Understanding Mail, attachments, and folder size issues

Probably the first thing you should do is select via web access to exclude the All Mail and SPAM folders (unless you use a Blackberry).

There multiple folders that are created when using IMAP access of a Gmail account, and the All Mail folder, for example can be huge.

You can exclude the All Mail folder, as well as SPAM and other folders. When you access as IMAP (the default now-a-days) there are standard folders that all email clients ( and not just Mail) display and access. Many of those folders can be excluded. To exclude the All Mail, SPAM and other folders for IMAP access do a Google search with Gmail and Advanced IMAP Controls. You should be able to exclude these folders, and to do so sign on to your Gmail account, click on Settings, then on Labs, and enable advanced IMAP control. Once that is done, you can then click on Labels tab in Settings and make some selections -- those that can be excluded will be in the list.

Caution -- I recently learned that a Blackberry needs the All Mail to access, but not the case with other phones, such as iPhone. See also:

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=78755

The Keep copies will apply the next time you access the server to all messages, btw.

If you remove attachments from a message in your email client (Mail in your case), it will also be removed from the server with an IMAP account.

Ernie

Message was edited by: Ernie Stamper

I use OmniDiskSweeper that tells me exactly the size of each and every mailbox. I find that a great tool for finding the largest mailboxes to archive or delete message from which ever is appropriate.

Allan