Mavericks Mail App and Gmail folders

I am really confused as I have just gone from using Apple Mail with Gmail as a pop3 account and have changed it into an IMAP account. Is there a simple way to get all the email out of my inbox so only those emails that are new will show up? I have 85,000 emails in there. If I deleted them all, would they also disappear from my Gmail account or would they remain in All Mail? Sorry to all if this sounds like a dumb question.

Imap accounts synchronize the server and the client, so yes, if you delete from one you have deleted from the other.

So make a local folder (in On My Mac) and move some of the 85,000 to it, they will disappear from the server and the Gmail Inbox, but they will be available in Mail on your Mac

As you can see, there is already an All Mail file there, so am I okay if I delete everything out of my Inbox?

If you wish, I would do it my way, but that's life (The All Mail folder you refer to is on the GMail server, not on your Mac)

Csound1, I appreciate your helping me. Here is another screen shot, what is going on here when it says it is caching 97000+ emails? Is there something going onto my computer, or is this all stuff going on from the server? Also, in the activity window it says incoming messages 24000+. Have I created a monster here? pop3 was so easy. When I get an email, it appears in the inbox, then I delete it. the only thing I didn't have was the ability to search, which is why I sort of wanted to go to an IMAP account. I just like having an empty inbox....

It's simple,

If you have 100,000 emails in your GMail account you will have the same amount in Mail on your Mac (in the GMail account)

If you wish to remove them from the server but keep access to them you must move them to a local (ie: non-server) folder.

You have a lot of email, it will take a while to synchronize with the server the first time around.

So all of that email is being stored on my Mac now as opposed to just being stored on the server???

The GMail account, in Mail on your Mac contains the same email as the server, that's as simple as I can make it.

(which is exactly as it should be)

If you do not wish to synchronize your mail (if you have no iPhone/iPad or similar) you can go back to POP.

You can also go to the Gmail web settings and not show certain folders on IMAP so that they will not be shown on your IMAP devices, like you iPhone and Mac.

True, but unless the All Mail folder is the one suppressed (and it should be) the quantity of Mail downloaded will not change.

Csound1 wrote:

True, but unless the All Mail folder is the one suppressed (and it should be) the quantity of Mail downloaded will not change.

Good point. I forgot about it because I don't want anything in "All Mail" because I want anything I delete to actually be deleted. I don't get the impression Google wants that.

You are less valuable as a Revenue Stream to Google if they allowed you to actually (and easily) delete stuff.

you should not have the all mail folder hidden from IMAP... This is the mistake alot of people are making which is causing issues with their mail app.

The new mail app requires all mail app to be turned on as it uses it to relable all your mail in a similar manner that gmail does it's labels...

Once all mail is shown on IMAP, it takes at least 4 days for it to syncronize your email so leave everything on, and try to to move emails during this time, as they will seem as is not working.... but it is!

-G

gdepena wrote:

you should not have the all mail folder hidden from IMAP... This is the mistake alot of people are making which is causing issues with their mail app.

No, mine has worked fine with All Mail disabled, prior to the Mail update, and after.

Barney,

It's awesome that you've not had issues!

For some the transition to the new mail app has not cause problems... but apple recommends that the all mail be shown for the new mail app to work with gmail propertly.

My email was working fine too, but one day it just stopped. That's when I looked into it and read about the new features in the new mail app. One of them being that all mail needs to be on for it to work properly in re labeling all your mail.

Best,

-G