How to migrate properly to new gmail IMAP

[catachip]

Okay, here is the situation:

Until now I have been using Gmail Pop through mail.app. I never access my email through the gmail website. Gmail archives all of my messages on the website as soon as they are downloaded, so my inbox online is always empty. I organize all of my emails into folders in mail.app and not with tags on the gmail website.

I have an iPhone now and would like to use IMAP to keep things consistent. How do I go about doing this so I don't lose all of the email organization that I have in mail.app? What is the best way to go about this. Will IMAP push those POP folders back or what? I don't want to have to re-organize thousands of messages. Essentially, I would just like to start using IMAP from this point onward, keeping what I have now. I don't want to mess anything up either.

Thanks so much for your help.

 

[catachip]

I had an idea... what if I deleted all of my messages, in all folders (i.e. Sent and All Mail) from the gmail website? I would still have all of my messages on my mac, and wouldn't need to redownload everything or re-organize it. Would this let me just use IMAP from this point onward without all the hassle?

 

[whyrichard]

THAT is a very good question. you could just deactivate your gmail pop, and have your gmail imap running... do not delete your gmail pop just deactivate it.

i am/was in the exact same position as you. and if gmail imap finally finishes downloading all 8000 of my emails, it'll be working fine.

my solution broke one of your criteria... i deleted my organizational folders on my mail.app, made similar filters on gmail's website, and will rely on gmail's imap organization instead of mail.apps.

i decided to do that, so that i would have organizational folders on my iphone, as well as my mac... as well as the gmail web access! and if all goes well... i have a new happy solution to gmail.

r.