Deleting E-mails from Gmail

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Level 1

14 points

Deleting E-mails from Gmail

Hi,

I have been using Mail App on my Mac for 4 months. Since then, all what I do when I need to delete an email, is simply to press back space, and it moves the email to Trash.
Last week, I have noticed that all e-mails I have deleted are still available in All Mail. So when an Email is deleted, Mail App only removes the Label.

Is there a way I can delete emails from Gmail using Mail on Mac?

Thank a lot

Best Regards,
AMDeeb

MacBook Mid 2010 |, Mac OS X (10.6.7), | iLife '09 | AirPort Express | iPhone 3G (4.2.1)

Posted on Apr 4, 2011 9:27 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

thomas_r.

Level 7

31,989 points

Apr 4, 2011 9:58 AM in response to AMDeeb

This is a weirdness specific to GMail - messages are never deleted, unless you explicitly log on to GMail's web interface, go to All Mail and delete them from there. You can hide the All Mail mailbox from Mail if you like. See:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=12971129&#12971129

For some screenshots, see:

http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=13313680#13313680

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Answer 2

AMDeeb Author

Level 1

14 points

Apr 4, 2011 10:19 AM in response to thomas_r.

Thanks Thomas.

Thats what I have ended up doing. Deleted 1139 un-labeled emails from All Mails.

I guess the best solution is not to use Mail App. Problems with Labels and Deleting E-mails.

I think the most important feature Apple should work on in Lion, is Mail.
When I bought up my Mac in August, I have added my Hotmail account to Mail. I was surprised that Folders are not available. So I have ended up signing up for Gmail Account to use it. I thought that it is a good decision, since Gmail is awaaay better than Hotmail. Now, I find out that even Gmail is not working good.

Hotmail and Gmail are not working as they should be. Yahoo? you should have a Pro account.
Thats Ridiculous!!

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Answer 3

thomas_r.

Level 7

31,989 points

Apr 4, 2011 11:21 AM in response to AMDeeb

I guess the best solution is not to use Mail App.

If you are judging Mail by inadequacies and quirks in Hotmail and GMail, that's like saying that your flat-screen TV is crummy because you don't like the shows playing on channels 3 and 7. Hotmail is just plain lousy and GMail's weirdness cannot be properly dealt with by any e-mail client I'm aware of. GMail is meant primarily to be used via the web interface, POP and IMAP support feel like they were added as an afterthought.

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Answer 4

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Apr 4, 2011 11:46 AM in response to thomas_r.

I guess the best solution is not use Hotmail or Gmail.

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Answer 5

thomas_r.

Level 7

31,989 points

Apr 4, 2011 11:54 AM in response to Csound1

Nothing's really wrong with GMail, as long as one uses it with awareness of how it differs from most (all?) other e-mail systems.

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Answer 6

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Apr 4, 2011 11:56 AM in response to thomas_r.

Oh I was not suggesting there is anything wrong with Gmail, it just doesn't recommend itself to people who don't want to deal with change.

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Answer 7

thomas_r.

Level 7

31,989 points

Apr 4, 2011 11:57 AM in response to Csound1

Absolutely! 🙂

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Answer 8

AMDeeb Author

Level 1

14 points

Apr 5, 2011 9:57 AM in response to thomas_r.

Thomas A Reed wrote:

I guess the best solution is not to use Mail App.

GMail's weirdness cannot be properly dealt with by any e-mail client I'm aware of.

Microsoft Outlook on PC is compatible with Gmail's "Delete" thing.

On Mac OSX, I found an alternative to Mail App that is fully compatible with GMail, which is Thunderbird.
It is even compatible with staring emails as if you are in a web browser. Also, you can change the deleted items destination to you GMail's Trash Folder, which means that you can delete them from the server without logging from a browser.

I hope using Thunderbird will be temperer, till Apple solve GMail issue either via software update (which i doubt), or via Mac OSX Lion.

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Answer 9

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Apr 5, 2011 10:03 AM in response to AMDeeb

AMDeeb wrote:

Thomas A Reed wrote:

I guess the best solution is not to use Mail App.

GMail's weirdness cannot be properly dealt with by any e-mail client I'm aware of.

Microsoft Outlook on PC is compatible with Gmail's "Delete" thing.

On Mac OSX, I found an alternative to Mail App that is fully compatible with GMail, which is Thunderbird.
It is even compatible with staring emails as if you are in a web browser. Also, you can change the deleted items destination to you GMail's Trash Folder, which means that you can delete them from the server without logging from a browser.

I hope using Thunderbird will be temperer, till Apple solve GMail issue either via software update (which i doubt), or via Mac OSX Lion.

If you take the time to correctly setup Mail for GMail there is no functional difference between it and Thunderbird (as far as folder display/mapping), this is a user issue not Gmail and not MacMail.

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