How To Sync Mail App On Mac
Outlook did away with its calendar sync tool years ago. However, you can add shared calendars to Outlook, use iCal addresses to add a Google calendar, and iCloud for Windows can configure Outlook to add an Apple Calendar to Outlook. Not all features available on Outlook for Windows are available on Outlook for Mac. Account type: CardDAV. Username: your Gmail or Google Apps Account. Password: your Gmail or Google Apps password. Server address: google.com. After the sync process is complete, any contacts made on your Mac will sync with your Google account, and any contacts made in your Google account will sync to your Mac.
This may be one of the ugliest icons that you’ve seen on your Macintosh computer but this is a powerful little app. It synchronises your Apple Contacts (from iCloud) with your Google contacts. This means that any contacts or groups you create in Gmail or on an Android device are available on your iPhone and OSX and iCloud, and vice versa.
I find this app really handy because I have a stack of groups that I have created in my Apple Contacts. I’d like to be able to send out bulk emails or a group SMS message to these people from my Android phone. The problem is that Apple and Google are enemies so iCloud will not sync with Gmail. ‘Contacts Sync for Google Gmail’ connects these 2 worlds of iCloud and Gmail together.
This picture explains it all.
‘Contacts Sync for Google Gmail’ synchronises your contacts between Gmail and iCloud. Note that this is not syncing your Apple computer directly with your Android phone. The synchronisation is being done ‘in the cloud’. Once Gmail (on the web) and iCloud (on the web) are in sync it flows down to everything else (your phone and computer) automatically.
Gmail and iCloud are synched in the cloud by ‘Contacts Sync for Google Gmail.’ Then Gmail synchronises with your Android phone while iCloud syncs with your desktop computer (and iOS devices), which means everything is kept in sync.
Step 1: Download the app from the Apple Store here:
https://macappsto.re/au/yme7A.m
(or search for “Contacts Sync for Google Gmail” on the Mac App Store)
Step 2: The first thing you need to do is enter your account details for your Google account and your Mac iCloud account. To do this go to ‘Accounts to Sync’ and log into Google and then log into Mac.
Log into your Apple iCloud account
Step 3: Now you can select ‘sync.’ There are three options:
- 2 way sync will merge all your contacts together.
- Gmail –> iCloud will delete all your iCloud contacts and import your contacts from Gmail.
- iCould –> Gmail will delete all your Gmail contacts and import your contacts from iCloud into Gmail.
After the sync is complete it will notify you of which contacts were updated.
You can keep the app running in the background and select ‘Auto Sync’ so that changes to either iCloud or Gmail are copied across. Otherwise you can manually sync when you want to.
I found that after the sync I had a lot of ‘duplicate’ contacts. (I had 2 or 3 versions of the same contact.)
Thankfully Gmail has the ability to find duplicate contacts and to merge them together.
(You can’t do this in the Apple Contacts so the merging needs to be done on the Gmail side).
To merge contacts, firstly log into your Gmail account and select “Contacts” under the “Mail” menu.
Now go to the “More” menu and select “Find & merge duplicates…” This will find all the contacts that have similar data. Don’t worry, it will prompt you with all the contacts it has found and prompt you to continue before it merges them.
I found that I had to use contact sync to sync between iCloud and Gmail, then I ran find and merge duplicates, then I synced again, and so on, and after I had done this cycle for five times all the duplicates were removed.
Sync Email across Devices
Once upon a time, most people used a single computer for email. Your email client would connect to your email server, download all your messages onto the computer, and then delete them from the server. And that was fine because you used only one computing device, so where else would your email messages be?
Nowadays, that approach seems quaint. Most of us use multiple devices to check our email, and we typically expect to see exactly the same messages—sorted into the same mailboxes and with the same status (read/unread, forwarded, replied to, or flagged)—on each one.
If you always use a Web browser to check your email (for example, with a Gmail account), your email is stored only in the cloud—so syncing is irrelevant, and there’s nothing for you to see here. However, if you use a client app on OS X or iOS such as Apple Mail, Microsoft Outlook, or Thunderbird to check your mail, you’ll probably want to be sure you keep everything in sync.
