Alternative to Apple Mail that won't download my whole gmail archive
October 16, 2016 11:36 AM

I just tried to set up Apple Mail on my laptop and it insists on downloading the whole !@#$% archive for every account I link to it. Googling around, I get the sense this is a common complaint. Is there some kind of Apple Mail or Outlook alternative that will let me configure a Gmail account and an Exchange account to download all NEW mail but not any OLD mail? I'd be willing to pay for it. I don't need much functionality--mostly something that'll work when I'm offline. A Mail or Outlook clone that doesn't insist on this downloading-and-storing-1.1GB-of-email nonsense would be fine with me.

Thanks in advance, all!
posted by lotf629 to Computers & Internet (5 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
Are you using POP or IMAP to sync your mail application to GMail?

If you're using POP, you can visit Settings and select "Enable POP for all mail that arrives from now on".

If you're on IMAP, under "Folder Size Limits" you can choose "Limit IMAP folders to last 1000 messages." which will cut things down. Unfortunately 1000 is the lowest number possible, but there's also 2K, 5K, 10K, and the default "unlimited" which you are probably at right now.
posted by JoeZydeco at 11:59 AM on October 16, 2016


As above, your issue is with the nature of IMAP. Any alternative client will still have the same issue.
posted by humboldt32 at 12:17 PM on October 16, 2016


In addition to JoeZydeco's suggesion, in gmail settings select "Labels" (2nd from left), and then uncheck "Show in IMAP" for "All mail". (And whatever else you like, I've unchecked spam as well, plus some folders into which I've archived stuff.) What this will do may depend on exactly how you use your inbox, but if you've archived old stuff it'll be in All mail but not the inbox.
posted by advil at 12:22 PM on October 16, 2016


You can get the offline gmail extension for chrome that basically does this.
posted by rockindata at 3:15 PM on October 16, 2016


Thanks so much, all, and sorry for my delay in getting back to this thread! It was a while before I had a chance to grapple again with this issue. I had been accessing gmail by using IMAP and I couldn't figure out how to disable IMAP and connect using POP, but after getting the advice on this thread, I did a little more googling around and found the instructions here

http://www.needhelp4mac.com/2014/07/set-up-gmail-pop-account-in-apple-mail/

which worked for me. I also got the offline gmail extension, which was a handy little tool. So thanks very much for all the suggestions!
posted by lotf629 at 2:05 PM on October 23, 2016


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