Stop Apple Mail from downloading the internet

November 25, 2024 7:08 PM

I got a new iMac running Ventura 13.7.1 and; after clicking the Get Mail icon after getting my Apple Mail account set up, it seems to be downloading every message I've ever sent. My email is through Centurylink, the account server is IMAP not POP and I set up the same account on a MacBook running Monterey and it synced flawlessy. I go to my Centurylink webmail site and it doesn't have all the emails that are downloading. How do I fix this or find a good resource for solving Apple Mail problems. Google and Apple have been useless.
posted by jabo to Computers & Internet (2 answers total)

I don't have Centurylink so this may not be the case for you, but in Gmail with Apple Mail set up, if you have the Archive mailbox enabled, you'll get all your email downloaded in IMAP. I was OK with this so I just let it chug through the download overnight.

If I didn't want the archive, I would have gone into Gmail and turned off IMAP for the Archive label. Centurylink may have a similar option (or not; Google has a weird IMAP interface, apparently).
posted by gentlyepigrams at 9:17 PM on November 25

Yeah, it's doing exactly what you've asked it to do, so it's unclear what you're asking here. Can you be more specific about your mental model of how you expect this to work?
posted by dmd at 5:21 AM on November 26 [1 favorite]