I'm trying to find out what 'archive' in Mail is all about. At present I move all mail older than two years into a mailbox called 'old inbox' or 'old sent items'. This is on the Mac. Does the 'archive' mailbox do something else, or do it better?
iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4)
It seems to me that Archive is taking up capacity on my hard drive in order to reduce keeping messages -- most of which I don't want to keep -- on the IMAP server, which isn't my problem. What is my personal advantage? How can I determine what gets archived and what doesn't? And what happens when I delete messages from the Archive folder? They just disappear? I feel as if Apple Mail is reaching too deeply into my mail management for my personal comfort.
The Gmail All Mail folder is an Archive folder. It should show up in the list under Archive.
How to archive a message in Mail
If your account is IMAP, the Archive feature will save your messages to a folder named "Archive" on the IMAP server. I just ran a test, and saw a new "Archive" folder pop up server-side and in my logs.
I am not sure this. Some IMAP accounts set here. The Archive folder can not be found on server side.
I'm also confused about "Archive". I'm using Gmail and Apple Mail.
It does seem to me "Archive" is exactly the same as "All Mail"
Any way to disable it?
nbar is incorrect.
If your account is IMAP, the Archive feature will save your messages to a folder named "Archive" on the IMAP server. I just ran a test, and saw a new "Archive" folder pop up server-side and in my logs.
If youre account is POP, those messages were already off the server (assuming you purge your messages, which is the norm with POP).
I will say that on one of my email services, the email server itself moves sent messages older than 2 weeks old to "Archive/Sent Items", so that browsing your regular sent items folder is snappier since it doesn't have to load up the thousands of messages you've sent in the last two decades. This folder automatically appears in Apple's "Archive" area.
Thanks for your reply nbar. So it sounds as though 'archive' is more or less the same as what I am doing manually into a designated mailbox on the Mac.
Similar probs here on sleek new iMac, so as for our case it is not a question of upgrade to Mavericks from previous os x version. Only our gmail/googlemail mail accounts affected.
We never used nor use archiving because we have a better fashion for backing up mails.
All affected accounts use IMAP, never POP.
On the server no Archive mailbox, nor folder, nor label, nor category nor other was created
neither by user nor by system. Gmail filtering not in use - means no filters exist.
Any though the Mail shows for all those gmail/googlemail accounts the Archive mailbox
and is by some magic reason copying the new messages to the Archive mailbox.
How to get rid of this strange feature ? Because it does not delivery any value for us.
It just generates additional efforts.
Will using the archive folder prevent it from syncing to your devices? It would be nice to be able to keep messages archived in the cloud without syncing them and taking up space on your iPhone. I suspect this is what its for, but I have not tested that theory yet...
In Mavericks Mail you have to sync to the Gmail All Mail folder. The Gmail All Mail folder is the Archive folder.
In Mountain Lion Mail you can select in Settings > Labels not to sync All Mail.
You also have the option to setup Gmail as POP account. As a result the All Mail folder does not sync. Select the option to "Enable POP for mail that arrives from now on" or Gmail will download everything in the Inbox.
Note: if you delete a POP account, Mail deletes all the messages in the POP Inbox. It does not delete mail in your custom folders and/or Archive folder. A good reason to archive your messages.
If you delete messages in an archive folder either IMAP or POP the messages are no longer stored on your Mac and/or the server.
The only way to keep mail on the server and not on your Mac is to use as a POP account. POP only downloads from the Inbox. Create a folder on the server and move the old messages you want to this folder and Mail won't download.
Thanks for input!
Actually I change from POP to IMAP because pop does not enable to have one master and several slave clients,
where master gets read/write access to server and slaves the read-only one.
These are Gmail accounts. For them the Mail presents one mailbox - Inbox, and separately a mailbox for other server folders. Under those other folder the All Mail is not present. Nowhere a mailbox presented by Mail where I could Access the All Mail folder.
I guess I got how to deal with discussed property.
The plan used on our machines is the machines with imap clients are masters. IMAP servers are slaves.
It means workstations are use to store and keep all mails. All mails are removed from imap server as soon
as downloaded. Also no deleted mails should be stored on server.
For all Gmail based account the mail messg. is to manually moved to trash folder in Mail
when it is to be deleted. Then "erase deleted items" is to be done on trash folder.
For these accounts "move deleted mails to trash mailbox" is selected.
Frankly, I'm wondering why you even use IMAP since you are using it like a POP account. If you don't want the All Mail (Archive) folder, you would be better off with POP. Set to 'leave on server' so other devices will have access to the emails.
Using POP I didn't mangage to get following model working.
There are several email clients, mostly each email client on a separate device.
One client is master, remaining are slaves.
Slaves can just fetch new mail, or send mail.
Master fetches the mail and deletes them from server immediately.
It is an required feature the slaves are not able to fetch mails as soon the master did it.
With POP and Gmail or Gmail -based email providers it was not possible to implement this model.
Actually, I still not understand how the option "Move deleted messages to the Trash mailbox" exactly work.
I guess, here is the mac local scope addressed.
But what happens with the copy on imap server when message is being deleted this way?
Is also moved to server's trash?
How is the behavior on Mail's side and server's side when this option is not chosen?
I believe too one should be able to set POP to delete messages from server.
In fact it worked pretty well.
However, it worked only with email account providers which do not have anything in common with Gmail/Googlemail.
For that of Gmail or those based on it that did not work!
However all those attempts were made in the past and with other email client than os x's Mail.
Two rules were set for each new message:
- fetch it from server
- delete it on server
Locally on client side all looked well. One day few months later after had started doing so a short look into account
using the web email client shown it is not true - all the mails fetched earlier reside still on server. How an frustration!
Because with this it turned out one needs periodically to log on to server via its web client and do the cleanup,
the used model means server is slave and is allowed it keep messages till those are not fetched by master client.
The general recommendation that time read change to IMAP in order to achieve the aimed goal.
Now all the accounts are set to imap under Mail.
IMAP has some other advantages: if one day on slave client a email template or draft should be done,
it is easier to transfer it to master client. The same if one day a rare case should occur that from slave client
an email is sent.
I agree totally with these sentiments. I hadn't even looked at this folder since upgrading to Yosemite a few days ago (i'm sure I didn't have one before in Snow Leopard) and found over 2000 email! all of which were copies of long ago mail refiled in appropriate folders or, in vast majority of cases, deleted. I have had to spend hours checking and deleting, (and then clearing Trash Folder.
How can I ensure future Archived Mail is deleted when i delete "original" message?
What is the point of the Mail Archive function?
