Help needed! GMail sent items missing from Apple Mail!

Question

I need your help to solve a problem that I've identified recently in Apple Mail with a GMail account:
I have a POP-enabled GMail account in Mail, but also with IMAP functionality enabled through GMail's webmail settings (probably because I access it also from my iPad).
However, I notice that my local "Sent" mailbox in Mail only contains some 140 messages, even if a visit to GMail's webmail page shows me that I have at least 1200 "sent" messages.
I must note that my advanced mailbox settings in Mail do NOT allow for automatic deletion of sent items.
So my question is: how to make sure that I do not lose ANY sent items from GMail or any other account for that matter (i.e., that whatever is sent remains in the local "sent" mailbox in Mail)? Am I missing something?
Thanks a lot in advance for your help.

Answer 1

Or am I saying something stupid?
No I don't think so. But from what you're saying, the only copies of sent messages on your computer will be what you are sending from the computer. The messages sent from the iPad or website are not stored on the computer. If it were all set as IMAP, they will be available on all devices.
Thanks a lot for your attentive reply - my only concern is that, when I activate IMAP, I won't be able anymore to have a steady copy of all items in my sent items folder on Apple Mail, nor to delete what I want at will.
Changing it to IMAP will make the all sent items available on the server to your computer, website, and other devices. They will always be there as long as you don't delete them from the server. The messages you manually delete will delete them from the server and all devices. If you want a local backup, then copy them to a local folder which will not remove them from the server or move them to a local folder which will delete them from the server.
Auto syncing does not in any way interfere with local folders on the Mac. The only IMAP folders you can sync are the inbox, sent, drafts, and junk. Inbox is the only mailbox that has to be synced (it's done automatically and you can't change it). I also sync the Sent and Trash. I don't sync (store messages on the server) the drafts or junk mailbox.
I don't understand what you mean by not being able to delete messages from the Inbox. I do it all the time. What happens when you delete it depends on your settings in gmail. Gmail has some peculiar settings like having a deleted items folder besides the Trash folder.  The default is to delete from inbox, it goes to the deleted items folder. Delete it from there, and it goes to Trash. Delete it from trash to get rid of it. The fact is that the All Mail folder shows the message no matter what folder it in. I have mine set to move it straight to the trash when moved from the last visible IMAP folder. So, when I delete it from Mail's Inbox, it moves it to the trash just as local messages do.
If you plan to do your email from the computer only, then POP is fine. If you plan to use the website and iPad also, then IMAP is the way to go.
That way everything in mail is available no matter where you look at it. The only things you won't see is what you move to local folders.
Seems like you should go to gmail's website and read the help files to become more familiar with it. Also look at all the settings available (expecially the Labels Tab, Accounts tab, and Forwarding Tab. These settings will be what you will use mostly to customize how it works and flows with the Mac. If you're going to use IMAP, you need to understand what they do exactly and what you want them to do for you.
My sole objective: to keep ALL messages in Apple Mail (except those I expressly delete), as well as ALL messages in Google.
IMAP does exactly this for you already. By leaving it on the server, they are on the computer. In Mails preference settings in the Accounts / Advanced Tab, for IMAP accounts keep the setting for storing messages for offline viewing. That way Mail actually does store a copy locally until you delete it from the server. And that will be backed up with your computer backup.
And what you do delete from any device will duplicate it elsewhere.