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How to archive Gmail (IMAP) in Mail.app

L

lekun

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 5, 2006
191
5
I use Gmail, and I access my Gmail account via IMAP in Mail.app.

In Mail.app, what I can't seem to do is move items out of my inbox, without deleting them. If I drag a message from my Inbox to my Gmail "All Mail" folder, the message duplicates inside of "All Mail" since it was already there to begin with. However, if I press the delete key on a message in my Inbox, it deletes it both in the Inbox and in "All Mail."

Does anyone know the Mail.app equivalent of "Archive" command in Gmail?

TIA

So are people not having this problem, or is that no one has an answer?
 
E

eddietr

macrumors 6502a
Oct 29, 2006
807
0
Virginia
Here is what I've noticed:

If I drag a message from the inbox to All Mail on my mac (mail.app) then it does appear twice in All Mail (in mail.app)

However, when I got back to gmail web interface, the message is not doubled. It's there just once.

And what interesting is that if I look in mail on the iPhone, that same message is also there just once in All Mail. So I think it's just a display issue in mail.app on the Mac.

If, on the other hand, I file the message into All Mail on the phone first, then it displays correctly (once) on the web interface and in mail.app when I get back to my Mac.
 
A

alcapone

Cancelled
Mar 23, 2007
13
2
Does anyone have a solution to this? This just started happening to me today ! I deleted my account in mail and started again from scratch but the same thing happens. Anyone ?
 
Mal

Mal

macrumors 603
Jan 6, 2002
6,252
18
Orlando
You need to remap your IMAP mailboxes so that your mail that was "deleted" on the computer is Archived in Gmail instead. Easiest way to do that:

In Mail, select "All Mail" from the Gmail IMAP listings on the sidebar (towards the bottom).

Select the "Mailbox" menu at the top of the page, then select "Use this mailbox for...", and choose "Trash".

Now, simply either file a message away on your computer, or just delete it from your Inbox, and it will be archived on Gmail instead of being deleted, and unless you file the message into one of Gmail's folders instead of one on your computer, it will never be duplicated on Gmail.

jW
 
/dev/toaster

/dev/toaster

macrumors 68020
Feb 23, 2006
2,478
249
San Francisco, CA
Mal said:
You need to remap your IMAP mailboxes so that your mail that was "deleted" on the computer is Archived in Gmail instead. Easiest way to do that:

In Mail, select "All Mail" from the Gmail IMAP listings on the sidebar (towards the bottom).

Select the "Mailbox" menu at the top of the page, then select "Use this mailbox for...", and choose "Trash".

Now, simply either file a message away on your computer, or just delete it from your Inbox, and it will be archived on Gmail instead of being deleted, and unless you file the message into one of Gmail's folders instead of one on your computer, it will never be duplicated on Gmail.

jW
Click to expand...

Excellent idea! Works like a charm. I am a bit nervous that something will go wrong one day and I will lose my mail :(
 
D

Diaresi

macrumors regular
Aug 23, 2007
242
0
From the Mail menu, click Preferences > Accounts > Mailbox Behaviors

Trash:
Move deleted messages to the Trash mailbox > do NOT check
Store deleted messages on the server > do NOT check

There you go! :)

*Edit*

That was taken from Google's own help here (i love how nobody thought to look in the most obvious place :p ). I've been using that specific setting ever since IMAP came out on Gmail with no problems. BUT, certain things on there you should follow, other things you shouldn't. So generally you're left with spending ages checking out what does and doesn't work. In other words only follow the information there if something isn't working as it should. If it is then probably best to leave it alone :)
 
J

johneldridge

macrumors newbie
Jun 8, 2009
1
0
lekun said:
I use Gmail, and I access my Gmail account via IMAP in Mail.app.

Does anyone know the Mail.app equivalent of "Archive" command in Gmail?

So are people not having this problem, or is that no one has an answer?
Click to expand...

This is just a sort of substitute solution, but if you don't really care about the presence of your messages on Gmail's server, you can create your own archive on your Mac by following these steps:

1. At the bottom of the Mail sidebar, click the "Add Mailbox" button (the very left corner-most icon). Select "New Mailbox" from the popup menu.
2. Mail will prompt you to tell it where to create this new mailbox. In the newly opened dialogue box you should see a dropdown menu next to "Location." In this, select "On My Mac."
3. Input a title for your new mailbox, and click "OK."
4. The new mailbox will appear immediately in the sidebar under the category "On My Mac." To use it as an archive, right click the new mailbox and select the third option down, "Archive Mailbox."
5. You will be prompted to select a location on your computer for Mail to store your mailbox. Find a place that suits you and "Choose."

