Archiving Email - How does the "Previously Imported..." function work?

DEVONthink
1

Hello again. :slight_smile:

Posting a 2nd question / topic as I’ve not found an answer to this in the forums or the documentation.

Running dT3 v3.8.7 on macOS 12.6.2.

I’m archiving all email from G Suite/Gmail as I’ve moved to a different provider.

Using my daily driver Mac mini, I’ve created a new database and started importing/archiving email via the Apple Mail integration. I have a browser window open and compare the email totals that G Suite shows to what Apple Mail & dT3 have.

Using the Gmail Inbox as an example, I am able to import 4,000+ emails without issue. dT3 tells me that that 88 messages were previous imported.

This is interesting because this is a fresh new database and Gmail doesn’t show duplicate messages when I search for specific ones that show up in the dT3 Log window.

For grins, I used a 2nd MacBook Pro, with a freshly installed macOS 12.6.2 and a fresh dT3 v3.8.7 and a new database. This is completely standalone and separate from the Mac mini.

When I run the archive operation for the Inbox from this isolated PC and dT3, I see the same thing: 4000+ messages imported successfully and 88 messages previously imported.

Two possible reasons for this:

1 - dT3 import function leaves some kind of tag or marker on messages in Gmail.

  • I know dT3 is amazing and magical, but I don’t think it does this. :joy:

2 - Gmail has duplicate copies of the message and the previously imported message is a result of said duplicates.

  • This is the likely answer, but since Gmail search doesn’t turn up an duplicates, I wasn’t sure.

I’m leaning toward the latter, but thought I’d ask just to make sure I’m thinking about this the right way.

The totals numbers in Gmail and Apple Mail match. dT3 shows a lower # of messages, and the difference between what’s in the dT3 database and what’s in Gmail/Apple Mail don’t alway match up.

What is dT3 using when a message UUID is created? Does it look at the mail header, subject and/or body of the message?

Ultimately, I’m just trying to be sure that I’m not leaving anything in the Gmail service that might be important.

Thanks again to this awesome community for the help!

//Shawn

2

Several messages have the same ID and are therefore skipped. Either because they’re duplicates or because a buggy sender used non-unique IDs.

3

Thank you again, @cgrunenberg!

Part of my reasoning for ditching G Suite / Gmail is the how it duplicates messages when labels are added to messages.

3rd party validation help keep me sane.

Much appreciated!

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4

The UUID of imported emails is generated from the message ID in Apple Mail.

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