Archive folder in Apple Mail is heavily populated

When I receive mail, I read it and either delete it or I file it into one of many mail folders I have made under "On My Mac". And I back up my data in a few different ways, nost notably I clone the entire HD to a backup drive using cloing software (SuperDuper) quite often.

That said, is there any use, reason, need for me to allow the Archive folder to be massively populated with seemingly every email I've received in about the previous three years??? The folder is absolutely huge and it takes my Mail app a long time to close when I shutdown the Mac these days. I'm wondering if having that Archive folder be emptied now and then would help with that Mail app shutdown process.

Any real need or reason to keep this Archive folder populated??? Will it even let me delete its contents since I haven't yet tried???

thanks... bob

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Yosemite (10.10.2)

Posted on Feb 5, 2015 8:18 AM

35 replies

Barney-15E

Level 10

122,138 points

Sep 16, 2015 4:24 AM in response to thinkculture

I know that I didn't create it, so it must be a function of Apple Mail in Yosemite.

You didn't create it, nor is it a function of Mail in Yosemite. Yosemite just revealed to you what has been occurring on the Gmail website the whole time.

All Mail isn't a folder in Mail. All Mail is a "Label" in Gmail where it stores every email you ever sent or received so it can harvest your personal information and sell ad space accordingly. Mail now maps the All Mail "Label" to the Archive folder, just like the Junk mailbox is mapped the the Spam "Label".

If you wish for Gmail's All Mail label to not show in Mail, you have to adjust the settings on the Gmail website, Settings, Labels.

In Gmail, there really aren't any folders. All messages are "tagged" with one or more "Labels." All messages, sent or received, are tagged with "All Mail."

When you delete an email, it is not deleted. The "inbox" or whatever other Label that was currently attached is removed, leaving the All Mail label intact.

riebs

Level 1

4 points

Nov 14, 2015 6:07 PM in response to Glenn Leblanc

This is exactly the info I was looking for. I just setup a client on MacMail for a new Gmail account and was confused about all this. Thanks for the detailed explanation!

Nov 14, 2016 11:41 PM in response to Glenn Leblanc

Hey Glenn,

I just Googled: "why do archive emails appear in apple mail today smart mailbox" and your answer was in a list in the first organic result. Yay!

I have been trying unsuccessfully to get rid of archived emails for weeks because it seems every edit along the way was appearing in the Today smart mailbox. What a clustrphobic view!

I followed your instructions to uncheck the Imap box in Labels at gmail, closed and opened Mail and Voila, the archive mailbox for the gmail account (I get mail from 5!) was gone along with the redundant list in the smart mail box(s). Could not uncheck "archive" - greyed out. Nevetheless, problem solved as far as I can see. And I guess Mail will open and close faster now, too, but that was not my complaint. It was the **** list of edits of particular emails, totally unncessary once the email was sent.

So thank you, thank you,

Gerry

Nov 15, 2016 4:49 AM in response to izzyisizzyaint

Glad to see it help you Gerry.

You're Welcome

Apr 26, 2017 6:45 AM in response to Glenn Leblanc

I'm in Safari, an d none of the other settings show me anything different. I will try Chrome.

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Archive folder in Apple Mail is heavily populated