gmail/imap/mail.app/iphone... clarity needed...

[whyrichard]

Hello,


i feel like it's all a mess right now.

i want my mail to make sense again...

-should i wipe out my old pop gmail mail accounts on my macbook, and start a totally new imap one? will i loose old emails? or since i've used gmail for a while imap will eventually download everything? ... but i want to preserve folders in my mail.app...

-in gmail on the web, should i disable pop access if i will be using imap?

-should i set up the imap on my macbook, then sync to my iphone, or vice versa?


thanks!


help!!

r.

 

[whyrichard]

and right now, mail freezes whenever it tries to do it's imap thing.

so doesn't work at all!


r.

 

[AHDuke99]

mine has started to do that too.... it worked fine for the first week or so, and now it just crashes when i open it and try to check the mail. right now my iphone is the only thing i use to check it ..

 

[whyrichard]

my imap gmail account on my macbook is trying to download all the mail in my gmail account. isn't there a way to have it only download mail beginning from this date?


r.

 

[plinden]

I think the GMail servers have been having a hard time today - I couldn't view my GMail account in Thunderbird on my windows machine for several hours this morning.

Anyway, to answer the original question. There's no need to remove a GMail POP account before setting up your GMail IMAP. Just go ahead and create a separate IMAP Mail account on your Mac, check that it works, then delete the POP account. That won't affect what's on the server. When you sync your iPhone, the accounts will be updated (POP removed and IMAP added)

When you get your IMAP account working it will look like your GMail account when viewing in a web browser only with folders instead of labels. With IMAP, what's on your computer is a copy of what's on the server. When you make a change on your computer Mail tells the GMail server which then updates. If you make a change on the server, say via the web mail interface, or another computer, the change will show up the next time Mail syncs.

It's possible that the new IMAP account is not freezing (despite what I said in the first sentence). Especially if you have a lot mail in your GMail account, it can take a long time to download to your Mac. I have Mail options set to keep a copy without attachments on my Mac.

So if you're seeing "freezing", I suggest walking away from your Mac for 30 minutes or so. It'll catch up eventually.

my imap gmail account on my macbook is trying to download all the mail in my gmail account. isn't there a way to have it only download mail beginning from this date?


r.

No, that's a feature of IMAP. It's a copy of what's on the server. Just give it time. Once it's sync'ed everything for the first time, it'll be faster.

 

[nickpro]

does anyone's sent messages ALL get sent to the TRASH folder? i've tried doing the "use this mailbox for" thing for my sent folder multiple times but it doesnt work.

 

[AHDuke99]

thats not my problem. my problem is that it checks my recent mail, tells me i have messages, and then mail crashes.

 

[whyrichard]

i left my mail app running all night, as it appeared 'frozen', hoping it would do its thing eventually but in the morning no dice. made no progress... maybe the servers are up and running today?

r.