Apple Mail downloads Gmail's spam automatically

[mattwrit]

I've set up Apple Mail and Gmail via IMAP but am concerned that it automatically downloads all my spam, too. Could I not get malware etc. by it doing that?

Also, when I'm wrtiting an email, every couple of minutes it seems to save a draft on Gmail's server. If I log in to Gmail it's littered with hundreds of half-written emails.

Can I stop it doing these things?!

 

[drichards]

Mine leaves spam alone on gmail servers, but I use POP for gmail. Try POP, it ignores the trash, spam, and chats folders.

If you've enabled POP, Gmail will download a copy of every message you send or receive in the web interface, except for messages in Chats, Spam, and Trash. In order to avoid duplicates, Gmail doesn't download copies of messages sent from within your client, or messages already available in your client.

 

[Mal]

No, don't switch to POP, IMAP has a number of advantages.

First, go into your Mail Preferences, choose the account in question from the Accounts pane, click Advanced, then deselect "Store draft messages on server". I agree, that's really annoying behavior.

Then, log into the online Gmail interface, click on the Labs button up top (looks like a green beaker), or you can get to it by choosing Settings, then Labs, and find the section for Advanced IMAP controls. Enable it, making sure to save the preferences, then go to the Labels section of settings, find the Spam label, and deselect the "Show in IMAP" checkbox. Now your Gmail spam will not show up to Mail or other IMAP programs.

jW

 

[dzamo]

Method above works

 

[spsoni]

I tried the same, I could not find "Advanced IMAP controls" thing in Labs tab. But it is no longer required as well. You can directly jump to "Labels" tab and choose which folders to be visible in IMAP. Thanks for this help. It works for me.