Filed under: E-mail, Productivity, Google
Google Labs introduces advanced IMAP controls for Gmail
Gmail has been supporting IMAP for almost exactly a year now, and they're celebrating by fixing the only thing I don't like about it! One of the latest brilliant ideas to come out of Google Labs is an advanced IMAP controls option that lets you mark messages for deletion without actually deleting them, and send your deleted messages to the trash instead of archiving them, Most importantly, you can hide individual Gmail mailboxes from your IMAP mail client. That sounds like a picky thing, and not really a big deal, but it's actually huge for me.
You may have noticed that Gmail has a mailbox called All Mail, that does exactly what it says -- it keeps copies of all your mail. This is fine if you're using webmail; you don't have to look at it, but it's there when you need it. If you're using an IMAP client, though, those extra copies of every last message in your account get synced to your computer all the time. Why bother downloading an email message twice, especially if you've got an overflowing inbox?
The thing is, now you don't have to. Turn on the advanced settings by going to "settings" and then "Labs" in Gmail. Once you enable the option, go back to settings and go to labels. All it takes is one checkbox, and All Mail will leave your email client alone. Brilliant. Of course, there might be a good reason for wanting to sync All Mail ... I just haven't found it yet. So thanks, Google, for fixing one of my pet peeves!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Stuart Halliday said 11:11AM on 10-15-2008
If you're using imap, you don't download your email.
It stays on the server.
Some email programs allow you to sync/download the imap email in case you want to read offline. But really there isn't a need for this these days with cable or ADSL.
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james churchman said 12:20PM on 10-15-2008
this is totally amazing!
this option is actually available in many many imap email readers (including Apples' Mail) but there is some odd incompatibility in apple mail with gmail that does not show the folders to unsubscribe
this fixes the problem beautifully!
( i receive many email lists (like the apple, iphone etc.. developer email lists) and have them filtered into separate "labels" out of the gmail inbox, because they send out hundreds of emails a day -- but all these hundreds have to be downloaded if you use moist imap client's (including Apple Mail) making it unbearably slooowww )
thanks google!
james
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Cal! said 11:53AM on 10-15-2008
Thanks. How do you "enable Labs"?
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Jay Hathaway said 11:57AM on 10-15-2008
If you click on settings, at the top of your Gmail screen, "labs" is one of the tabs that comes up (all the way at the right, next to web clips.) After that, just scroll down to "advanced IMAP controls" and click enable. You should be good to go.
bobinnv said 12:23PM on 10-15-2008
What is the point in having an email client that doesn't have all your mail? Not syncing 'All Mail' means you can't search for an old email - only for what is in your inbox. I'd rather use the Gmail web interface, and have access to all my mail, than use a client that won't let me search all my email..
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jerm! said 2:36PM on 10-15-2008
No love for Google Apps for your Domain accounts.... booooo
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ocdude said 5:27PM on 10-22-2008
There's a way (which I can't remember at the moment) to "subscribe" to new features with google apps for domains. Search the help.
Ryan said 12:35AM on 10-16-2008
Thankyou Google - I've been waiting for ages for this. I predominately use the gmail web client, and I can go there if I want to find an ancient email - I don't need all that crap on my PC or other devices.
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Peter Haessler said 1:27PM on 11-15-2008
Why do you need this? In an IMAP client (e.g. Thunderbird) you can unselect "All Mail" from the list of the subscribed folders. And you can unselect it from the list of folders for offline use (this is the default), so the content of that folder is not saved locally.
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