what are smart mailboxes and why do i need both smart and "normal" ones?

Hi, I am new to this forum, and pretty new to the mac. For starters: I use only gmail and reply from that perspective. I need/use a mail handling program to handle all my gmail. This does not matter for some of the things I say below, but it does for some other details.

I have always worked with "smart mailboxes" using Opera Mail (going to expire, unfortunately, which I why I am looking into Apple Mail) and have a very hard time understanding why someone would want to have "real" mailboxes. Just as with gmail itself: all mail in Opera is in ONE database. A smart mailbox (called a "label" in Opera) is what really is an "access point" - to mail that meets the defined criteria. In reality, all mail will remain in the forever growing mail database. And yes, wherever you delete it from, it will be gone. This is described in similar ways in the previous posts above.

It would be a hopeless task for me to move actual mails around in real mailboxes and remember where I put them. I would soon make a dragging mistake and not find mails back, or get hopelessly lost in a pile of mail. This is why I long ago abandoned most mail programs and chose Opera Mail. It comes the closest to working with how gmail is set up as well, which keeps all mail under the header "all mail". The "inbox" in gmail is also just a filter - for mails that have not been labeled as "archived" yet (I think).

I have, for example, a smart mailbox for each of my clients. All mail shows up in "all mail" by date and time, which is important throughout the day, but in my smart mailbox/filter I can focus on just the mails between me and one client.

I want a mail program to do most the "moving" automatically for me. So why would I still want a real mailbox in Apple Mail, is what I am asking myself today? My only reason is/would be if a real mailbox is necessary in order to avoid certain mails showing up in my "inbox" (apple mail) AND/OR "all mail" (gmail) locations.

Which is what I want - a lot!

Opera filters/labels has a nifty feature: a checkbox to "hide from other views". When I filter mail from cnn.com under its own label CNN, nested in a larger label News, and check this "hide from other views", these mails will not show in my ongoing list of mails (all mail).

However, Opera does not let me "skip" the inbox (new mail). For this I have set up a filter in gmail itself and the task to "skip the inbox". All political/community/meetup/commercial/not-so-relevant mails skip my inbox - and get filtered to be hidden from all mail as well.

So now I need to figure out what exactly I need from regular mailboxes in Apple Mail, and how I set them up. I will figure this out next, but I thought I first write this down, because, from my perspective, smart mailboxes are normal and the way to go. I hope, despite my lengthy post, that it may help someone.

I have no experience with leaving mail in inboxes but I would not really recommend it, because, at least in gmail, the "inbox" and "all mail" are designed to work that way, especially if you use a smartphone as well. Remember, the inbox is only another label/filter. The real mail is already in "all mail".

I always archive immediately, and "star" a mail (or give it label in Opera) if I need to do something with it. I keep my inbox as empty as possible.

As for the regular mailbox in Apple Mail, I have already discovered that the rule only seems to apply to mail that comes in after the rule has been set up. Is there a way to apply it backwards to all mail that meets the rule?

(in Opera and gmail you (de)select "apply rules only to new messages" or "also apply filter to matching conversations" respectively).

I have heard people's mailboxes filling up but I never have that problem with gmail. I have used only 5.7 GB with gmail (38% of my free storage capacity) accumulated over the past 10 years or so. That limit applies to a mail account as far as I know, not to where exactly you store your mails, like Csound1 says.

To me, the inbox is sort of a nuisance, I don't actually use it. I always just have "all mail" open (on Mnt Lion) and in Opera or gmail. New mail is bold, that's enough for me.

The only useful thing about the inbox is for my mobile: I get notified of (relevant) incoming mail. The rest has all been filtered away with smart mailboxes and, in the future, if needed, real mailboxes. Works perfect in Opera, not so much in gmail, not yet in Apple Mail.

If I understand this correctly, could I set up a rule to move all emails relating to a specific topic to a mailbox/folder and also have a smart mailbox that would show me all unread emails so that I don't have to check each mailbox for new mail?

Also, all the labels/folders that we just imported from Gmail are they now "mailboxes" in Apple mail?

Thanks.

KOT! I had to go to my Mail and create a Smart Mailbox to check this answer! If I'd known you were on, I would have just waited!!! 😁

Happy New Year,

GB

I tried deleting one and you're right, delete is delete.

Thanks,

KG

Yeah - that was an older post where king of typos was educating me....misnomer on my part.... 😟

The last post I did, I think represents it more correctly?

Cheers,

GB

Ah, yes it does.

YAY!!! We learn as we go.... 😀 Too bad there is no way to go back on those old posts and correct them when we can see they are totally WRONG!!! 😮

Cheers,

GB

Tapt, your explanation is excellent. I have one question. Does leaving all your mail in the inbox overload it? Do you ever get messages saying your box is full?

You can store all your mail in the inbox, until you reach your storage limits. Limits vary according to which email provider you use and what type of account you use.

So what is the All Mail equivalent in Apple Mail?

Archive (Mavericks) All Mail (Earlier than Mavericks)