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Mail reappearing in Inbox

When I put mail into an Apple Mail folder on my MacBook Air, it reappears shortly in my Inbox. It is still in my folder but the Inbox message is a duplicate. I use GMail which is synced to my Apple Mail.

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Dec 11, 2020 10:59 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Dec 18, 2020 10:00 AM

Bettye11,


We're glad you were able to perform this test in Gmail directly. If the issue is happening directly in the Gmail server, it sounds like it may be expected behavior or possibly a setting that's enabled. You may want to reach out to Gmail Help directly to verify these settings.


Regards!

8 replies

Dec 16, 2020 5:40 AM in response to Bettyel1

Hello Bettyel1,


We see that you are experiencing issues with your Mail duplicating when you attempt to move from one folder to another. We're glad you reached out to the Apple Support Communities about this issue. Check out this guide with information on how to Move or copy emails in Mail on Mac.


Here are also a few more details on how to Use rules to manage emails you receive in Mail on Mac.


Best regards!

Dec 17, 2020 10:28 AM in response to Bettyel1

Bettyel1,


We understand that the emails you move to folders within the Apple Mail app are appearing in both that folder and the inbox. Since Apple Mail uses folders instead of labels or tabs like Gmail, the email that is moved to a different label in Gmail may show up as multiple message types and in various folders in Apple Mail.

 

If you log into Gmail and visit Settings->Labels, and uncheck the option to "Show in IMAP" box for any un-needed labels, do you continue to have the issue?


If not, you may want to Contact Apple for support and service to see if they can offer further guidance.


Cheers!

Dec 16, 2020 7:41 PM in response to ryane77

Thanks for your answer ryane77 but you have misunderstood my problem. When I move mail from my inbox to a folder, it remains in the folder. However, the same email message comes into my inbox again within a few minutes. This is extremely annoying because I have to read the message again to see if I want to save it to a folder, or go to the folder and see if I already placed the message there earlier. When I delete the message after its second appearance in my inbox, it goes to trash. HELP!

Dec 17, 2020 4:52 PM in response to bailier

Hi Bailier, As a non-technology person, before I uncheck anything in Google settings>Labels, I need some info. Are you suggesting I uncheck boxes under Systems Labels or Labels or both? Under Systems Labels/IMAX everything is already checked except for Inbox which is greyed out and checked. What happens if I uncheck some of the boxes under Systems Labels or Labels?   For Ex. what would happen if I unchecked "starred" under Systems Labels? Labels are all the folders I have set up in my Apple and Google mail and I need to keep those and continue to put info into them. I have an iPhone and it is synced to have the same folders and get all the same email as my laptop gets. I want to continue to have them synced. Hope I have not confused you too much by these inquiries. I really appreciate your help. Betty

Dec 17, 2020 10:59 PM in response to Bettyel1

As an experiment I tried moving an email message on Google Mail from my Inbox to a folder. Sure enough the same thing happened. The same email remained in the folder and also reappeared in my Inbox. So what is happening on Apple Mail is also happening on Google Mail. I don't know if this info. helps you solve the problem, but thought you should know.

Dec 18, 2020 12:28 PM in response to Bettyel1

GMAIL is a unique mail system, it behaves neither like a pure POP email system nor a pure IMAP email system, it is a unique hybrid. Basically, what you think of as "folders" are, in GMAIL, actually more akin to "labels." When something is in the In Box, and you "move" it to a "folder," you are basically giving it another label, not physically moving the message. That is why you see it now in both places, it effectively now has multiple labels. Apple Mail, like other email programs, do their best to handle GMAIL messages within the existing constructs, but what happens is some non-intuitive behaviors, like what you see. Check your GMAIL settings carefully (preferably in the web-based GMAIL), you may think you are "Deleting" a GMAIL message, but it might be actually "archived" somewhere instead. You might find GMAIL's own apps work a bit more smoothly with GMAIL's unique systems (I use their app on my phone), but if you think of moving to folders as not actually moving them but adding another label to the message, that is more akin to what is actually happening.

Dec 18, 2020 1:48 PM in response to steve626

Thanks for the explanation and suggestions jdo_apple and steve 626. I have been using Gmail synced to Apple Mail for many years and this just started happening about 2 weeks ago. I sent a help message to Gmail and hope their answer will solve how to restore things to the way they always were. If they have a solve and it works, I will post it on this site in case anyone else is having the same problem. Happy Holidays to all. Betty

Mail reappearing in Inbox

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