Apple Mail and GoogleMail via IMAP

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_*Apple Mail and GoogleMail via IMAP*_
As posts concerning the setup of Apple Mail for GoogleMail IMAP access become more frequent on Apple Discussions, I decided to collect some of the most asked-for info in one place. The following hints are intended to provide enough info for anyone who wants to get started with Google Mail IMAP and Mail.app.
As you might have noticed already, GoogleMail behaves differently from other IMAP accounts in some respects. One of the underlying reasons is its use of labels instead of folders (i.e. instead of moving messages to different folders – like e.g. Private and Work – in order to establish some order, rather there are labels tagged to the messages). Because of this a particular setup of Apple’s Mail client is required.
*Activating IMAP for Google Mail*
If you haven’t activated access via IMAP for Google Mail already, follow the instructions given by Google [here|http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=77695&topic=13294]. It boils down to this:
1) Sign in to Gmail.
2) Click "Settings" at the top of any Gmail page,
3) click "Forwarding and POP/IMAP",
4) select "Enable IMAP".
5) Click "Save Changes".
*Creating a new account in Apple Mail*
To add a Google Mail IMAP account in Mail.app, go to File > Add Account. A wizard will open which prompts you to insert your Name, the eMail-address of the new account and the password. Don’t use the option for automatic configuration if it’s available. Info on what to type into the different fields can be obtained from Google [here|http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=78799&topic=12814]. The most important are:
1) Incoming Server: imap.gmail.com, port 993 (using SSL)
2) Outgoing Server: smtp.gmail.com, port 465 or 587 (using SSL)
3) Your account name is your full email address including "@gmail.com" (without the quotation marks)
*Configuring the Google Mail account in Apple Mail*
After you have added your Google Mail IMAP account to Mail.app, you’ll find a section for Google Mail in Mail.app’s sidebar with subfolders like "All Mail" (which has in turn several subfolders) and folders for each label you created with GoogleMail. Now you have to configure the account properly. Despite what [Google recommends|http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=78892&topic=1281 4], I found the following settings to work best for me.
In the sidebar, navigate to the subfolders Trash/Sent/Drafts/Junk of "Google Mail" (the one with the white folder icon instead of a blue one) in turn and go to "Mailbox" menu > "Use this mailbox for..." > Trash/Sent/Drafts/Junk respectively. Afterwards these folders show up as subfolders to the main Trash/Sent/Drafts/Junk folders in the sidebar (and at the same time disappear from the GMail section). Among others this step is necessary because of Google Mail’s implementation of labels. E.g., as Google states [here|http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=78892&topic=12814]:
Messages that are deleted from an IMAP folder (...) only have that label removed and still exist in All Mail
So if you want to delete a message you have to set the option to "Use this mailbox for… Trash" as described above. Same applies to sent messages etc.
Furthermore, make sure every checkbox in Mail's Preferences > Accounts > GoogleMail > Behavior is checked . (Some will already and automatically be checked when you apply the option "Use this mailbox for..." as described above).
*Some basic troubleshooting tips*
1) If your counter for unread messages in Mail.app doesn’t refresh properly, go to "Mailbox" menu > "Sync all accounts".
2) If you have set up a Smart Mailbox in Mail e.g. for unread messages and every unread message of Google Mail shows up twice, then add the criterion "Message is not in mailbox" > "All Mail", and set the requirement for messages to comply with ALL conditions (instead of ANY). This is necessary because of every message there is a copy stored in All Mail.
I hope these info will be regarded as helpful by anyone who tries to get started with Google Mail and experiences some problems on the way.
The links given were accessible as of September, 3rd, 2008. The setup was tested on a MacBook with OS X 10.5.4 Leopard and Mail 3.4 (928/928.1).
Good computing.
floba
(Note: the above given hints are personal suggestions and I don’t assume liability for any disorders that might occur after applying the described steps.)
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Similar Messages

New IMAP account won't appear on Apple Mail and yet wipes server

I have a problem with Apple Mail and a new IMAP account I've created.
I have one IMAP account (mail@*.com) which works fine and then recently I created a second IMAP account on that same server (property@*.com). I copied the details from the server to Apple Mail and yet as soon as I set up the account on Apple Mail then the test mails I send vanish from the server and do not show up in Apple Mail. When I remove that account on my Apple Mail then I can send messages to via webmail which show up on the server again.
Similarly when I use Thunderbird as my mail client then the property@*.com IMAP mail shows up fine.
Is there some conflict with having two IMAP accounts from the same server? is there any way I can get round that - set up an alias to have my property mail hived off to a different account / or even folder?
I would appreciate help... although I notice that 4 out of 5 of my last posts didn't get answered...
Alistair
<Edited by Host>

It's a bad idea to post your email addresses - it's an invitation to spam - and I've asked the Moderators to remove them.

