Mail doesn't archive anymore

Here is a workaround that worked well for me:

You can create a new "label" on the gmail website (I called mine "Archive+"). The label should show up as a folder in your mac mail client. You can then go to mail settings -> accounts -> select your account -> then set your new label/folder to be the default archive mailbox. Now in your mail client, this new label/folder will be called "Archive" and the former archive folder will show as "All Mail". You can then move all your archived emails from "All Mail" to your new Archive mailbox. It should all work smoothly after that. Hope that helps.

This is the same problem I have I use my business email every day for work as I have for over 12 years all the sudden I get on my email and nothing will archive. Every email I sent to archive comes back in my inbox over and over and over. Why would this just change out of nowhere? Last thing I have time to deal with is my emails randomly won’t archive. This has been weeks I’ve wasted trying to figure this out .

[Edited by Moderator]

Hi DrDirk84,

The following steps provide guidance on archiving messages in Mail. If you're unable to Archive using the following steps, note the portion on modifying your Viewing settings.

On your Mac, do any of the following:

When a Mail notification appears in the top-right corner of your screen, move the pointer over the notification, then click Archive.

If Archive isn’t an option in the notification, set the “Move discarded messages” option to Archive in Viewing settings in Mail.

In the Mail app  on your Mac, select one or more messages, then click the Archive button  in the Mail toolbar (or use the Touch Bar).

If you select an email conversation, any message in the conversation that’s in the current mailbox—for example, the Inbox—is archived; related messages that are in other mailboxes aren’t archived.

Archive emails in Mail on Mac

If you're following those steps and still have issues, we'd recommend reaching out to Apple to look into this with you further: Get Support

Cheers.

DrDirk84 wrote:

So apperantly you need to remove your Google account completely, reboot the system and then put it back.

Gmail isn't IMAP, though it pretends to be. Gmail does not have folders (mailboxes). It allows tagging a message with an infinite number of Labels. When it pretends to be IMAP, it pretends those labels are folders. All messages come into your Gmail account with two labels, Inbox and All Mail. Apple Mail maps the All Mail label to the Archive mailbox. So, every message displayed in Mail exists initially in Archive and Inbox. If you "Archive" an email in Mail, it moves the message to Archive where it already exists. Gmail is then supposed to remove the Inbox label and keep the "All Mail" label, but it's possible it never gets the message that it moved because it didn't. Gmail never works with any consistency. You should only use it on the web portal where it was designed to work.

DrDirk84 wrote:

Thanks for that. Does not help answering the question at all though. Also, it just works now.

There is no answering of the question. Gmail doesn't work on an IMAP email client because it isn't really IMAP. Use the web portal as it was designed.

FYI: I removed the google account from Apple Mail that wasn't working (because other gmail accounts WERE still working), put it back, and yep - Archive now works again. (Using the existing Archive label, not creating a new one as a workaround per Steelboss90's suggestion.)

Hello DrDirk84,

Thanks for clarifying that. Please contact Apple Support to investigate this further.

https://getsupport.apple.com

Thanks.

Same problem.