Gmail madness

[Lilly Q]

I added an account to my Mail today and Gmail has been showing the rolling "getting mail" indicator ever since. It keeps downloading messages, over and over again, from today back to mid-2009; I think that means every email I've ever received on this computer (iMac running Snow Leopard, OSX 10.6.8). I've had this problem with Gmail before, but never to this extent.

Since it started, I've deleted the Gmail account and the new account, then put the Gmail account back in place. I think... as soon as I started entering information to recreate the account, the information was all there, so maybe I didn't actually delete it. I am not a computer whiz, so I don't know what that means.

I'm able to send and receive, but sometimes it hangs up. If I quit Mail, it receives or sends again when I reopen it.

I'd sure be grateful for help with this. Thanks.

 

[Lilly Q]

Replying to my own question: I called our local Mac store and was told that the mega-downloading is a phenomenon that happens when you add a new mail account, and not to worry. Once those messages have downloaded, taking however many hours it takes, you shut down the computer and boot up again, and all should be back to normal. Of course you have to delete all those messages, which was a hassle because I had been keeping some things in the inbox on purpose and some of them accidentally got deleted. It's a bother, but not the end of the world. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to go through it all again because I need the address I added and then deleted. Sigh.