Single email account, two users...help please

[Rob JJ]

My wife and I have shared a single gmail account for years. Not sure what happened, but just recently, things have changed. Previously, our two laptops (both using Apple mail) operated accessed the account as if they were independent. If I read something, or deleted an email, my wife's Apple mail did not reflect any of my actions and vice versa, so we were able to not worry about one of our actions being reflected in the other's Apple mail.

Now, if I read an email, her Apple mail will sync so that it will reflect as if she read the same email. Conversely, if she deletes an email, it will be deleted from my Apple mail. We both have our own separate second gmail accounts, but it was nice to have a single email address where things that affect both of us went (bills, vet appts, etc).

Both of us have IMAP enabled. So, is there some setting/switch/option that can put things back the way they were previously, so we are able to operate independently on a single account? If not, is there an alternate email client that would give us this ability?

 

[BrianBaughn]

It seems like you both previously had the accounts set up as POP accounts with mail NOT being marked as downloaded/read at the server when accessed by either laptop. I couldn't tell you exactly why the change to IMAP occurred but the default for setting up a Gmail account on just about any device these days is IMAP.

You can go back to POP but you'd have to save your email in that account (if you want to) to a folder "On My Mac" (or a folder in one of your other accounts), check at the Gmail webmail site to see if POP is enabled, delete the IMAP account, then manually add the POP.

If it's not necessary to send mail FROM the shared account I think the best and easiest option would be to set up forwarding to both of your individual accounts at the shared Gmail webmail site. Then you can just delete the shared account on your Macs after saving the emails you need.

 

[NoBoMac]

Will ditto setting up forwarding on the shared account.

 

[dangerfish]

This is the way that IMAP is supposed to work. You either need to set it back to POP or forward email from your shared account to your individual accounts.