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otis123

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 4, 2006
555
0
so google finally decided to give me imap for my account, so i configured it in mail, and synced it to my iphone, and its terrible, my mac and my phone downloaded every piece of mail i've ever sent, received, and spam! for now im going back to POP, did i configure it wrong? or is this how IMAP works?
 
That's the whole point of IMAP. I love having my mail be the exact same -- especially my sent items -- in every client I use. It is possible to exclude folders from syncing if you don't want them.
 
One thing I did is change the IMAP Path Prefix to [INBOX]. Now, instead of getting all of the OTHER folders, I get just the Inbox. I think I also unchecked the store messages on server for the Sent and Trash. So far, things seem to be great...on my end. I haven't gone into my Gmail account to see what's going on there.

I did have A LOT of stuff in there when I first started, and ended up deleting everything. I was going to leave it, for backup purposes, but after 2 years, I had never had to use it, and I had saved everything important in my other IMAP account.

The main reason I changed it to [INBOX], though, was because I was getting that grey Gmail folder, and didn't know how to get rid of it. I tried looking around on here, but everyone was talking about some new Leopard program, whatever that is.:rolleyes:
 
The main reason I changed it to [INBOX], though, was because I was getting that grey Gmail folder, and didn't know how to get rid of it. I tried looking around on here, but everyone was talking about some new Leopard program, whatever that is.:rolleyes:

If you set the IMAP prefix to [Gmail] that folder goes away.
 
so google finally decided to give me imap for my account, so i configured it in mail, and synced it to my iphone, and its terrible, my mac and my phone downloaded every piece of mail i've ever sent, received, and spam! for now im going back to POP, did i configure it wrong? or is this how IMAP works?

I can't speak for your iphone, but you don't have to download all of the actual message files if you don't want to. IMAP is perfectly capable of just downloading the headers for the mail messages (which are small), and then downloading the body of the email when you actually want to read it. It takes more time when you actually click on a message, but it saves a lot of space on the client side. if you go into mail -> preferences -> accounts -> gmail account -> advanced , you'll see a pull down menu for what to do with messages and their attachments, and whether or not to store them locally. I store them locally just because I hate waiting for the server, and feel like I'd rather spend the money to upgrade my hard disk than wait for the gmail server to spit out an email at me when I need to look at it.
 
That, unfortunately for me, had the side effect of also not showing any of my gmail labels as subfolders.

Then add the [Gmail]/ prefix to your existing labels in Gmail web interface. That'll "add" the directory that Mail.app is prefixing. It looks a bit odd in the web interface, but if you're in Mail.app most of the time it's no big deal.

FWIW: this is what happens with notes and todos in leopard mail if you use them with an IMAP Gmail account. Nice to have up to date notes and todos on my iPhone! :)
 
Does Mail in Leopard set it up a lot nicer than Tiger Mail?

Also, can you add that [Gmail]\ to the Starred and All Mail folders?
 
Does Mail in Leopard set it up a lot nicer than Tiger Mail?

Nah, it's all basic IMAP options, regardless of mail client.

Also, can you add that [Gmail]\ to the Starred and All Mail folders?

No need, the Gmail "system" labels (star, all, spam, etc...) are already prefixed, hence the need for prefixing custom labels to match the "directory" structure set in place by Google.

EDIT: No way to get rid of the "Gmail" folder in your first posts. That is synonymous with the "On My Mac" folder if you use POP. It's just gotta be there.
 
When I setup IMAP today it started downloading 4000+ emails and wasn't lettting me delete anything! It would have taken hours to download that much at about 180kbps if I hadn't gone into gmail and deleted all my email from the server. I had everything I wanted in folders in Mail anyway.
 
I thought I had read Leopard's Mail was going to be easy to setup with different providers.

As for the Starred and All Mail folders, they're stuck there for ever? I don't even have Starred mail. :mad:
 
you can get rid of it. Just go to preferences > Advanced tab > IMAP Prefix Path and put in "Gmail".

That's what I have, well, [Gmail]. Does it matter? It got rid of the grey [Gmail] folder, but left big blue folders down at the bottom for Starred, All Mail, Trash, and Sent, and maybe Spam. I was able to use those other mailboxes for their respective things, but the Starred and All Mail are still there.
 
How did you map the Sent, Drafts and Trash folders to map with their corresponding Gmail folders? (currently Mail created two labels in Gmail called "Sent Messages" and "Deleted Messages" I don't want the labels, I want it to correspond with the actual Trash and Sent folders in Gmail)
 
How did you map the Sent, Drafts and Trash folders to map with their corresponding Gmail folders? (currently Mail created two labels in Gmail called "Sent Messages" and "Deleted Messages" I don't want the labels, I want it to correspond with the actual Trash and Sent folders in Gmail)

Click on the folders, and then on the menu, click Mailbox, then Use This Mailbox For> and select what you want.
 
That's what I have, well, [Gmail]. Does it matter? It got rid of the grey [Gmail] folder, but left big blue folders down at the bottom for Starred, All Mail, Trash, and Sent, and maybe Spam. I was able to use those other mailboxes for their respective things, but the Starred and All Mail are still there.
that's strange, I did that and my folders disappeared.
 
So pumped... I just installed leopard. I loaded up my gmail account in the mail program and only like 5 new messages loaded. I knew right then that IMAP had been enabled on my account! Thank you google! My iphone thanks you.
 
So pumped... I just installed leopard. I loaded up my gmail account in the mail program and only like 5 new messages loaded. I knew right then that IMAP had been enabled on my account! Thank you google! My iphone thanks you.

Umm, I think you have to go into settings and turn IMAP on. Did you do that?
 
I can't set up an imap account on mail! It doesnt give me the option of selecting which type of account. In mail help it says

"Mail will step you through the rest of the process and provide information automatically wherever possible. If you prefer to provide all the information manually, deselect the “Automatically set up account” checkbox."

But where is the “Automatically set up account” checkbox?????

Can anyone point out where Im going wrong?

Thanks.
 
Umm, I think you have to go into settings and turn IMAP on. Did you do that?
Mine was already turned on when I went to the Forwarding/IMAP tab.

I still have them there. Is your Gmail account working ok, as far as sending and receiving?
Not sure, I'll have to try and send something. I know I can receive just fine as my mother sent me an email after talking to me on IM.

[edit]yep, sent a message to myself and got it about 30 sec later.
 
Not sure, I'll have to try and send something. I know I can receive just fine as my mother sent me an email after talking to me on IM.

[edit]yep, sent a message to myself and got it about 30 sec later.

Hmm, maybe we're talking about different folders, can you post a screen shot?:confused:
 
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