MacOS – How to sync one or two labels only, from Gmail to Mail.app

If you add your Google account as an Exchange account you can theoretically sync an unlimited amount of Email on your device. To do this, follow the instructions at Google to use Google Sync with Gmail (http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=138740) and after that change the option "Mail Days to Sync" to "No Limit". The Option "Show XX Recent Messages" will be ignored (this is actually intended behavior, see http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2723).

Before you completely ditch GMail and go just with your iCloud account, you'll need to ask yourself this question:

Will you only access your mail solely from Apple devices?

I for one created an iCloud e-mail account on my Mac just to be disappointed that I couldn't configure my Android phone to access it. Probably Apple is not using standard IMAP for its iCloud e-mail service.

That said, you could upgrade your GMail account to a premium account to get better quality of service (and perhaps not having them selling off your e-mails).