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Question

Apple Mail and Gmail

Feb 22, 2012 2:18AM PST

Using Snow Leopard with all the latest updates. I have my Gmail account set up in Apple Mail as an IMAP account. When I delete messages in Apple Mail, the messages remain in my Inbox or Sent Items folder on the Gmail server -- if I log into Gmail via the web interface they are still in my Inbox or Sent Items.

If I delete messages using the web interface, they are also deleted from Apple Mail, so this is a one-way sync issue.

Is there a setting in Apple mail that will also delete messages from the server when I delete them in Apple Mail?

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Are you sure
Feb 22, 2012 3:46AM PST

Are you sure it's set up as IMAP and not POP3? You've actually gone and double checked the server settings and they are something like imap.google.com? Going off the idea that the simplest solution is usually correct, the simplest solution here would be that you have a POP3 setup, not IMAP. So maybe you want to triple check those settings.

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(NT) Absolutely positive
Feb 22, 2012 3:50AM PST
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Has it ever worked?
Feb 22, 2012 3:42PM PST

Has it ever worked the way you expect, and suddenly stopped working, or has it never worked?

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=776735
is one thread I found as I searched for troubles with SL and Apple Mail.

Personally, I have everything working just fine, but give us more information as well if you need to.

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Since it's IMAP
Feb 22, 2012 9:56PM PST

Since it's IMAP, why not just delete the account and add it again?

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More details
Feb 23, 2012 2:20AM PST

I've noticed that if it's just an individual message it will delete it at the server. If the message is part of a conversation it will not. I make a habit of deleting all but the most recent messages in any conversation, to keep clutter down. But if I go into the web interface the entire conversation is still there.

Sorry for not being specific enough before.

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Answer
Preferences
Feb 24, 2012 10:25AM PST

I too use SL (with all the latest updates) and my Gmail account set up in Mail as IMAP. I, however, actually wanted the behavior you describe. It seems to me I achieved it via checkboxes in Mail Preferences. So perhaps you can go through and determine which box(es) to uncheck. If not, perhaps it was in the Gmail IMAP setup, in which case Jimmy Greystone's advise to delete the account and add it again would seem the way to go.