Should I give up on Gmail IMAP?

Can somebody help me feedback about my Gmail IMAP problem, please?
I switched from pop to imap in November and as a first step successfully uploaded my ~2GB of old pop messages up to gmail to have everything in sync. I did this by copying the old folders across into the gmail folder and as far as I can tell this worked fine - all messages are there in gmail with correct labels.
I also set up gmail just right, I think, with the Sent, Trash and Draft folders of Mail.app mapped correctly to their gmail counterparts.
So what's my problem, you may ask? Well, I find with this set-up, Mail.app has become so slow and dangerously unreliable that I just cannot work with it. As soon as I am online or open a folder, Mail starts very lengthy caching and synching processes that seem to near freeze all action. For example, opening folders can take forever and I cannot use Mail Act-on properly as it just takes waaaaayyy to long.
But what's worse, although I have the option checked to download full messages and attachments, because I want to have copies for offline viewing, this doesn't work properly! All old messages should have still been on my mac in the first place, as I copied them from there, but they are not. Many are blank or garbled, when they appear fine in Gmail.
Finally, it seems that the data tranfer/caching/synching old folders that Mail.app attempts as soon as I go online somehow buggers up Gmail remotely, as when I have Mail running online, I often have problems receiving messages - they will arrive with lags of several hours, which is a total dealbreaker for me.
I tried switching to not downloading messages but it didn't even make a difference
My question is now, can anybody think of a way to solve my problems and still use IMAP, or should I just revert to pop and manually update what I have read and keep my sent messages in sync?
I probably use gmail's web interface for most reading and quick writing, but absolutely want to keep offline copies and use mail for the great ical and address book integration and for emailing with ease from apps like iPhoto and Journler.
Am really gutted that IMAP doesn't seem to be working out for me and would be very grateful for any tips.
Many thanks,
Nora

Hi there,
Interesting to read that you have a Rule to move Mail into 'All Mail'...
This is not necessary, 'All Mail' contains a 'copy' of every message, including Sent, and every message in your Folders, so you are moving a message into a folder that already contains a copy of that message (if I am guessing correctly).
A quick theory (as an example), if you have 500 sent messages and 250 in your Inbox and Folders, All Mail will contain 750 messages - copies of your 500 sent and 250 received Mail). Again, this is so Google can have 'Labels' instead of Folders on the Web side of Gmail.
Try stopping this Rule from moving messages to All Mail and see if that helps with your syncing...
Regarding your post before the last one, if you have 20,000 sent message alone, my best guess (in ideal situations) is it would take *at least* 3 or 4 days to successfully Sync with Gmail's servers...
Have you thought about Archiving your messages, for instance by year? I say this because syncing 20,000 messages will take an awfully long time, no matter how fast your internet connection is or how streamlined your database is. Also, do you actually need access to 20,000 messages at the click of a mouse? By archiving you can save Disk space and have a faster sync... a little link here:
http://www.it-enquirer.com/main/ite/more/archive_email/
It isn't a serious problem in OS X Mail with IMAP, because every message is a small file (you can see them in ~/Library/Mail) so there is no chance of the database becoming corrupt so badly that your messages are lost... unlike Outlook which stores EVERYTHING in one file (all your eggs in one basket, anyone?) and I have had that happen to clients. Once Outlook decides it cannot read a PST file, that is pretty much the end of the road for your messages!
I hope this helps.
Regards,
Jamie

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AceNeerav wrote:
True. And that doesn't help. It only messes things more. I guess Both Google and Apple want things their own respective ways and that's creating trouble for us.
yes, they do and yes, it does.
I don't have an iphone so don't know how things work there but here is how things work with Mail and gmail.
1. you mentioned something about suffix. it should be set to
[Gmail]
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If you really need more assistance on this,start a New Topic for yourself at...
http://discussions.apple.com/post!default.jspa?forumID=753
PS. I only use Apple's Mail to help out with it's myriad problems, I prefer Eudora & Thunderbird...
http://www.eudora.com/
http://www.eudora.com/email/features/mac/index.html
http://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird
PS. I stand firm in my request that if anybody can point out a worse eMail client... I'll eat my hat!

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