Blog | Pink Studios

How to clean up your Apple Mail box without permanently deleting messages?

Note: This tutorial is written assuming your email accounts are hosted with Gmail / Google Apps.

If you own an Apple computer, you definitely love Apple Mail; and if you don't you certainly need to. For people with several email accounts, Apple Mail is our best friend. Apple Mail allows users to manage multiple email accounts without the need of logging in and out of each of them. If you have multiple email accounts which receive a decent amount of emails per day you will notice that your mailbox size will start increasing in size. To determine the actual size of your mailbox:

1. Open "Macintosh HD"
2. Click on "Users" and select the folder with your username. (In our case "pinkstudios").
3. Click on "Library"
4. Click on "Mail"
5. Once on "Mail", right click on the mailbox* that wish to determine the size and click "Get Info".
   * If your email account is hosted my Gmail / Google Apps and using Imap, the folder names will be something similar to:

• IMAP-username@imap.gmail.com (for Gmail hosted accounts) or
• IMAP- This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it @imap.gmail.com (for Google Apps hosted accounts)

If you believe your mailbox size is quite large, you probably want to implement this tutorial and free up some space on your computer. From two email accounts we were able to clean up about 20 gigabytes total.

How to clean up space from your mail boxes using Apple Mail and Gmail / Google Apps
(this tutorial works for both free Gmail accounts and domain-based email accounts with Google Apps)

1. Login to your email account. [www.gmail.com or www.mail.google.com/a/domain-name.com]
2. Click on  the Google "Labs" link on the top right side of your browser.
   

   

   [If using Gmail, click on the gear on the top right side on your browser and choose "Labs" from the drop down menu.]
   
   
   

   
   [If your email account is being hosted with Google Apps, click on the green icon (lab tube) on the top right side on your browser.]

   
   
3. Once on the "Labs" page, look for "Advanced IMAP Control" and click "enable".



4. After enabling "Advanced IMAP Control" on Gmail, scroll up and click "Save Changes".
5. Now click "Settings"* on the top right menu.
   * The location of your "Settings" like might vary depending on whether you are using Gmail or Google Apps hosted email. Refer to point 2 on this tutorial for it's location.
6. On "Settings" click the sub-menu called: "Labels"
7. On "Labels" you will now find a new item called: "Show in IMAP". There you will have the option to include or exclude items from IMAP (Apple Mail). Uncheck "All Mail" and anything else you do not want to see in your Apple Mail application.



8. Once you uncheck the items you'd like to remove, you are ready to go.
9. Go to your Apple Mail, right click on each account you edited and select "Synchronize" to begin the syncin of the settings we performed on the email accounts.



10. Synchronizing will take a while depending on the mailbox's size. Be patient. Remember that there are no guarantees with this and results might vary depending on additional settings.

Pretty easy and helpful, huh? If you found this article helpful, please make sure to share with your friends and colleagues.