As the fall semester gets into full swing, the NC State Help Desk has noticed an increase in calls pertaining to accidental deletions of email and email folders. To assist campus email users, the Google Service Team offers the following advice:

• Use the Chrome Web browser and the Gmail app for mobile users to get full functionality and best performance in accessing, organizing and archiving your email.
• Do not use an IMAP or third-party client to access your Gmail. While some business processes may work better with an IMAP or third-party client, if you choose to use them for mail:
• Understand how the “Trash” and “Sent” folders work on your IMAP client and be careful about deleting them. Folders often behave differently on IMAP or third-party clients than they do within a Gmail app or Web browser.
• Stay abreast of changes to Google and your IMAP or third-party client that may impact how your applications work.
• Read Google’s Recommended IMAP client settings. Keep in mind that there may be some configurations that the NC State Help Desk is unable to support.
• Don’t forget that your NC State Gmail account has unlimited storage, which means you can keep all of your email! The Google Service Team recommends that you archive your email — not delete them! When you archive — or remove selected messages (specify a label if you like) out of your Inbox — you keep your Inbox better organized and less cluttered. For more information, see Archive Messages in Gmail.