Apple Mail and Gmail IMAP

With the iPhone coming to Verizon soon, I'd like to move back to Apple Mail from Gmail, but still want to keep Gmail as my source because my domain is setup with Google Apps but mostly because of the unparalleled spam filtering Gmail has. My problem is that even though I've configured Apple Mail exactly as Google recommends (shown below), I still have some issues.
From the Mail menu, click Preferences > *Accounts > Mailbox Behaviors*
Drafts:
Store draft messages on the server > *do NOT check*
Sent:
Store sent messages on the server > *do NOT check*
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Store junk messages on the server > checked
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Trash:
Move deleted messages to the Trash mailbox > *do NOT check*
Store deleted messages on the server > *do NOT check*
I want to have true IMAP functionality here, but I'm not getting it. Sent messages work fine...if I send a message, it shows up in Apple Mail in the Sent folder and when I go to Gmail it is also in the Sent folder. BUT...when I delete a message in Apple Mail it goes to the Gmail *All Mail* folder (in Apple Mail and Gmail) and never shows up in the Gmail Trash on either Apple Mail or Gmail...where it should. I've tried changing the settings under *Apple Mail > Trash* but that doesn't fix the problem.
I realize some of you might be inclined to say "It's Google problem...ask there" but I'm hoping a Gmail user here might have had this same issue before. Even as a dedicated Apple person for many years, I still can't give up Gmail and their spam filtering that Apple Mail can't come close to. Thanks for any suggestions.

Thanks, Andy. I should have posted a closure statement on this thread as I finally figured everything out. The most frustrating thing is Google's own advice at http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=78892# couldn't further from correct. After many hours of experimenting with settings, I finally came up with the correct ones. In fact, I'm in the process of writing an article about it since there is simply no definitive guidance on the web that I've been able to find in the time I've searched.
Your comments are on target...everything on the *Behaviors Tab* needs to be checked (excepts Notes) and the *Delete when* settings must be set to Never. But there are a few other things that must be done, including some changes on Gmail Settings before Mail and Gmail will be perfectly synchronous. I'll post the entire solution on this forum when I finish the graphics.

My mac version is OSX 10.9.4 and I just set up my Apple Mail with Yahoo! IMAP. My question is how come when I open my mac contacts, The operation couldn't be completed. (CoreDAVErrorDomain error 3.) is shown?

My mac version is OSX 10.9.4 and I just set up my Apple Mail with Yahoo! IMAP. My question is how come when I open my mac contacts, The operation couldn’t be completed. (CoreDAVErrorDomain error 3.) is shown?

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/support
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/mac/forum/macword?auth=1
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/mac/forum/macoffice2011-macword/microsoft-wor d-for-mac-2011-will-not-open-error/ecc42616-6f49-40bb-b8f5-e21c711ea359

Changed email from pop to imap in entourage 2008 and apple mail and have lost a lot of messages

Changed email from pop to imap in entourage 2008 and apple mail and have lost a lot of messages. I am a rookie and don't know what to do to correct the situation

I found this great set of mail AppleScripts:
http://homepage.mac.com/aamann/Mail_Scripts.html
It includes one script to delete duplicate messages. So if we can't find a way to do this right, then I'll just download all the duplicates then delete them. Of course I don't want to actually do that, lets call this the nuclear option.
So can anyone think of a way to make an IMAP account for my gmail without it downloading all the messages again that I have already downloaded?

