Someone please help - gmail to Mail problem

I think i made a big mistake.

I was trying to download my gmails into the Mail program and I tried it a couple of times trying to get it to work - sometimes it didn't copy everything, sometimes it copied things twice. After I established that I had ALL of my emails copied over, I had them deleted from the server. BIG MISTAKE.

So in Mail, I wanted to go through them and put them into folders. But I couldnt make nested folder under the 'Inbox' icon, so I thought, maybe I have to do it on 'mail on my mac' folder.

Stupidly I CUT all the emails (2000) and went to 'Mail on my Mac' and hit paste. The program crashed. I went back in, and all my emails are gone. The Paste is still not greyed out, so I assume the emails are still in a memory buffer somewhere? But everytime I hit paste, it crashes.

So as it stands now, all 2000 emails are GONE. I'm not going to touch a thing until someone can please help me. I had all my emails from my Mom on there, who passed away in January. I feel so stupid posting this, but I am freaked out and in a HUGE panic about this. I just got this Mac a week ago, I know nothing about them, and I think i just did a big huge mistake. Why did it do this? Cut and Paste should work!!

Please help me. Tell me if theres anything I can try.

As long as you did not log onto GMail and delete any folders or empty the "Trash" all your emails should still be there. Removing them from the server does not delete them from the GMail on line folders.

Try to start over by first setting up Mac Mail's folders to where they make sense. With that many emails to archive, you might be better off doing it a bit at a time. Don't attempt to cut and paste 2000 emails at once.

Each time you move emails to Mac Mail, make a backup by exporting from Mac Mail to another folder. Later on you can burn them to a CD or DVD to keep permanently. (Which is probably what you would want to do with those emails from your deceased mother.)

Regards.

He's right. It crashed because of how many you tried to paste at once. Try 100 at a time.

I understand that. I made a mistake. I had assumed if i tried to paste too much, I might get an error, it might not work, but I never thought i would lose all my emails from the last 3 years.

My problem is trying to recover these mails that I lost from my mom.

I know they are in Time Capsule, but I'm too afraid now to try anything. If i click "restore inbox", will I lose all my current emails and settings?

What about "rebuild" - will that do it too? Again, will i lose things if I rebuild?

I would try, and export the emails I do have in there at the moment, but I can't find "export" in the Mail app. Is it "archive mailbox?"

Well, i answered one of my own questions, so just in case anyone else needs to know.....

With my Mail.app opened, I opened time machine and scrolled back to Fridays backup of my inbox. I selected all the mails that were missing, then hit "restore these emails". Voila. Time Machine ROCKS.

I still dont understand what rebuild does, even after googling (or what it doesnt do) and I still don't quite understand how Mail handles file folders and stores its database. I want to do it the old fashioned way - have an inbox and file emails into folders within that inbox.