Improve Gmail in Apple Mail

Are you one of the 425 million people in the world who have a Gmail account? If so, you’ve likely become accustomed to one of the best email experiences today that you can get for free. However, there may be some tips I can impart to improve your Gmail experience on your Mac.

We all know how great Gmail’s web interface is, but there are some great benefits to accessing your Gmail account via Apple’s Mail app. For example, have you ever wanted to reference an old message but not had access to the internet? Apple’s Mail application can store a local copy of all your messages, providing access to email without an internet connection. Google has a great knowledge base article on how to set up your Gmail account with Apple’s Mail app here.

Once your Gmail account is configured, you’ll be presented with an inbox identical to the inbox you have at Gmail.com. However, there are some key changes I’d recommend in order to keep everything about your Gmail email (it rhymes!) in sync.

After adding your Gmail account to Mail, you will note that a Gmail category has been added to Mail’s left-hand sidebar. Underneath that, you’ll probably have a couple mailboxes/mail folders with the first one labeled . Click on the disclosure triangle to the left in order to disclose the contents. What you’re seeing under the Gmail category is every folder that’s synced to Gmail’s servers. Under the [Gmail] mailbox, you’ll see Sent, Trash, and Drafts. It’s important to click on each of these, one at a time, and click Mailbox in the menu bar and click Use this mailbox for… Then, choose the appropriate type (Sent, Trash, etc.). This will keep everything you do in sync with Gmail’s servers, as well as other devices you check your email on.

Next, you’ll want to go to Gmail.com, log in, and get to Gmail’s settings. Here, you can click on Labels. You’ll see System labels and Labels, all of which will have a Show in IMAP checkbox option. If you want to tidy up Mail’s left-hand sidebar or if you simply don’t care to utilize some of Gmail’s built in label/mailbox/mail folders, then you can simply uncheck a label such as Important or All Mail.

Google services are great, but I hope I’ve relayed some info that might make your Gmail experience on your Mac a bit better. Stay tuned for more Google-Mac-integration themed tips in the future!