gmail on mac has more emails than gmail account

Gmail is a very strange entity. While it claims to pretend it is IMAP, it is not.

IMAP contains folders and messages can only exist in a single folder. Gmail has Labels and a message can have thousands of Labels. The translation of many labels to IMAP folders would require duplicate messages to exist in an IMAP email client.

By default, all messages arrive tagged with two Labels, "Inbox" and "All Mail." Mail maps the All Mail label to the "Archive" mailbox. So, you should probably have about double the number of messages.

It's best to not use Gmail in an IMAP email client. Either find an email client that works directly with the Gmail protocol or use the web portal.

On my iPhone, I moved some of my gmail emails from the inbox to gmail folders I created months ago. However, within the past week, the emails I moved from the inbox to the gmail folders, after 24 hours, all the emails are back in my gmail inbox as if I never moved them to the other gmail folders. When I initially move them from the inbox to the gmail folder, they are moved, but then 24 hours later, they're back in the inbox. can you help please?