Getting your Gmail messages in Apple Mail
Perhaps not everyone knows how easy it is to set up an account to get your Gmail messages in Apple Mail. Gmail provides simple instructions. Here they are:
1. Open Apple Mail.
2. Click ‘Mail,’ and select ‘Preferences…’
3. Open the ‘Accounts’ tab, and click the plus sign (+) along the bottom to add a new account.
4. Enter ‘pop.googlemail.com’ in the ‘Incoming Mail Server:’ field.
5. Enter your Gmail username (including ‘@googlemail.com’) in the ‘User Name:’ field.
6. Enter your Gmail password in the ‘Password:’ field.
7. Select ‘Add Server…’ from the pop-up labelled ‘Outgoing Mail Server,’ and enter ’smtp.googlemail.com’ in the ‘Outgoing Mail Server:’ field.
8. Enter ‘587′ in the ‘Server port:’ field.
9. Tick the box next to ‘Use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).’
10. Select ‘Password’ next to ‘Authentication:’ and enter your Gmail username (including ‘@googlemail.com) and Gmail password.
11. Click ‘OK.’
12. Click ‘Advanced’ and tick the box next to ‘Use SSL.’ (The port changes to ‘995.’)
* Did you click ‘Save Changes’ after enabling POP in Gmail? To ensure that Gmail can communicate with your mail client, be sure to click ‘Save Changes’ on the Gmail ‘Mail Settings’ page.
MacOSXHints has another step-by-step tutorial.
UPDATED: 28 December 2005
Tags: Apple Mail, GMAIL, Google, mail.app, POP accessRelated posts
September 15th, 2005 at 12:30 am
[...] And Ken Ferry, the creator of Mail Type Select, has written another app, AddressBook2CSV, which extracts all your Address Book entries in CSV (Comma-separated values) format, so that you can upload the info into your online Gmail Contacts. Useful on those sad occasions when you can’t use Apple Mail to read your Gmail messages. [...]
September 29th, 2005 at 7:26 pm
Well, I surely tried to follow these directions. Not all the screens and prompts you describe existed for me. Have you verified these instructions against the latest and greatest Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.2+? In particular, I did not see any prompts for port numbers, and the various syntactic constructions I tried in order to work around that lack failed me.
Thank you very much for making the time to put up this walkthrough. If you have any further thoughts that might help me, please email me at paul dot oppenheimer at gmail dot com.
September 29th, 2005 at 8:21 pm
Thanks for the kind words, although it is not my tutorial. It’s ripped straight from the instructions on the Gmail site :-)
But, yes, I set it up without any problems in Mail 2.0.3 on a machine running 10.4.2 two weeks ago.
What screens and prompts were missing?
October 20th, 2005 at 11:41 pm
[...] Stowe Boyd, “a well-known media subversive”, is not so happy. He wants to be able to read his Gmail off-line, write replies and then upload then again when he reconnects. MacFreePOPs, MailForward or POP access to Gmail don’t seem to be for him. He wants a dedicated tool to do the job: Yes, I realize that I could (possibly) configure Apple Mail, or Mozilla, or something to sort of do this. But it seems more attractive to have a small, lightweight, dedicated app to do this, rather than fool around with a big fat app. [...]
December 30th, 2005 at 12:22 am
[...] Secondly, anything you can do with a Gmail filter you can also do with a Mail.app rule. This means that people using Apple Mail to process their Gmail messages (instructions for Mail.app) can get the same benefit as the web-based service offers. Just set up a rule to catch email addressed to steve-ebay@gmail.com and then colour it or move it. [...]
January 3rd, 2006 at 1:48 pm
I’m trying to set up my Gmail on apple mail. When I open Apple mail, it automatically leads me to set up my email addresses. It does not allow me to select preferences. If I press cancel on the window that pops up, it exits mail completely. Is there any way to bypass the automatic configuration and just do it the way it is instructed here and by gmail? BTW I’m on a powerbook G4 - brand new.
January 3rd, 2006 at 2:20 pm
Hi Ernie.
Why not set up your Gmail account as the first account? Just select POP Account from the automatic configuration window and then fill in the details.
You can add your other accounts later. Does that work?
January 10th, 2006 at 7:41 am
[...] Too many bikini-clad marble bottoms in your life? Get your Gmail messages in Mail.app. Technorati Tags: gmail, POP, Apple Mail, Mail.app [...]
March 14th, 2006 at 10:13 am
[...] Now that I’ve got a ‘Book back, I’d much rather hit all of my email in one place, so with the help of Hawk Wings, I discovered this handy-dandy guide for getting your gMail in Apple Mail. So now I’m downloading six months worth of gMail into my ‘Book… Wish me luck. [...]
May 6th, 2006 at 8:56 pm
THX for that Gmail Tutorial!
I tried to use the one from googlemail, but it didn’t work…
Thank you very much
greatings from Germany
Frido
August 12th, 2006 at 12:12 pm
can someone actually answer the question though? how on mac tiger, can you set apple mail up to read your gmail?
August 12th, 2006 at 8:35 pm
@bambineau - Just follow the instructions in the post above. Works fine for me.
Is it not working for you?
December 4th, 2006 at 8:21 am
Thank you, thank you! I just set up GMail, and wasn’t keen on the interface, so I turned on my Apple Mail for the 2nd time since I bought this computer. Trying to figure out how-tos when you’re a born non-techie is quite the trick. Your instructions here were the best, and clearest ones I found. Excellent!
Now, I just gotta figure out how to get the second email addy that’s set up in GMail to import into Apple Mail. I must be doing something wrong, but not sure what ….
Cheers :-)
January 23rd, 2007 at 8:04 pm
Have successfully setup my gmail in Apple Mail, but no luck with my partner’s gmail in her Apple Mail as it continues asking for password or should I say gmail rejects it. But get this, I have no problems at all on my Apple Mail, but then I change the username/password to my partner’s gmail and it then won’t work.
I’ve reviewed all settings on gmail for both our gmail accounts and their both spot on the same. Just can’t figure it out!!!
February 25th, 2007 at 9:48 am
Any ideas as to why Apple Mail, will on occasion, NOT grab all email from gmail?
April 12th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
I’m having the same problem as Rod. I got it to download about half of my mail from gmail and then it stopped. Same with my yahoo account. Ideas?
June 7th, 2007 at 3:08 am
I am having same problem as Rod and Tobin. Half of my gmail (the older half) has downloaded and now it won’t download anymore including new messages which I am receiving
July 24th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
Hi,
I have been downloading all my emails from Gmail on to my apple mail, untill recently i.e. last week it just stopped downloading. I do not want to download all the emails 25,000 odd messages again.
Kindly help.
August 6th, 2008 at 6:04 am
Hello,
I have exactly the same problem as Robin, Tobin, Reza and John.
This happens with me since last July 17th.
I do not have a clue why this is happening. I’d be glad if someone knows the reason and shares it with us.
Thanks for any help.