Mail Question: I want to delete my archived email (10,000~)because I want to clean up my iMac and make it more efficient. Does anyone know if deleting the email archive will leave my inbox and saved email intact or will all that be erased too?

Mail only archives mail when you select to Archive using one of these options.

• Archive icon in the Toolbar
• Under Mailbox in the Menu bar > Archive
• Move to an Archive folder

Let's start with your Gmail accounts....

Gmail is not standard IMAP.

In your browser, Messages in the Inbox are also in All Mail. Apple Mail tries to work around the oddities of how Gmail handles messages.

The Gmail All Mail folder is the same as the Archive folder. In addition Gmail's delete and trash are two different processes.

Gmail’s labels are folders in an email client. Gmail can assign multiple labels to one message in your browser but these will be multiple messages in your email client.

I would prefer it if no email were archived at all. I'ld rather save what I want to folders and delete the rest.

Try this option for your Gmail accounts. Set up one account first so you test the setting to customize for you.

Log into Gmail account in your web browser.

After logging in to your Gmail account, select Settings under the gear in the upper right corner of the page.

Select Labels

Uncheck All Mail account to sync. This only removes the All Mail folder in Mail. It does not delete the messages in Gmail on the server.

Next test trashing a message.

In Mail, delete a message. Now check in web browser to see if it's in Trash. If yes, then you should be able to use these same settings across your other Gmail accounts.

Your other IMAP accounts are standard IMAP. If you select not to use Mail's Archive feature, you can simply move messages to custom folders and delete.

Always verify results by logging into the accounts in webmail to verify actions taken in Mail.

Let's go over some basics...

When you Archive messages in your Inbox they are moved to an Archive folder.

If it's a POP account, the Archive folder is saved locally.

If it's an IMAP account the messages are stored online in an Archive folder.

If the messages are still in the Inbox and you want them saved for later you will need to either archive or move to a folder. I suggest a local folder for IMAP accounts.

Now to your question...

If you delete the messages in the Archive, it only deletes the messages in Archive NOT in the Inbox.

If you want to save these messages to an external disk, you can select the Archive folder then under Mailbox in the Menu bar select Export Mailbox... (verify that the export is complete. It will show partial in the name until it's finished.)

Delete the Archive folder for the account. When you delete it's gone...poof! It's not in the Trash.

For IMAP accounts that have Archive online, you might want to log into your account in webmail to delete the folder.

Note; be sure you select the specific folder NOT the top "unified" folder.

Archive < not the top unified folder.

On My Mac**

iCloud

Gmail

**you might see two On My Mac folder with identical messages. This is a bug in Mail. In the Finder where the data is actually stored it's only one folder.

Note in my previous comment, I wrote: Mail only archives mail when you select to Archive using one of these options.

I should have clarified the exception for Gmail accounts. While Mail is not archiving your Gmail messages, The odd Gmail Labels create the Archive folder.

Confused.... I know. It's hard to explain too.

Who is your e-mail provider?

In the Archive folder, try command - A to select all e-mails. You can also click the first e-mail and then while holding down the shift key, click the last e-mail.