Confused about Archive, Mail, and Gmail
I’ve used Apple’s Mail program for years but I’m still confused about the Archive mailbox and would be grateful if someone could help me out. In Mail under “Mailboxes” in the upper left column I’ve got folders labeled Inbox, Flagged, Draft, etc, and Archive at the bottom. The Archive folder then itself has a box/folder for what looks to be each of my IMAP accounts (some are Gmail, some are on my local ISP).
My question has to do with the Gmail Archive mailbox. I can’t figure out how my mail gets in there and what's the best way to manage it. When I delete a Gmail e-mail in the Mac Mail app I always use the Trash icon, not the Archive icon. Yet I still see deleted e-mail in Archive. I’ve also noticed is that the Archive box contains a series of e-mails showing the incremental steps I’ve made in composing a Gmail e-mail. There could be fifty copies, each a bit longer, and they stay in that box for years unless I manually remove them. It also contains mail sent to me, usually emails that I’ve already stored in a different mailbox. Unfortunately I’m occasionally not sure if I did actually store it elsewhere, so I have to manually confirm that before deleting it from Archive
I’ve looked at some online material but never been able to figure this out. Could someone help me out?
iMac, macOS Sierra (10.12.4)