What does iCloud Mail Syncing accomplish?

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What does iCloud Mail Syncing accomplish?

I have one Mac desktop and two laptops, plus an iPhone & iPad. I use use IMAP with my Gmail account and forward my "iCloud" mail to my Gmail account. I am using OS X 10.9.3. It seems the IMAP features keep the mail "synchronized" on each device. I thought iCloud sync may sync smart mailboxes across the devices, but I can't seem to create smart mailboxes that persist (separate discussion topic).

Since I can't seem to use smart mailboxes, is there any reason to sync mail through iCloud? What is it supposed to do?

Thanks Dave

P.S. feel free to comment on my other thread!

https://discussions.apple.com/message/26116959#26116959

PowerMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9), 2009 2.66 GHz 8 Core, 24 GB RAM,

Posted on Jun 14, 2014 5:29 PM

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Answer 1

Jun 14, 2014 5:43 PM in response to David Strait

A smart mailbox is not a real folder but a view of messages that meet the criteria you selected for the smart folder. Messages are not moved and still exist in what ever folder they reside. While smart folders are great for reading your mail, they do not sync. If you setup the same smart folder on all devices, you would see the same views of your messages.

If you want sync between devices, you need to to move messages to a real folder (Mailbox).

In addition when you forward iCloud to Gmail, all messages would come in as one folder. Normally, you don't forward one IMAP account to another. Gmail has a setting to "fetch" up to 5 POP accounts. There is no setting to "fetch" IMAP.

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Answer 2

Barney-15E

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Jun 14, 2014 5:52 PM in response to David Strait

The only Mail "sync'd" through iCloud is an iCloud account. That's not really syncing as much as it is having the same IMAP account on all of your devices. I think it used to (and may still do so) set up accounts the same on all devices, but the data was not synced in this process.

I can't find any way to have a Smart Mailbox on an iDevice, so there'd be nothing there to sync.

I don't know about another Mac.

There is not really any Syncing going on in iCloud, except that all of your devices look to one central location to get the data. When you update info, it is pushed to that central location, and then sent back out to all the devices. Yes, that is some form of Syncing, but it isn't the traditional merging of the storage of two separate devices.

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Answer 3

David Strait Author

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488 points

Jun 14, 2014 6:41 PM in response to Barney-15E

Barney,

This makes sense from what I observe. I auto-foward messages from iCloud to my Gmail account (then auto-delete from iCloud). This allows me to centralize all messages on one server and use a single subfolder structure. So there is nothing for iCloud to sync (unless it sync'ed smart mailboxes, which I can't create as descibed in my other thread).

It seems there is no reason to use iCloud sync for my Mail accounts.

Thanks!

Dave

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Answer 4

Barney-15E

Level 10

122,198 points

Jun 14, 2014 6:57 PM in response to David Strait

It seems there is no reason to use iCloud sync for my Mail accounts.

I'm still confused. Where do you see "iCloud sync?"

Maybe I'm missing something.

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Answer 5

David Strait Author

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488 points

Jun 14, 2014 7:09 PM in response to Barney-15E

I am referring to --> System Preferences --> iCloud --> Mail (checked).

Maybe this not called "iCloud Sync," for Mail, but that is how I interpreted it.

Dave

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Answer 6

Barney-15E

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122,198 points

Jun 14, 2014 7:15 PM in response to David Strait

David Strait wrote:

I am referring to --> System Preferences --> iCloud --> Mail (checked).

Maybe this not called "iCloud Sync," for Mail, but that is how I interpreted it.

Dave

Ahhh. No, that is not "Sync"

That's just telling the system to enable your iCloud email account within Mail.

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Answer 7

David Strait Author

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488 points

Jun 14, 2014 7:38 PM in response to Barney-15E

That make sense, but still somewhat confused. I have found other threads that discuss syncing smart mailboxes across Macs (not sure about iOS devices).

For example: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4137249?start=15&tstart=0

There are data files in the Library that suggest smart mailbox syncing such as:

~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/SyncedSmartMailboxes.plist

~/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~mail/Data/MailData/ubiquitous_SyncedSmartMailboxes.plist

I kind of assumed that "System Preferences --> iCloud --> Mail" allowed that sync tooccur (?).

Of course, I still can't create smart mailboxes anyway due to my other issue described in

https://discussions.apple.com/message/26116959#26116959, so it is kind of moot until I resolve that issue.

Dave

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Answer 8

Barney-15E

Level 10

122,198 points

Jun 14, 2014 10:40 PM in response to David Strait

As I mentioned, I believe it used to sync account info between Macs, but I don't know if it still does, and I don't have another Mac to check. However, that would just be copying settings from one to the other. There isn't anything inside of a Smart Mailbox. It's just a search string.

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