Even then, if you use IMAP, Exchange, and/or iCloud email accounts exclusively, you need do nothing more than confirm a few settings—these protocols are designed to keep everything in sync for you. If you use POP, you have a harder row to hoe.
Sync Email with iCloud
- Mac (Apple Mail): Go to System Preferences > iCloud. Make sure you’re signed in and Mail is selected.
- iOS Device (Mail): Go to Settings > iCloud. Make sure you’re signed in and Mail is turned on.
- Other IMAP Client: Go to the app’s account settings and either select an existing iCloud account or create a new account. Fill in your settings as described on this support page.
Sync Settings with iCloud
iCloud can also sync other email-related data across Macs (only), as long as the appropriate checkbox in System Preferences > iCloud is selected:
- iCloud Drive: Syncs email signatures, flag names, rules, and smart mailboxes.
- Keychain: Syncs account settings (such as username, password, and server addresses) for all your accounts.
Use Server-side Filters
Mail, Outlook, and most other desktop email apps have built-in rules or filters that let you process incoming mail—for example, filing less-important messages into special mailboxes or sending automatic replies if certain criteria are met.
But if you have the choice, I suggest setting up rules on your email server rather than in your client app. That way they can pre-sort email delivered to your iOS devices (which don’t have mail rules). And, you can switch clients or platforms without having to redo all your rules.
If you use iCloud for email, log in to iCloud.com, select Mail, and from the gear menu, choose Preferences > Rules to set up rules.
How To Sync Mail App On Mac
In Gmail, log in to your Gmail account (using this link or whichever URL you normally use if you have a Google Apps account with a custom domain). From the gear pop-up menu, choose Settings and then click Filters and Blocked Addresses.
Many other mail servers also offer Web-based configuration of rules or filters; consult your email provider for details.
How To Sync Mail App On Mac Computer
Sync Email with Google
First, make sure IMAP is enabled for your Google account:
- Log in to your Gmail account (using this link or whichever URL you normally use if you have a Google Apps account with a custom domain).
- From the gear pop-up menu, choose Settings, and then click Forwarding and POP/IMAP.
- In the IMAP Access section, make sure Enable IMAP is selected. Leave other settings unchanged.
Then set up the IMAP account in your email client of choice. Use your full Gmail address as the username and the following server addresses:
- IMAP:
imap.gmail.com - SMTP:
smtp.gmail.com
Sync Email with Exchange
- Apple Mail (Mac): Go to System Preferences > Internet Accounts. If your account is not already listed, click Exchange and follow the prompts to configure it. Then check your email with Apple Mail.
- Apple Mail (iOS): Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars. If your account is not already listed, tap Add Account > Exchange and follow the prompts. When you’re finished, use the Mail app to check your email.
- Outlook (Mac): Go to Tools > Accounts, click the plus button, and choose Exchange from the pop-up menu. Then follow the prompts to set up your account.
Syncing POP Email
If you use POP accounts, syncing messages between computers is much harder. The only reliable way to do it for two Macs is to quit Mail on both machines and then copy one Mac’s entire ~/Library/Mail/V3 folder (in El Capitan) or ~/Library/Mail/V2 folder (in Yosemite or earlier) to the other’s. But this overwrites all messages on the second Mac, which may result in lost data.
Doing a bidirectional, message-by-message sync is possible but messy. You could use a synchronization utility (such as ChronoSync) to sync the two computers’ ~/Library/Mail/V3 or V2 folders—but then both copies of the envelope index, which keeps track of which messages are where, will be incorrect.
To fix them, you’d have to quit Mail, delete the three files in ~/Library/Mail/V3/MailData/ or ~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/ whose names start with EnvelopeIndex on each Mac, relaunch Mail, and then let it reimport all your messages. Needless to say, that’s more bother than most of us want to go through regularly!
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