USLSoftware®

Simplified email migration

Here is the article for Gmail in Mac Mail best practices and Tips & Tricks.

Gmail in Mac Mail

Both Mac Mail and Gmail are two hugely popular services relating to emails. Mail is a desktop-client for Mac users from Apple, whereas Gmail is an emailing service that has a web-based interface from Google. Millions of users are out there that use both of these services.

So, how to make the best of both of these services? How to use Gmail on Mac Mail with no compromises? Let’s find out.

The first step is to add your Google account in Mac Mail. There is still room for improvement here, but fortunately, Apple has made this step a lot smoother than in the past. It’s an ongoing work in progress and seems to be getting better.

  1. Select ‘Mail’ –> Add Account
  2. Choose Google under ‘Choose a Mail Account Provider’
  3. Type your Gmail email address –> Next –> Type your Password –> Next
  4. Click ‘Set Up’

It should automatically start the process and start downloading your messages from Gmail servers. However, often, users face few issues. If the above method didn’t work for you, or not working properly (like not all folders are showing up in Mac Mail), try these following tips:

Make Sure IMAP is turned on in Gmail. To check, go to ‘Gmail’ –> Under ‘IMAP Access,’ make sure that the status is enabled.

Few of the lables in Gmail are not valid in Mac Mail, for instance: chats and important. You need to turn them off for IMAP. To do that, go to Gmail settings –> Labels –> Look for the ‘Chats’ and ‘Important’ labels and turn them off. Also make sure that ‘All mail’ is enabled.

The archive feature of ‘Apple Mail’ doesn’t archive your emails in Gmail. It’s local to ‘Mail.’ This could be a problem for receiving large quantity of emails, as not archiving emails could lead to a messy inbox. The solution is inside the IMAP settings in Gmail itself.

Here’s what to do:

  1. Go to Gmail, Settings, and Forwarding and POP/IMAP
  2. Under ‘IMAP access,’ look for ‘when I mark a message in IMAP as deleted.’ Under this setting, turn Auto-Expunge off. It simply instructs the client (Mail) to wait to update the server. Auto-Expunge off will immediately update the server, so it should be off.
  3. Under the next setting, check ‘Archive the message.’ This will simply archive the messages on Gmail that you delete on Mac Mail. If you really want to delete on Mac Mail, you have to manually move it to the Trash folder.

Another tip is to limit the IMAP folders to contain no more than 500 messages.

Another frequent problem with Mac Mail and Gmail together is to enter your password again and again. This mostly happens due to the two-verification security feature in Gmail (the one that sends you a temp-password on your phone). If you have this feature turned on, you need an ‘App-Password’ from Gmail to enter in Mac Mail. Your regular password won’t be accepted.

This can be quite infuriating because Mac Mail doesn’t (and cannot) really know what the password is. It simply thinks of your regular password as wrong and keeps asking for the correct one.

To get the app-password, do the following:

  1. Click your name or photo near your Gmail inbox’ top right corner
  2. Go to ‘App-passwords’ section
  3. Enter your Google Password
  4. Select ‘Mail’ in the drop-down menu
  5. Click ‘Generate’
  6. Use that password in your Mac Mail
  7. Make sure to revoke that password later on in Apple Mail (This won’t affect Mac Mail once you are signed in)

That’s all there is to know about using Gmail with Mac Mail. If you followed the above steps, you won’t have any problems. It can be quite confusing at times, but fortunately, Apple is working to make the entire process go more smoothly.

Don`t copy text!