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Mac OS Mail is only syncing 30 days worth of my Gmail. How can I fix this?

Hi There...


I have a brand new MBP 14 M2. It was very easy to get my gmail account setup with the Mac OS Email program... but my issue is it's only bringing the last 30 days of email from the IMAP servers on Gmail...


I can't find an option to increase this and sync my older emails too... I've looked through all the menu options on the Mac, and on Google's Gmail website... but I can't find a way to have more than 30 days worth of email brought in when it syncs...


Can someone please help? Thanks!


Ben


Posted on Sep 7, 2023 11:03 AM

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Posted on Sep 8, 2023 11:54 AM

Hello.


I wasn't having this problem but was curious about it. Here's something you might try:


In Gmail settings on the web, check the setting "Folder size limits" on the "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" page. Mine was set to "Do not limit the number of messages" -- but when I changed it to "Limit IMAP folders to no more than 1000 messages" Apple Mail deleted older messages. When I changed it back, Mail refreshed all the folders and included messages that were a couple of months old in Gmail.


Hope that works!


Dale


(P.S. This may be what you already tried, so sorry if this is redundant -- but I remember when I first set up Apple Mail, setting a message limit on the Gmail side didn't work consistently, which is why I changed it to "Do not limit.")


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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 8, 2023 11:54 AM in response to Benjamin Freedman

Hello.


I wasn't having this problem but was curious about it. Here's something you might try:


In Gmail settings on the web, check the setting "Folder size limits" on the "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" page. Mine was set to "Do not limit the number of messages" -- but when I changed it to "Limit IMAP folders to no more than 1000 messages" Apple Mail deleted older messages. When I changed it back, Mail refreshed all the folders and included messages that were a couple of months old in Gmail.


Hope that works!


Dale


(P.S. This may be what you already tried, so sorry if this is redundant -- but I remember when I first set up Apple Mail, setting a message limit on the Gmail side didn't work consistently, which is why I changed it to "Do not limit.")


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Sep 8, 2023 11:56 AM in response to daleducatte

Amazing! This seems to have done the trick! Thanks so much!!!


Update: I had my imap settings on gmail to limit to 5000 emails per folder... which works perfectly using Windows Mail or Mac Thunderbird Client.... But when I changed this to 'no limit'... all of suddent Mac Mail downloaded all my emails in my inbox back to the oldest one! Perfect!!!!


I have no idea why this should be. Gotta be a bug in Apple Mail, as it happens on multiple Apple Mail programs on different computers, but works correctly on Thunderbird on the same computers, and on Windows...


Anyways... problem solved for now! Except for the fact that I can't limit my folders to 5000 emails anymore... :)


-Ben

Sep 8, 2023 1:21 PM in response to Benjamin Freedman

That's a lot! You may already know this (and it would take some experimentation to make sure it works right), but you could....


  • Create a new Label on the Gmail Settings / Labels page.
  • Deselect "Show in IMAP" on the same settings page for that new label.
  • Search for older emails using "Search Mail" and provide a date range.
  • Move older emails to the new label by selecting the emails and clicking the "Move to" icon.


When you move the emails like this, they will no longer have the "Inbox" label in Gmail, and because "Show in IMAP" is deselected for the label, emails with that label -- which would normally show as a folder in Apple Mail -- won't be synched. Both things have to be true: the emails can't have the Gmail "Inbox" label anymore (because emails with the label "Inbox" will always get synched), and the new label assigned to them has to have "Show in IMAP" turned off.


Not sure how practical it would be to do this for tens of thousands of emails, but it could be a workaround -- and all the relabeled emails would still be available in Gmail, under the label you assigned to them.







Sep 7, 2023 1:31 PM in response to tbirdvet

On my windows computer using Thunderbird or Windows Mail, it pulls ALL the emails up to the 5000 limit I set on gmail.... so I don't think it's a server side issue... Other clients seem to have no issues with it. Just Apple Mail...


I'm not looking to 'save' the emails as you mention. I want my Apple Mail to accurately reflect the Gmail imap server that it's pulling from, and not just pulling the last 30 days. I'm not trying to 'save' them per-se, so I don't want to copy them to a different mailbox on my Mac...


Can anyone suggest a solution? Anyone else having this issue?


Best,


Ben

Sep 7, 2023 2:14 PM in response to tbirdvet

When I try that, nothing much seems to happen. Activity Monitor says 'indexing' but the progress bar doesn't move.


I also have just tried deleting the gmail account and re-adding it. Same thing happens... It's odd, as it says its 'downloading 7658 emails'... but that's far more than I'd have in the last 30 days... So it feels like it's downloading them, but maybe not showing them to me somehow? But I don't see a 'filter' or anything that restricts me to 30 days....


This is a brand new MBP that was over $2K, so I'm pretty frustrated that I can get this to work.... :( Any other ideas?

Sep 8, 2023 11:02 AM in response to Benjamin Freedman

Quick update: Quick update... I tried this on another computer running Monterrey, and had the exact same problem... No emails before Aug 25th now... No idea why. I also tried creating a brand new login account with brand new AppleID... Same problem... It's gotta be either a setting in gmail or one in apple settings but I can't find anything that would account for this... Any help would be appreciated... (sorry about the double post)

Jan 16, 2024 1:55 PM in response to Benjamin Freedman

I bought a Macbook Air M2 nearly a year ago. All was well with outlook.com but recently I can only view one month of emails. I can only see older ones on my iphone. I've been through Google many times and all the tabs it asks you to press (including an Exchange account) are nowhere to be seen on my outlook. So I am utterly confused. I've spent so much time on it and very frustrated.

Mac OS Mail is only syncing 30 days worth of my Gmail. How can I fix this?

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