POP3 Access
Gmail POP3 access will download all Gmail emails except those from Trash, Spam, and Chat folders. That means it will download emails from Inbox and Sent folders. This is great news for some users who want to synchronize their Sent folders between webmail and email client or mobile device. Here is how to set up POP3 for your email client.
It is not so good for users who do not want the extra copy of sent mail in their client's Inbox. For them, they can use Recent mode to not download the extra copy of sent mail.
Also, Gmail will not download email sent to oneself from POP3 client. A copy will download to webmail. You can work around this behavior if you use Recent mode or IMAP access.
It is not so good for users who do not want the extra copy of sent mail in their client's Inbox. For them, they can use Recent mode to not download the extra copy of sent mail.
Also, Gmail will not download email sent to oneself from POP3 client. A copy will download to webmail. You can work around this behavior if you use Recent mode or IMAP access.
IMAP Access
Gmail IMAP will download all messages to your email client except those from Chat folder. In client the emails will appear in a separate set of folders from Personal or Local folders. Here is how to get started with IMAP setup for your email client.
Normally IMAP is ideal for seeing all your emails in webmail, but Gmail has some non-standard implementations.
If you have an email in webmail Inbox, All Mail, and a label, they will appear as 3 copies in Inbox, All Mail and label folders. In webmail, 2 of 3 copies are labels. In client, all 3 are actual copies. Because of the duplications, the total emails in client can be twice the size or more of those in webmail. A workaround is to hide or unsubscribe from one or more folders in client.
If you delete an email from Gmail IMAP Inbox, the message will disappear but a copy remains in All Mail. Deleting from Inbox is equivalent to archiving in Gmail webmail. A workaround is to drag and drop the email from Inbox to Trash folder in client IMAP. You can change this non-standard behavior by implementing the IMAP Google Labs.
There are some know issues with IMAP.
Normally IMAP is ideal for seeing all your emails in webmail, but Gmail has some non-standard implementations.
If you have an email in webmail Inbox, All Mail, and a label, they will appear as 3 copies in Inbox, All Mail and label folders. In webmail, 2 of 3 copies are labels. In client, all 3 are actual copies. Because of the duplications, the total emails in client can be twice the size or more of those in webmail. A workaround is to hide or unsubscribe from one or more folders in client.
If you delete an email from Gmail IMAP Inbox, the message will disappear but a copy remains in All Mail. Deleting from Inbox is equivalent to archiving in Gmail webmail. A workaround is to drag and drop the email from Inbox to Trash folder in client IMAP. You can change this non-standard behavior by implementing the IMAP Google Labs.
There are some know issues with IMAP.
- Non-Latin characters can corrupt message headers
- Folder subscriptions don't work in Apple Mail 3
- IMAP clients timeout or crash when downloading very large folders.
- Gmail does not fully support upload of emails to IMAP folders.
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