Get Rid of Gmail ALL folder

Without a doubt organizing and keeping emails can be a can of worms. Gmail accounts store all our incoming mail by archiving it in an ALL folder on our Apple devices and in a similar folder in our Mail app on our Mac computers. In essence, the mail we want to keep and the mail we don't want to keep gets stored in this folder whether we want it or not.

Since I'm trying to organize and minimize my mail on all my devices, I have decided to find a way to get rid of some unnecessary folders stored in the mail apps and programs I use on my devices and my laptop.


There is a way to control what folders are visible in Gmail account(s) that are setup as IMAP accounts for use with Apple Mail.


To turn off the visibility of the Gmail All Mail folder in Apple Mail on your computer, perform the following steps:

Step 1: Log into your Gmail account using your Browser (Safari, Firefox, Chrome, ... whatever you use).

Step 2: Click on the "gear icon" located on the far right-handside of the browser window and click on the Settings option from the pop-down choices.

Step 3: Select the Labels tab.

UNCHECK the box to the right - "Show in IMAP" for the ALL MAIL folder.


Not only will this remove the superfluous folder from your Mail app, it will also keep Mail from downloading every single message twice.

I choose to have my Spam folder unchecked as well.

You can also keep Gmail from archiving all your messages on your mobile devices (iPad, iPhone, etc.) and allow you to delete messages from your the devices.


After setting up your Gmail account on your iPhone, select the Settings icon. Select Mail, Contacts, Calendars. Then select (youraccount@gmail.com) and change the Archive Messages setting to OFF.

Now when you delete Gmail messages on your iOS devices (iPads, iPhones, etc) they will be permanently deleted and not archived.

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Syncing Apple Contacts with Gmail

Now that I have started using Google Voice and Google Talk, it is a lot simpler to make a call by selecting phone numbers from a contact list rather than actually typing in the numbers on the Google Chat or Talk dialpad.   So how do I efficiently move my contacts from my Address Book on my Mac to my Contacts list in Gmail?

(1)  First open Address Book on Mac and select the option to Export (Archive or backup the contacts) to your hard drive, should something mess up.   Select Export and then Address Book Archive and enter the appropriate name for the file you are saving and the destination folder or drive to store this archive.

(2)  Select Preferences under the Address Book menu and click on the Account Information tab and make sure you check the Synchronize with Google checkbox.  This will allow the addresses and contacts from your Mac Address Book to be synced with your Gmail contact list.

You will need to enter your gmail email address and password to allow the sync to your gmail account.

(3)  Select your Systems Preferences under the Apple menubar and select MobileMe.  Select the Sync Tab and make sure that your sync preferences are selected properly and click on the Sync Now to perform this sync right away.

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