[Alpine-info] alpine + gmail and deleting messages

[Benjamin R. Haskell]

On Thu, 14 Jul 2011, Allin Cottrell wrote:


> Hello all,

>

> I'm using Alpine 2.00 on Linux to access my gmail account. Mostly this 

> works fine, but I'm seeing one problem.

>

> If I hit 'd' on a message in the Alpine IMAP inbox, the message is 

> apparently deleted instantly, in the background (even if I don't take 

> the expunge step).  If I press 'u' to remove the deletion marker 

> Alpine _says_ it's undoing the 'd', but in fact the 'D' symbol is not 

> removed, if I try to view the message I get an access error, and if I 

> quit alpine and restart, the message is gone.

>

> Any ideas? Thanks.


The mapping from Gmail web interface actions to IMAP actions isn't 
one-to-one.  Deleting a message in Gmail doesn't actually delete it, it 
just removes the 'tag' corresponding to whatever folder you're in.

There are some settings you can tweak via the web interface to make IMAP 
behave a bit more expectedly.

In the Gmail web i/f:
Click the gear-like icon in the top right.
Choose 'Mail settings'.
Click the 'Forwarding and POP/IMAP' "tab".
Under IMAP Access, under "When I mark a message in IMAP as deleted:"
Choose: Auto-Expunge off

You can access all messages, including "deleted" (== archived) ones, 
through the [Gmail]/All Mail folder.

-- 
Best,
Ben