The Gmail "All Mail" label does not show under Outlook (classic or new), can it be made to do so?

[britechguy]

I have the option on the Google side set to "show in IMAP" for the All Mail label, and for all other labels where this is set up as show and with that checkbox checked, they are displayed as IMAP folders in Outlook (new and classic). But for some reason, All Mail does not.

That very same folder for the same accounts shows up no problem in Thunderbird.

Is there some "secret Outlook sauce" that one must apply to make the All Mail label/folder show up in Outlook 365 (new or classic)?

 

[HCHTech]

Just a guess, but I'll bet this is intentional as this would create duplicates. Every email belongs to the "All Mail" label, as well as whatever label it normally shows up in "Inbox, Draft, etc.".

I was about to say "Folders are just an illusion in Gmail, it just sorts it database for all emails with the "inbox" label when you click on the Inbox folder', however this is essentially true with Outlook as well, so really doesn't add any value. I don't really know how Thunderbird works, I think every email is its own file. I know when you transfer profiles in Thunderbird, you just copy the entire folder to the new install and it just works.

 

[britechguy]

Just a guess, but I'll bet this is intentional as this would create duplicates.

It shouldn't, simply because there are not additional copies of any of the email messages. No matter what other label (folder), including Inbox, something resides in under Gmail its "main home" is All Mail. The labels are effectively folders full of symbolic links to the actual messages in All Mail, and one can remove any user created label and it has zero impact on the existence of messages that previously were categorized with that label. They all still sit in All Mail.

 

[HCHTech]

Well, I'm not disagreeing with you, but I'd bet Outlook, programming to the lowest common denominator, would have code the automatically copy emails with the label "Inbox" into the stock (maybe undeletable?) Inbox folder (and probably the Sent Items folder as well). It's THAT programming that you would have to disable to be able to show the All Mail folder without have duplicates. I think - I haven't done any testing.

A quick search on this topic shows a few folks asking this question, but no real answers, so I'd bet you're out of luck one way or the other.

 

[britechguy]

@HCHTech

Given the number of "stupid decisions," many of which have been enumerated here over the years, made in regard to the inner workings of Outlook Classic, I have very little doubt you're correct.

I just thought there was no harm in asking, but I expected the end result to be, "You're sh*t outta luck!"

 

[timeshifter]

Has that ever been an option?

I’m with @HCHTech on this one and the duplicates concern. Gmail is different from other email platforms in that it doesn’t really put things in folder. It’s all in one big bucket and the each message is tagged as Inbox or wherever it lives. And unlike other social platforms a message can be in two “folders” at once, because it’s not actually in a folder. This can create much bigger mailboxes when you migrate from Google Workspace to 365.

 

[britechguy]

Has that ever been an option?

I don't know, hence the reason I asked.

Like I said, Google actually implements all of this in an entirely rational and expected way (at least for any of use who cut our teeth in the Unix/Linux world, where symbolic links are used to a far greater degree than I've ever seen in the Windows ecosystem [even though they do exist there]).

This isn't rocket science, so I was hoping that there might be some hidden toggle or checkbox I needed to turn on/off or check/uncheck on the Outlook Classic side of the equation.

Thunderbird has been showing this label for years provided it's turned on for showing as an IMAP folder on the Google side. Mine is, and I have to believe that's the default there, but I could very easily have tweaked this at some point in the distant past and forgotten having done so.