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Resolved Question

interface between gmail and mac mail

Dec 12, 2012 10:17PM PST

I don't want to receive mail on my MBP, I want to read it on the internet. I don't, except for some attachments, want it downloaded, I don't want it to take up space. I prefer to have gmail store it, and have bought extra space from google for that purpose. I have been using gmail, and gmail exclusively, since 2005.

With Mountain Lion, the Mail system on the Mac appears to have been activated, and drawn down thousands of old messages. They take up about a quarter of my used space, many megs, according to Grand Perspective. I tried deleting one folder in Mail on the MAC. And (though it's still in the trash in Mail) IT WAS DELETED FROM GMAIL.

How can this be? How can I safely delete all this stuff that's in Mail (in Library files) without losing them on the Gmail server? I can't delete Mail - the system says it needs it. I HAVE dismantled the imap and pop pointers to gmail.

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briegull has chosen the best answer to their question. View answer

Best Answer

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As already stated, just remove the account from the Mac
Dec 13, 2012 8:14AM PST

and then delete the Mail.

As to why it happened, Gmail is an IMAP system that compares mail on your Mac with mail on the server.
It then knows what mail you have already got and downloads the mail that you don't have.
Delete mail on your Mac and, at the next exchange of information, the same email gets deleted from the server.
Delete a folder full of mail on your Mac and, shortly thereafter, a folder full of mail gets deleted from the server.

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So I did that
Dec 13, 2012 12:26PM PST

I finally figured out what was happening, with the IMAP. I removed, or rather disabled, my gmail account from my mac mail. I then deleted more than 20 gigs of mail from my mac with the finder, not with mail, and emptied the trash. I then restarted my mac and up popped mail asking me to configure it. I couldn't get out of it by just quitting; I had to give it an account! Of course, then I disabled it, so now all is well, but it is aggravating that it is so insistent. Reminds me of the old days when IE, and ONLY IE was tolerated by PCs.

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There is a preference in Mail
Dec 13, 2012 8:44PM PST

in the Accounts section that disables the account and another in Accounts > Advanced that excludes that account when checking for new mail.

By far the easiest way to delete the mail is from within Mail.

Select one email, press Command + A or Edit > Select All and hit the Delete icon.
Rinse and repeat in the Trash folder and you are good to go and the Mail database is still intact.

Either way, good to see that you are back in business


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Answer
account
Dec 12, 2012 11:08PM PST

just delete your gmail account from mail Happy