Mail Behaving Erratically? (trying to download my Gmail history via POP)

[orvn]

So I decided to back up the 9-10 GB of content in my Gmail using Mail.app.

I set up my account via POP.
Both POP and IMAP are enabled in Gmail, and I have the ability to retrieve emails via POP since the time of the account's creation (i.e.-all emails).

Mail is set up to leave messages on the server after downloading.

I began the "retrieve new mail" process and it downloaded all my emails from 2005- late 2009, but then it slowed down drastically.

Now it only downloads emails intermittently, 3-6 at a time, every 5-10 minutes.

I can force it to fetch messages by repeatedly telling the app to get new mail (cmd + shift + n) and this seems to accelerate the pace of email download to a bearable rate, however I can't push this shortcut forever.

I've never used Applescript or Automator before, and I couldn't figure out how to perform a loop and force Mail.app to repeatedly retrieve mail over a set interval.

(I do know unix though, so I'm going to try to use a combination of shell+applescript).

Of course this is a brute force solution, I'm not really solving the problem. Is there a buffer limit on how much mail I can fetch or something?

 

[orvn]

That's odd, I can't seem to find an AppleScript class in Lynda.com..


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Oh yay, it looks like I got it working with this AppleScript:

on run

set check_interval to 10

repeat
tell application "Mail"
check for new mail
end tell
delay (check_interval as number)
end repeat

end run

on quit
continue quit
end quit

I still have no idea why this is an issue in the first place. I anticipate it will negatively impact the efficacy of my future gmail backing up though..

Any ideas?

 

[orvn]

So I just had it run all night and it's at May 2010.