Mail.app IMAP and multiple gmail accounts

[sk3pt1c]

right, i have 4 gmail accounts that i currently check in Mail.app (plus a .mac but that doesn't count) and i am kind of curious as to how good IMAP is and if it is worth switching over from POP (i am quite happy now not messing with my mail on the server in case something goes wrong locally).
the thing is, i tried it with one account when they first announced it and i got some folders in Mail.app that were oddly named and not to my organizational liking... if i get multiple accounts will they create the same folders with the same names and hence a proper mixup?
i want to keep my layout as is now, my 4 inboxes, 4 sent folders, 4 trashes...
would that work or not?
thanks

 

[eji]

According to the developer of MailTags, Google's implementation of IMAP isn't 100% guideline-adherent. I have two Gmail IMAP accounts set up in Mail, and it's been a bit of a pain.

- Each Gmail label corresponds to a folder. So if you have a message in your Gmail inbox labeled "Family," it will appear three times in Mail.app: once in the inbox folder, once in the Family folder, and once in the All Mail folder. Replying to one of these messages will only create a link to that specific instance of the message; it won't be applied to all three. This is also a mess when it comes to creating smart folders.

- Moving messages to different folders archives them but doesn't always label them accordingly. So if I move a message out of my inbox to the Family folder in Mail.app, the copy on Gmail doesn't always get tagged with the "Family" label, and sometimes just vanishes. I'm assuming this is a bug that will eventually be corrected, though for now it's a real PITA.

- To answer your question, you can keep your IMAP inboxes separate or combine them by choosing the "Use this mailbox as..." function in the File (or maybe Edit? I forget exactly, but it's there) menu.

- Don't even waste your time using MailTags with Gmail IMAP. It's a nightmare. Messages go missing, lose their subject lines, and/or appear 20 times in the trash.

 

[sk3pt1c]

so overall i'm guessing that's a big NO to IMAP
thanks, i'll pass
it's better to mess with my mail locally and have it all stored safely
on the server