MacOS – Mavericks Mail will not save preferences

Mail.app has a feature called rules that enables you to automate your mail tasks.

You can define rules in the Mail preferences.

Here's what I'd do:

NOTE: I tend to rename folders and prefix them with a '#' instead of moving them. Do whichever you'd prefer.

Delete gmail accounts from mail.app. Close mail and go to ~/Library/Mail. Move it somewhere (delete it later if all goes well). Go to ~/Library/Containers/, and move com.apple.mail. Go to ~/Library/Preferences/, and move com.apple.mail.* Run Mail, and set your accounts up. Go to Mail -> Preferences -> Accounts.

For each gmail account:

I tend to also go to Viewing, and set it back to classic layout. I like enabling the bold unread messages. Then I'll customize my columns.

Finally, once your email begins to download you'll need to map the sent/drafts/trash folders properly. Send an email and a 'Sent Messages' folder will be created if it doesn't already exist. This is the one Mail uses but not the one gmail/iPhone will use. So click on Sent Mail, and go to the Mailbox menu -> Use this Mailbox for ... -> Sent. Do the same with Trash and Drafts.

Now if you do have the sent messages folder, I recommend logging in to the gmail web interface at gmail.com, and just move all of those messages to the correct sent folder. Takes about 2 seconds in gmail.com, but will take forever if you try and do the same thing from mail.app.

Wait for everything to sync up, test sending/receiving from your computer, iPhone, iPad, etc. Make sure the mappings are working out and everything goes where its supposed to.

If you get sick of mail.app, go and buy MailMate (http://freron.com), which is my new favourite mail client.