Now, consider this your new Gmail archive. When you have messages you wish to clean out but don't want to delete, drag them to this folder (or select them in the message pane, right click and select "Move To") and they will be stored in .mbox format on your computer.

Of course, this is only one solution, and not necessarily the most desirable one... I use it, but it just works for me because I don't really have any desperate need for all my archived messages to be available on the server. And I have full confidence in my Mac. Also, if you do want to switch computers, this way you can easily move one compact file that is storing all your messages as opposed to dragging a whole folder of large text files or something comparable.

Let me know if this helps!

J
 
A

Awbery

macrumors newbie
Oct 17, 2010
1
0
downloading gmail archive still won't work

Hi,

Archiving anything new from gmail is not a problem for me - I do it the way you described, John. I want to download my entire gmail archive onto my Macbook Air and am baffled as to why I can't make this work. I think it's a bug - have spent about 6 hours on it so far.

When I create the mailbox account for my gmail backup everything seems to go fine, Mail Activity reports that it's downloading my 13k emails. When the activity is complete, the activity box empties and nothing happens. I can't find the emails anywhere, in the mail programme or on my Mac. They've just disappeared - or never got there.

I've googled for hours to try to solve this. Can anyone help?

I've set everything correctly as far as I can see in both gmail settings and in Mail preferences. Is it just a sorry fact that you can't use Mail to archive already existing archives on Gmail?

Thanks for any help anyone can give.

Awbery
 
B

badlydrawnboy

macrumors 68000
Oct 20, 2003
1,529
417
Diaresi said:
From the Mail menu, click Preferences > Accounts > Mailbox Behaviors

Trash:
Move deleted messages to the Trash mailbox > do NOT check
Store deleted messages on the server > do NOT check

There you go! :)

*Edit*

That was taken from Google's own help here (i love how nobody thought to look in the most obvious place :p ). I've been using that specific setting ever since IMAP came out on Gmail with no problems. BUT, certain things on there you should follow, other things you shouldn't. So generally you're left with spending ages checking out what does and doesn't work. In other words only follow the information there if something isn't working as it should. If it is then probably best to leave it alone :)
Click to expand...

I see this in Google's help section. But what I don't understand is what happens to the message when I hit the "delete" key in Mail.app with this setting. Would it disappear from my inbox in Mail, but still appear in in the All Mail folder in Gmail?
 
CosmoPilot

CosmoPilot

macrumors 68000
Nov 8, 2010
1,537
373
South Carolina
badlydrawnboy said:
I see this in Google's help section. But what I don't understand is what happens to the message when I hit the "delete" key in Mail.app with this setting. Would it disappear from my inbox in Mail, but still appear in in the All Mail folder in Gmail?
Click to expand...


I too had this same question, and followed the link provided above to Gmails recommended settings. After setting it exactly as the recommend, what I noticed, is when you delete a message from within the Gmail Inbox, the message still stays in the Gmail "all mail" folder. The folder mirrors your archive online.

When you receive a new email, the Gmail Inbox (sidebar to the top) reflects it. The Gmail "all mail" folder (sidebar to the bottom), updates as well to show an unread message. After you read the email in the Inbox, it takes awhile (depending on how often you have mail set to retrieve mail), before the Gmail "all mail" folder will update to show the mail as read.

Looks like all deleted mail from the Inbox is now archived in the all mail folder. These folders are just a reflection of what is currently on the Gmail server.
 
A

asfrank16

macrumors newbie
Oct 22, 2009
2
0
Ok, so now when I delete something out of the inbox, it still stays in all mail. Does this mean to delete a message I have to remove it from the inbox AND all mail now? Or is there an easier way? While I do like the archive, and like having an easy way to archive, I also want a way to get rid of the junk without archiving it and taking up space.
 
A

aseg7

macrumors newbie
Feb 5, 2011
2
0
aseg7 said:
You can manually drag and drop messages to the [Google Mail]/Bin IMAP directory.
Click to expand...

BE CAREFUL to check Permanently delete Messages utder the Account > Mailbox Behaviors Menu is set to NEVER.
 
M

mcfarnell

macrumors newbie
Feb 20, 2011
1
0
Undelete message

Using this method, how would one undelete a message so that it appears back in Mail's inbox?
 
