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gmail on mac has more emails than gmail account

Why does my gmail account on MacBook air shows many many more emails than my gmail account actually has?

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 11.6

Posted on Jul 22, 2023 10:14 AM

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1 reply

Jul 22, 2023 10:32 AM in response to conniefromlilburn

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.

gmail on mac has more emails than gmail account

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