Configuring Apple Mail with Gmail

I don't know if you've seen these or not.

Gmail with Apple Mail

Gmail with Apple Mail (2)

Gmail with Apple Mail (3)

Gmail with Apple Mail (4)

Gmail with Apple Mail (5)

You are welcome.

The key for using gmail in Mail is to get the functions of Mail to duplicate in gmail. The setup in Article (4) is the best way I've found.

For Labels, show only the main mailboxes and hide the rest in IMAP. The All Mail Folder in gmail is a pain and serves no useful purpose to me. The equivalent of the All Mail Folder in Mail would be a Smart Mailbox showing messages in every mailbox setup in Mail. In Yosemite, gmail's All Mail Folder shows in the Archived Mailbox in Mail (even with the archiving function off in gmail settings). Hide it from showing in IMAP unless you actually use it.

If you want to show the gmail spam mailbox, that's fine. You can map it to Mail's Junk mailbox.

For the Forwarding/POP&IMAP settings at the gmail site, set those boxes as described in the article. Auto-Expunge OFF & Move Message to Trash checked.

One thing I've found is that when you delete a messages from the trash in Mail, it doesn't remove it from the gmail site in trash. But gmail's trash is set to delete within 30 days, so it's not a problem. You have to manually remove it there if you want it done in less than 30 days. If you select the message in the Trash at the gmail webmail site and choose delete forever, it will remove it from Mail's trash immediately.

For settings in Mail, check the boxes to store messages for all except Drafts. Drafts are a problem with IMAP accounts. When you are writing a new message, mail autosaves a copy every few minutes or so. This creates duplicates drafts on the server which won't be deleted. If you leave drafts local to the computer, Mail will delete the draft when the message is sent. Unless you need to complete drafts on a different device at another time, just leave drafts unchecked.

This is the best setup I've found for using gmail accounts in Apple Mail. This setup will generally keep both the webmail site and the Mail application the same.

"Checking "Store Sent Messages on Server" and "Store Drafts on Server" add both of these items to "On My Mac", which is not what I want http://take.ms/1YmZk My Sent messages are already right above this in the Sent Messages folder and my Draft messages appear in the Gmail Drafts folder under my Gmail account name. So there is simply no way I could envision any Gmail user wanting to check these top two items on the Behavior Tab. Right now I have the Behavior Tab on my Gmail account setup like this - http://take.ms/dQAFf and my drafts appear in the Drafts folder in my Gmail account folder list and my Sent messages appear in the Sent messages folder for my Gmail account, at the top, just under my inboxs."

When you check to store messages, drafts, etc. on the server, any local mailboxes already created will be moved to On My Mac. That is what you are seeing. The server mailboxes will replace them under the main. You can move those messages within the local mailboxes under On My Mac back to the server mailboxes and delete those local ones. Since you have Sent & Drafts unchecked to store messages on the server, drafts and sent messages will not be available to other devices. However, I've already stated that storing Drafts on the server is a problem and I recommended it remain unchecked. The server draft mailbox will appear under the gmail account. For Sent messages, I recommend checking to Store Sent messages on the server. This will keep all devices synced.

Whether or not you want to use the All Mail Folder is your choice. You can't choose what it shows because the All Mail Folder shows messages in every label gmail provides. A message can't exist just in the All Mail Folder and can't exclude one that has a label attached to it. So if a message in the All Mail folder has an Inbox label and you delete it, the label will change to Deleted Item. If you delete it again, it will change to Trash. If you move it to another created gmail label, it will still be in the All Mail Folder. It remains in the All Mail folder until it is removed permanently from all gmail labels (mailboxes).

If you have created other Labels at the gmail website and you want to use them for organization, you can show them in IMAP. They will appear under the gmail account in the sidebar. All mailboxes and labels shown in Mail will be searchable. So if you want to look for a particular message, there is no reason to go back to the webmail site to find it whether or not you feel the need to use All Mail Folder.

As I said, using All Mail is your choice. Just enable it in IMAP.

I don't really use the gmail account that often, but my simple setup works just fine. I think trying to set it up differently just causes more issues and failures. I just prefer using my ATT and Apple email more. Much less issues with those. I use gmail when I need a different provider for various reasons.

Do what you know is reliable for you. I was just trying to give a little insight on what I know works well for me.

You can play around with the settings in Mail and you may get comfortable with it. Maybe with time and a little more understanding of the settings and how they work, you may find that happy place with using mail for gmail. Using the webmail site isn't bad at all.

I don't know of gmail for mac apps coming in the future for computers, but I don't really keep up with that. I know there is an iPhone app, but I've never tried it. Sure it works fine.

Good Luck

First I see of this. It's looks like it may be the ticket for avid gmail users. It should definitely solve the problem of using their complex email setup on Macs.

The problem I see with this is that many people use additional email clients besides gmail. So, people will have to use the gmail app in addition to Mail or another email client to access their other accounts. Unless, this app will also configure other email providers. This is possible, but will people have to go through the inconsistencies of this app working properly with someone like apple mail or yahoo mail?

I see this as a big bonus to people who use gmail exclusively. Not so sure about this for multiple provider users though. It should definitely be a plus for you.

Thanks everyone for all your insights. I have tried virtually every combination of settings--including those above-- and am still completely confused, and I am not a complete amateur. I get multiple copies of sent messages, am confused about Sent Messages and Sent Mail--not to mention the Sent box under the Inbox heading, which seems to sometimes contain my sent mail and sometimes not. I still have to go into All Mail to retrieve deleted emails, as my Trash folder no longer seems to work...I wish I had never signed up for Gmail, and am in the process of cleaning up the 25,000 mostly useless messages it has archived. Now I just have a link to the web interface on my desktop. Will flee Gmail, and maybe try a third-party mail client-- when I have the time to make the transition. It just seems unbelievable that there is no way to set up simple IMAP, where there is an inbox, sent box, drafts box and trash box (period) for each account, and when you delete something it actually gets deleted. Seems like Outlook Express and Yahoo Mail did this fine back when I used them.