Q: Apple mail does not sync with gMail

If you used Sparrow and liked it, you will probably really like Airmail (as I do).  The look and feel resemble Sparrow to an eerie degree.  Macworld's review of Airmail notes several problems, including delays in fetching mail.  I noted a similar problem at first but after a day or so everything seemed to work fine.  No problems syncing with gmail, labels, etc.  It handles multiple accounts and aliases just fine.  As with Sparrow, we are limited in sorting mail to date received only; however, a feature allows easy finding of all email from any particular sender. 

If you were unhappy with Sparrow, or think Airmail's limitations would bother you, I'd suggest giving Postbox a try.  It's got a lot more features but the interface isn't as smooth or as pretty (it looks a lot more like Mac's Mail).

I came here because I, too, was having the "no syncing" problem with Mail in Mavericks. I read all 9 pages of comments here then decided to trying closing the Mail app then re-launching it and VOILA! It worked. I don't know how long it will last, but if I have to do it every day until Apple gets this fixed, at least I'm only out 5 seconds of my time. Just thought I'd throw that out there. (Sometimes we forget the most obvious possibilities.)

Judie,

That is acutally a really good point. I noticed the same thing. I guess I am looking for a more long term solution, but have not found that yet. I thought I had it in PostBox, but it appears to have some issues too.

I guess when I get used to rebooting to Mac once a month, at most, I don't think to reboot the application to cure an issue. I just hope a future update corrects the issue(s) once and for all.

--Glenn

Finally fixed it. Called Apple and the tech gave me these instructions (for Gmail IMAP users only):

Hold down the option key and go to Go > Library > Mail and rename the Mail folder Mail.old

Again, hold down the option key and go to Go > Library > Containers > com.apple.mail and rename that folder com.apple.mail.old

And again, hold down the option key and go to Go > Library > Containers > com.apple.MailServiceAgent and rename that folder com.apple.MailServiceAgent.old

In Mail, recreate your email account.

Seems to working for me fine so far two days later....

The reason you can't simply delete the email account in Mail and then re-create it is that the folders in the Library may still be used and casue the problems to persist. By renaming them they become defunct and force the system to write new ones. And by keeping them in place you can always go back to them if necessary.

Dislaimer: I'm not a Mac technician. If you need help call Apple. I get the best results by calling the "Apple Business" group at my local Apple store. They put me in touch with a hich level Apple tech in Cuppertino.

I hope it works for you.  I tried this same routine seferal weeks ago, and it only worked for a short time. 

Dudley

I'm in contact with the Apple tech giving him feedback. If something goes awry again he’ll be the first to hear about it.

I have had on-going contact with an Apple Email Specialist who periodically calls to see if the problem is stil going on.  He has been helpful, but does not hava a timeframe for fixing the current problems.  Since it worked under OS X 10.8, you would think the solution would be easier to find.

Dudley

If the issue persists I may move my mail to iCloud Mail.

I suspect this problem is not with Gmail or changes Gmail has made recently:

I have 2 loaded iMacs, 2 Mac Airs,and a Macbook Pro with Retina, and 2 iPads, and an iPhone.

I have confirmed on all my iPad and iPhone devices that all my Gmail content is visible, and installing Thunderbird on the iMacs and MacBooks accesses Gmail and the sub-directories.

However, MAIL on the iMacs and MacBooks fails to access the Gmail sub-directory contents dated pre-OSX installation.  I have kept everything updated.

PERHAPS NEW INFO TO THIS THREAD: Also, current Time Machine backups fail to show Gmail IMAP sub-directory contents dated pre-OSX installation as well, so this problem appears to be OSX UNIVERSAL not just affecting MAIL. (on one iMac, Mavericks trashed my Time Machine drive (Pegasus - but the company responded quickly with a fix but I lost all the backups). My other iMac (I have one at home, another at work) has a pre-OSX Time Machine backup still that Mavericks has not yet trashed (although it has tried in various ways). The pre-OSX backups show all my Gmail messages in all directories... but post-OSX install the directories show as empty.

Performing a 'Get Account Info' via MAIL 'sometimes' shows a correct Gmail sub-diertory message count, 'sometimes' does not, and 'sometimes fails to report the even the sub-directory name or stats.  BUT, doing Show Messages, even whent the message count shows correct, displays an empty directory, or only those messages post-OSX install.

As someone posted earlier, go to 'MAIL' and select 'Provide Feedback' and bombard Apple Support with a bug report.

PS. Thunderbird will not install an iCloud account in IMAP for me, even a manual config from settings in MAIL don't work, and Thunderbird won't 'Import Settings' or 'accounts' or 'folders' or 'Local mail' from MAIL under Mavericks either it seems... reports Info Not Found.

PSS. installing an iCloud account did nothing useful to these problems, and in fact I had to go online into iCloud via the web to create a subdirectory before MAIL or even the iPads etc would see more than the iCloud Inbox.

PSSS. to get MAIL to refresh the Gmail Inbox, I have to shutdown MAIL and re-open it (and sometimes, MAIL takes a long time to shutdown as well).

I tried this. It worked for 1 day then went back to old behavior. In the mean time I purchased AirMail ($3) and installed it. Have been running it in parallel with Mail. It has no trouble staying synced with Gmail. Mail is now 1 hour behind in Gmail updates compared to AirMail, which is exactly current (and matches my iPhone, iPad, and old MacBook).

Note that in the process of doing these various "fixes" for Mail, I have managed to lose all my local mail folders. They are still on my disk but have to be manual reloaded. I suggest exporting all local folders before major changes to Mail so that you can them more easily import them.

Good luck all, especially Apple if they can't get this fixed.

AirMail is $1.99 at the App Store. I've been using it for a couple of weeks now, works great. I am not going back to Mail even if Apple finally fixes it.

Does AirMail have a calendar?  It might be the martini I am drinking, but I just installed AirMail and it does not appear to integrate a calendar.

"....AirMail, and it does not appear to integrate a calendar"   .

Indeed. Nor does Mail have an integrated Calendar. Only Outlook.

Thank LexSchellings, that is good to know, only that it will lower my expectations for a while.  Too bad though.

Des, Mail is good, there are a few alternatives that are very good too: Postbox, Airmail. (some say Thunderbird, but I do not agree). But as far as I know, there is not a comparable integrated app to Outlook.

Airmail and Postbox think a bit different than Mail.

Lex