Apple Mail doesn't support IMAP IDLE

I had started using Entourage for a while just for testing since I had reacently started using a new IMAP server and I wanted to see how all the different email software behaves differently so that I can know what everyone will expect to see. Probably my favorite feature of the IMAP4rev1 protocol is IDLE. This feature gives the client the ability to stay connected to server so that the second an email comes in, it is "pushed" to the client.
This is very different from the way that with POP3 and HTTPmail that you need to poll the server. Here's the real bummer for me though, my absolute favorite email client, Apple Mail, DOESN'T SUPPORT 'IMAP IDLE'!!!!!!!
I beg you Apple to please realease a new version of Apple Mail that supports IDLE properly so that the client can stay connected to the IMAP server.
Other not as important feature requests/bugs that I have:
* CRAM-MD5 authentication on SMTP doesn't work for me in Apple Mail even though my server supports it and it works fine in other email clients
* A three pane vertical view similar to Entourage/Outlook... It would just be a nice option
* Ability to hide individual IMAP folders aka Unsubscribe
* AND ONCE AGAIN PLEASE SUPPORT IDLE!!!
Now if I have this all wrong and there is some way to turn IDLE on that is a hidden setting, someone please tell me. I'd be interested in hearing what someone from Apple has to say about this missing feature. Thank you!
1.5GHz 15" PowerBook Aluminum Mac OS X (10.4.3) 2GB RAM, 60GB 7200 RPM HD, SuperDrive, iSight

No, all this does is download all of my emails and cache all of them locally (regardless of what folder they are in). I wouldn't want this to happen because I definitely have over 100MB stored on my email server.
IDLE is something entirely different... I'm still hoping to get a reply from Apple.
If anybody else is annoyed with this please file a feature/bug request/submit form at www.apple.com/macosx/feedback/ so that we can try to get this resolved soon via some sort of update. OS X 10.5 is still a ways away so I'd definitely like to see an update to 2.05 before we get to 3.0.

Apple Mail vs. Gmail IMAP disagreeing counts

A friend has two iMacs (10.6.5), iPad & iPhone (iOS 4.2) recently switched to gmail for his primary email service.
The problem is that not all the devices “see” the same Sent, Drafts and Trash mailbox.
Working with other IMAP services, I never see issues like this, so I know this is a gmail specific issue - there’s a disconnect between the way Gmail organizes it’s IMAP mailboxes vs. the way the Apple Mail does.
For instance, when you configure Apple Mail for a gmail IMAP account, it assumes your Sent mailbox will be called “Sent Messages”. And on the gmail web side, a Label always gets created called “Sent Messages”. My experience is that without any intervention, when you send email, it shows up in Apple Mail in the proper “Sent” mailbox, but in gmail it shows up in “Sent Messages”, NOT gmail’s Sent mailbox.
For some reason, with a gmail account, the old trick of Mailboxes > Use this Mailbox for doesn’t work because the options are grayed out.
So, how I’ve improved this situation is to open up PropertyListEditor and edit com.apple.mail.plist. There is a key called ‘MailAccounts’ under which is an “item” representing the Gmail account. Underneath, there’s an entry for ‘SentMessagesMailboxName’. I’ve tried changing this to both “Sent Mail” or “[Gmail]/Sent Mail” and both work in the sense that any email sent from Apple Mail ends up in gmail’s Sent mailbox, and NOT in “Sent Messages”
Here’s where the mystery deepens.
In my friend’s situation, when I do this, when path is set to [Gmail]/Sent Mail, I see two Sent mailboxes
in Apple Mail, I see 886 messages in the Sent under ‘Mailboxes’, and 823 in ‘Sent Mail’ under GMAIL section
in gmail, the ‘Sent Mail’ mailbox has 651 items and there exists a “[Imap]/Sent Mail” mailbox which has 609 items
When I edit the plist and change the path with PropertyListEditor to just “Sent Mail”, Apple Mail only shows one Sent mailbox with 823 messages items, but is missing the message sent within the past couple days.
Any ideas how to make sense of this?

No real answer to your problem, but I can confirm the problem exists...I've been chasing it forever. Another issue (that is equally as perplexing) is that no matter how you configure deleted message behavior in Apple Mail, when you delete a message it NEVER shows up in the Gmail TRASH folder. If someone would just create a definitive guide for using Gmail and Apple Mail they could probably sell it.

