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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)

Posted on May 8, 2017 7:19 PM

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Posted on May 11, 2017 9:52 PM

In Gmail (not Mac Mail) go to Settings>General and set the "All Mail" to hide and uncheck the "Show In IMAP" box.User uploaded file

Still in Gmail, go to Settings>Forwarding and POP/IMAP and use the settings in the picture.User uploaded file

Now when you send mail to trash in Mac Mail and empty it*, it should sync with Gmail and be gone FOREVER.

*I right click on the trash and choose "Erase deleted items...". If I "select all" and click on the trash icon it seems to make me do it twice before it actually empties the trash.

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Question marked as Best reply

May 11, 2017 9:52 PM in response to rlplant

In Gmail (not Mac Mail) go to Settings>General and set the "All Mail" to hide and uncheck the "Show In IMAP" box.User uploaded file

Still in Gmail, go to Settings>Forwarding and POP/IMAP and use the settings in the picture.User uploaded file

Now when you send mail to trash in Mac Mail and empty it*, it should sync with Gmail and be gone FOREVER.

*I right click on the trash and choose "Erase deleted items...". If I "select all" and click on the trash icon it seems to make me do it twice before it actually empties the trash.

May 8, 2017 8:22 PM in response to rlplant

Gmail has an All Mail Label which shows a gmail message no matter which mailbox it's actually in. GMail's All Mail Folder is mapped to the Archive folder in Apple Mail. Until the message is completely deleted from all IMAP mailboxes, it will show in the All Mail Folder (or Archive Mailbox in Mail).

If you go to Gmail's webmail site and open it's settings, then Labels, you can hide the All Mail Folder from showing in IMAP. This will remove it from Mail's Archive mailbox.

Confused about Archive, Mail, and Gmail

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