Apple Mail and Gmail

I generally use the webmail interface to my Gmail account, but there are times when it's convenient to use Apple Mail.   Google's recommended settings assume you want to  use the delete function of the mail client to delete a label rather than delete the message.   What this means is that when you delete a message, the label is removed and the message remains within All Mail and other labels.

I would rather that the message be deleted in the traditional sense.   Gmail accomplishes this by removing all the labels (messages without labels are "trash").   Thus, in Preferences/Accounts, on the Gmail icon, and the Mailbox Behaviors button, I checked "Move deleted messages to the Trash mailbox" and "Store deleted messages on the server" and set "Permanently erase deleted messages when:" to never.   Save the settings by exiting preferences.

But we're not quite done, you need to display your mailboxes in Apple Mail if  you're not doing so already.   In the Gmail folder list you should see a [Gmail] folder, expand it and you will see the default gmail folders (All Mail, Drafts, Important, Sent Mail, Spam, Trash, and Starred).   Select the Trash folder and in under Apple Mail's Mailbox menu, select "Use this Mailbox For", and then select Trash.

Now, when you delete a message in Apple Mail, it is moved to Gmail's trash folder.

Of course, the downside, you have no way to "archive" your email now in the traditional sense of Gmail...