Apple Mail and Sent Messages

I have been having some issues with my iCloud email account and Mavericks. I wasn't sure if this was an iCloud issue or an issue with Apple Mail. It has to do with saving Sent messages. A couple of months ago, I had some issues with Mail. I deleted the com.apple.mail and com.apple.MailServiceAgent folders in ~Library/Containers and I deleted any plist files in Preferences. It worked for a couple months. Then, about two weeks ago, I noticed Sent emails were not be saved any where on my iMac.
So, I repeated the procedure and created Mail anew. It worked great for about a week. I always have the "save sent messages to server" option turned on. Then, one day I got some kind of message that a folder called "Sent" could not be created on the server. Looking at Mail, my Sent folder was completely gone. All of my previously saved messages in Sent were moved to the folder INBOXToDos.mbox/Sent Messages.
At first I thought iCloud itself was messed up. I logged into iCloud. There was no Sent mailbox, and there was no INBOXToDo mailbox. So, now I have no sent messages anywhere in iCloud. I sent an email from Safari in iCloud, and then, iCloud created the Sent mailbox.
Still, my Mavericks iMac will not save sent messages anywhere. I need help sorting this out and don't want to lose my previous sent messages even though they seem to be stored in some wonky folder.

Where is the Sent Messages folder listed? If it is not under MAILBOXES but in an IMAP folder, select it and go to Mailbox menu, Use this mailbox for>Sent.
It should disappear and sent messages then appear in the Sent folder.

Delaying when switching between apple mail and safari

just on mavericks.
it more or less looks and feel ok but...
when I switch between apple mail and safari, everything "freezes" for some seconds (up to 30).
anyone similar experiences?
what could be the cause of that?
its really disturbing.

I am a little puzzled by the libraries and switching between the libraries. My personal computer has the majority of the movies and content that would be transfered to the appletv. I chose to only select a minimal amount of content (of movies and tv shows, music via playlists) so there would be space left that would hold photos. Also, i just want to send over only what I want to view (manual synch) If I switch to my Kids library, it streams all the content well (movies & tv shows)(which is fine and streams well) If I switch back to my library, it shows every movie, every tv show, hundreds of music playlist that I did not choose to see. (stream mode) The only fix is to reboot the computer, and all is well. anyone experience this issue?

Gmail, Apple Mail, and excluding mailbox spotlight indexing

Hello,
I use Apple Mail with my gmail IMAP account. Therefore I have a big mailbox "All Mail" where I have duplicates for all emails in "Sent" and my other tags (mailboxes in Apple Mail).
Whenever i search for something, I always get duplicate results, one from Inbox, the same email in All Mail, for example. I've added the "All mail" mailbox to the list of Spotlight exclusions, but Apple Mail seems to ignore this, because I still get results from that mailbox.
Also tried resetting hte spotlight index but this doesn't fix it.
Any ideas on how to force a mailbox not to be indexed by spotlight?
Thanks.

Thanks, Andy. I should have posted a closure statement on this thread as I finally figured everything out. The most frustrating thing is Google's own advice at http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=78892# couldn't further from correct. After many hours of experimenting with settings, I finally came up with the correct ones. In fact, I'm in the process of writing an article about it since there is simply no definitive guidance on the web that I've been able to find in the time I've searched.
Your comments are on target...everything on the *Behaviors Tab* needs to be checked (excepts Notes) and the *Delete when* settings must be set to Never. But there are a few other things that must be done, including some changes on Gmail Settings before Mail and Gmail will be perfectly synchronous. I'll post the entire solution on this forum when I finish the graphics.

Apple Mail and Google Apps (personal domain) - 554 554 Denied Mail Delivery Subsystem (Intermittent Failure)

Hello,
I am having problems with my Apple Mail and Google Apps and I don't know what to do. I have been using apple mail with google apps for a few months now with no complications. In the last week I have recieved a handful of messages from the Mail Delivery Subsystem citing error "554 554 Denied". I know that the emails I have tried to send to are real emails and are entered correctly. I tried to send directly from google apps to one of these people today and it worked so I assume the problem is with Apple Mail, or is intermittent. Adding to my frustration is that it works with some people and not with others so it's hard for me to see exactly what is causing the problem.
Any ideas?
I'll include a copy of one of the Mail Delivery Subsystem emails I recieved - excluding the email address and message body.
Thanks for your help!
From: Mail Delivery Subsystem <[email protected]>
Subject: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)
Date: October 10, 2011 10:40:53 AM CDT
To: [email protected]
Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:
    [email protected]
Technical details of permanent failure:
Google tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the recipient domain. We recommend contacting the other email provider for further information about the cause of this error. The error that the other server returned was: 554 554 Denied (Mode: normal) (state 18).
----- Original message -----
Received: by 10.236.155.74 with SMTP id i50mr20817257yhk.23.1318261251237;
       Mon, 10 Oct 2011 08:40:51 -0700 (PDT)
Return-Path: <[email protected]>
Received: from [192.168.0.190] (c-66-41-33-96.hsd1.mn.comcast.net. [66.41.33.96])
       by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id n18sm26532559yhi.14.2011.10.10.08.40.49
       (version=SSLv3 cipher=OTHER);
       Mon, 10 Oct 2011 08:40:50 -0700 (PDT)
From: Mary Jo Bailey <[email protected]>
Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v1244.3)
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="Apple-Mail=_08B0FA71-0443-40B4-AEAB-4056C662063D"
Subject: Re: Cleaning Quote
Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2011 10:40:47 -0500
In-Reply-To: <[email protected]>
To: "XXXXXX" <[email protected]>
References: <[email protected]>
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.1244.3)

