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Possible to somehow move folders from gmail to icloud mail account?

Hi all. Kinda new mac user here, and trying to "get out" of all my gmail accounts and use only my icloud and me.com accounts. Problem is, I have no idea how to move the folders within the gmail accounts over to the mac accounts. All are currently in mac mail, but I'd really like to do away with the gmail accounts completely - without loosing the folder contents. One person suggested forwarding them all... WAY too time consuming as there are a LOT of emails I want to keep, and two, when you forward of course, you can't tell who the email was from - just from yourself. HELP please?? I know a mac has to have some logical way to maybe associate a gmail folder with an icloud account somehow!


Thanks - Sharon

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.2)

Posted on Apr 12, 2014 5:17 PM

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6 replies

Apr 12, 2014 5:38 PM in response to 2rollinanglers

Create either local folders on the Mac or imap folders in iCloud on the Mac. Select all emails in a gmail folder and copy or move them to the folder you created for it. Once done, disable the gmail account in Mail's preferences. This will let you see if everything is ok where you can just re enable the account if necessary. Once you are satisfied, you can delete the gmail account from mail. You can also clear out the gmail messages at their website if you hadn't so within mail.

Apr 12, 2014 6:36 PM in response to 2rollinanglers

You said you have the gmail accounts set up in Mail. Do you see your gmail folders in the sidebar? Are your gmail messages in in inbox, or do you have other folders made in gmail?

If your gmail account is not expanded in the sidebar, put the cursor on the account and click the Show button that will appear. All other IMAP folders within gmail will show except for the gmail inbox, which will be listed in the Mail's main inbox.


Do you know how to create mailboxes (folders) in Mail? To create a mailbox, select the + sign at the bottom of the sidebar. In the pop up box, select the location (On My Mac- local folders, or select the account such as iCloud for IMAP mailbox). Give it a name and click OK. The mailbox will be created in the location you chose.

Apr 12, 2014 6:59 PM in response to 2rollinanglers

To Continue:


Choose copy messages from gmail to your new folder. To do so:

Open a gmail folder. Select a message in it. Hit the command key and the A key to select all messages within the folder. Once all messages are highlighted, right click over the message list and choose Copy To and select the location or account and the folder those messages will go to.

The messages will be copied to that new folder you created.


Do the same for other folders. Verify that the messages are copied to the new folders.


Once completed, open Mail's preferences and select the Account tab. Select a gmail account in the sidebar and choose the Account Information tab. Uncheck the box to enable the account and it will be removed from Mail, but will still be in the Account list in preferences. If you decide that you made an error or something isn't right, you can go back and check the box to enable the account and it will be put back into Mail.

Once you have deternined that everything is ok, you can go back into Mail preferences/Accounts, highlight the gmail account, and delete it by clicking the minus sign at the bottom of the window.


If you have more than one gmail account, you can do the same for all accounts.

Apr 13, 2014 7:06 PM in response to Glenn Leblanc

Glenn, you are a genius and should be on staff with apple! The tech I had told me "there is NO WAY you can move or copy folders over to another account"! I knew that some intelligent mac user was out there somewhere and would know the answer. It's not difficult at all and your step by step explanation was spot on!! Thanks again so very much - my sanity and hubby's as well (from not having to listen to me grumble about a fix what was needed) - BOTh thank you from the bottom of our hearts. You're a great teacher. 😀


EDIT: Ooops, another rookie mistake... I meant to mark YOUR post, not mine, as the solution to the problem... Sorry!

Possible to somehow move folders from gmail to icloud mail account?

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