E

Erkenntnis

macrumors member
Oct 12, 2009
37
0
Nebraska
I just thought I would mention this plugin, as it is a whole lot easier than re-mapping IMAP folders.

http://stl.techinno.nl/archive/

Adds an "Archive" button to Mail. Pressing the button sends the message directly to the mail account's "Archive" folder. For Gmail, the message automatically goes to "All Mail." It adds a keyboard shortcut that does the same thing as the button, too.

Simple!
 
C

curtiswtaylorjr

macrumors newbie
Mar 9, 2011
1
0
Awesome Plugin

Thanks to the previous post for the Archive Plugin. Works like a charm :D I just started using mac mail. Thought I never would but I was having trouble loading gmail and thought I would give it a whirl. The app is nice but the few plugins I have found have me sold.
 
R

Rob9874

macrumors 6502
Jul 19, 2010
373
82
Another thanks for the Archive Plugin. The last piece to convince me to switch from gmail web to mail.app.
 
Z

zbeckman

macrumors newbie
Apr 24, 2005
5
0
Archive plugin problems?

Does anyone have this problem with the (above mentioned) Archive plugin? When I click the archive button, I get a message to the effect of "Archive -- Hyrax Mail does not allow messages to be moved into it." And the message doesn't go anywhere. Any hints appreciated. Thank you!

...Edit: Nevermind. I figured it out. If you have a label ("folder") named "Archive" then this plugin will not work. Everything else seems to be fine though -- I've a rather large hierarchy of labels under the top-level "Archive" label. It was easy to fix the problem though: Just rename "Archive" to "Filed" and it works fine now.
 
Last edited:
X3R0X77

X3R0X77

macrumors newbie
Jul 1, 2011
1
0
Solution

if you have the mail.app on your mac do this

bring mail to the front go to mail preferences accounts mailbox behaviors

then uncheck both the checkboxes in the trash segment set auto-delete to never

WHAT IT DOES: when you delete a message from mail.app it will only delete message from mail.app. the deleted message will stay in the label 'all mail' when you visit the gmail website.
Problem solved. :D :D
 
J

JamesBong

macrumors newbie
Jul 23, 2011
1
0
Thanks John Eldridge. Awesome.

johneldridge said:
This is just a sort of substitute solution, but if you don't really care about the presence of your messages on Gmail's server, you can create your own archive on your Mac by following these steps:

1. At the bottom of the Mail sidebar, click the "Add Mailbox" button (the very left corner-most icon). Select "New Mailbox" from the popup menu.
2. Mail will prompt you to tell it where to create this new mailbox. In the newly opened dialogue box you should see a dropdown menu next to "Location." In this, select "On My Mac."
3. Input a title for your new mailbox, and click "OK."
4. The new mailbox will appear immediately in the sidebar under the category "On My Mac." To use it as an archive, right click the new mailbox and select the third option down, "Archive Mailbox."
5. You will be prompted to select a location on your computer for Mail to store your mailbox. Find a place that suits you and "Choose."

Now, consider this your new Gmail archive. When you have messages you wish to clean out but don't want to delete, drag them to this folder (or select them in the message pane, right click and select "Move To") and they will be stored in .mbox format on your computer.

Of course, this is only one solution, and not necessarily the most desirable one... I use it, but it just works for me because I don't really have any desperate need for all my archived messages to be available on the server. And I have full confidence in my Mac. Also, if you do want to switch computers, this way you can easily move one compact file that is storing all your messages as opposed to dragging a whole folder of large text files or something comparable.

Let me know if this helps!

J
Click to expand...


Just FYI, this helps! Exactly what I was looking to do, and working like a charm.
 
NickfromWI

NickfromWI

macrumors newbie
Sep 12, 2011
2
0
Erkenntnis said:
I just thought I would mention this plugin, as it is a whole lot easier than re-mapping IMAP folders.

http://stl.techinno.nl/archive/
Click to expand...

Every other option talked about on this thread seems convoluted and annoying and questionable as to whether or not it will work as desired.

I came here for advice, tried the above-referenced plug-in and it works, is seamless, and is less than 100kb!!!

Just get it. I already emailed the dev and told him he/she rocks.

love
nick
 
J

jdalbert

macrumors newbie
Mar 30, 2011
24
0
Erkenntnis said:
I just thought I would mention this plugin, as it is a whole lot easier than re-mapping IMAP folders.

http://stl.techinno.nl/archive/

Adds an "Archive" button to Mail. Pressing the button sends the message directly to the mail account's "Archive" folder. For Gmail, the message automatically goes to "All Mail." It adds a keyboard shortcut that does the same thing as the button, too.

Simple!
Click to expand...

Any idea if a OS X Lion compatible version is in the works?
 
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