For mail issue, I had the same problem. My mail password was different than my itunes password and when I changed mail to itunes password, it started working again. Not sure about the google apps issue.
hope this helps a bit.
Matthew

Apple mail and Entourage duplicate email receipt

I noticed a new problem running Apple mail and Entourage mail on the same imac. Every incoming email to apple mail now also appears in the entourage inbox even though they are separate accounts with different services. The apple mail is a .me account using imap. The entourage mail is a pop account. I have used this setup flawlessly for the past 2 years, and have no idea why unexpected duplicate emails now occur in both inboxes. It only occurs with email sent to the apple mail account, and not vice versa. I don't know if this is related to a recent mac os x update on iMac to the latest version 10.6.4. I have made no preference changes to the email accounts. Anyone know what's causing this and how to fix it?

Are you using POP email? If you are look into Mail's Preferences, Accounts tab, highlight the account, Advanced tab and make sure you don't Save message of the server after download for days.

Massive frustration with Apple Mail and POP accounts going offline

I love Apple mail. Best interface ever.
BUT... because of issues with Apple Mail, I've been forced to use Entourage.
I really want to use Apple Mail and hope someone here can help me with this.
I have two Yahoo business mail POP accounts that I need to have running for an online business I have. I keep Mail running all day and my .Mac IMAP account and a Comcast POP account stay up all the time.
But the two Yahoo accounts keep going offline. I get an Apple Mail message asking me to reenter my password. They won't stay up more than five minutes or so.
Over the course of a day, this is so irritating that, as I said, I've had to switch to Entourage, where the accounts stay connected all the time and work just fine.
I've scoured the forums here. Deleted .plists, added IP addresses, followed any suggestion that seemed plausible/ But no luck.
If Entourage works, Apple Mail, it seems to me, also should.
Can anyone help????

Speaking as one forced to use Entourage at work I can with confidence say in my case that they are different products serving different markets with different needs.
Apple did not drop the ball - the server is asking for re-authentication of a POP client. Any POP client should behave the same way. Yes, the client could just provide the credentials again, but it is safer to reequire the user to respond to the request.
That the request happens frequently is a function of the interrelationship between the DHCP lease life, client, and the mail host's response to new information.
Who is providing your DHCP lease?

Differences in Apple Mail and Entourage

I am running both Apple Mail and Entourage. I've noticed some differences I'd like to have someone explain to me. Both have accounts connected to Exchange.
1. Apple Mail can access the Exchange server from any internet connection. Entourage has to be on the same subnet in order to connect. Why is this happening?
2. I just rebooted my Exchange server and Entourage will send and receive but Mail will only send. What would cause that to happen?
gbs

Let me answer my question. Apple mail uses IMAP and Entourage uses OWA. That doesn't necessarily answer why Entourage can't access the server when off the subnet.
When rebooting the server the IMAP protocol was not automatically started which prevented Mail from receiving messages.

Apple Mail and IOS mail client's auto configuration

Good morning,
Does any kind of documentation exist, anywhere, of how Apple Mail and IOS does autodiscover (how they handle it) and which XML format does it require for non Exchange accounts to be autoconfigured (an IMAP account with SSL and SMTP SSL too?.
Best regards,

Good morning Eric,
Thank you so much for your answer. Básically the answer I'm trying to get is how to manage for autoconfigure Apple Mail and iOS Mail automatically with a not "so known" email provider such us Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, like can be Sarenet (www.sarenet.es). I mean which kind of info should an XML or DNS SRV record contain in order to achieve this goal?. My answer requirement is far more specific that yours. Anyway thanks a lot as said before .
Regards,

Apple Mail and GoogleMail via IMAP

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