27 replies

Barney-15E

Level 10

122,456 points

Mar 15, 2019 7:21 PM in response to WordWeaver777

Get over yourself

And yes, I don’t care about your feelz.

You should have recognized the problem was Mail’s Gmail settings from the get-go.

There was an entire page of useless garbage until you finally got around to the actual issue

Mar 15, 2019 2:06 PM in response to WordWeaver777

Thanks for your reply.

i had already checked rules and there are no rules set up?

just have no idea why this is happening.

also, since I have a lot of emails, it is feeling sluggish now :(

Mar 15, 2019 3:17 PM in response to WordWeaver777

Hi thank you, I have firstly taken a look and under the "Manage Labels" option there's nothing I can see there.

Also checked under Forwarding and POP/IMAP, I can see the attached?

Mar 15, 2019 3:38 PM in response to WordWeaver777

HI there, I applied those settings and it didn't make any difference, still going into ARCHIVE as you can see, the settings I think are correct and I have hit save:

Mar 15, 2019 3:53 PM in response to WordWeaver777

thanks, the archive folder is still there ;(

Mar 15, 2019 4:32 PM in response to WordWeaver777

Checking in GMAIL via web browser and there's nothing in the trash folder....

Checking in Mac Mail app, theres not that many?

Mar 15, 2019 5:10 PM in response to WordWeaver777

Yes I do use iOS and yes syncd

Mar 16, 2019 2:46 AM in response to WordWeaver777

thanks for the explanation/s I do feel much more confident than I did originally about how Gmails, Mac mail and iOS devices work so thanks for your help, i’ll See how I get on and report back...

Mar 16, 2019 3:10 AM in response to I am the Count

Okay, my friend. If you consider this issue solved, don't forget to mark it as resolved. Thanks! :)

Mar 16, 2019 3:26 AM in response to WordWeaver777

No worries... let me evaluate fully and then confirm 👍

Mar 15, 2019 2:18 PM in response to I am the Count

Okay, it certainly seems like this problem is directly related to Gmail, and only to Gmail.

If you are absolutely certain that there are no rules on your "Rules" tab, then my next suspicion is that something has changed in the online Gmail end of things.

If there is something in your online Gmail account that is causing this to happen, then it will create the resulting Archive folder on the Mail app end.

So, you need to go into your online Gmail account and carefully examine how you have Gmail set up.

In particular, I would look at the lefthand column of your Gmail account.

Scroll down and click on the "More" option.

Next, click on the "Manage Labels" option.

Once you do that, you will see a series of settings links along the top of the window. Somewhere in there, you may hopefully find what is causing this to happen.

Please let me know how it goes. Thanks!

Mar 15, 2019 3:30 PM in response to I am the Count

If my guess is correct, you will NOT see the archive folder until you actually delete a message. That is what is causing this to happen; the action of deleting messages. Because of your current settings in Gmail on their website, your messages are being archived, instead of being sent to the trash, when you delete them.

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Mail going into [ARCHIVE] folder?