FAQs

Please visit the Roadmap to see what we have planned for Mimestream. You can click on features, indicate their priority, and sign up for email updates about them. You can also submit your own ideas, too!

Mimestream currently requires macOS 12 or newer.

Mimestream makes use of new APIs and capabilities, such as SwiftUI and Combine, which are tied to new versions of the OS. By using SwiftUI when possible, we can re-use more code with a future iOS version of the application and release that version sooner.

Mimestream intends to showcase the best that the Mac has to offer, and new versions will generally require the latest version of macOS (allowing for a breathing period for some bug-fixing software updates to be released by Apple).

Yes, Mimestream has been fully updated to be a universal binary. It runs natively on both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs.

You can continue to use Gmail normally. Your email remains on the Gmail servers, and any changes you make in Mimestream are synced back to Gmail as soon as a network connection is available. No Mimestream-specific labels are added to your account.

Please see our support article for instructions.

macOS is currently the only supported platform. A version for iOS (and iPadOS) is something we're planning to make in the future, but the focus will be on macOS for some time. See this feature on our roadmap to upvote, provide additional input on, and sign up for updates about this.

Mimestream currently only supports Gmail. Future support for other services is planned, including Microsoft 365 / Outlook, services that support IMAP, and services that support JMAP. See the ideas tab to roadmap to upvote support for these services.

Message text size can be changed in the app's preferences. From the menus, select Mimestream, then Preferences, and on the General tab, you should see a Text Size slider that you can adjust.

Gmail shortcuts can be activated in Preferences. From the menus, select Mimestream, then Preferences, and on the General tab, there is a "Keyboard Shortcuts" preference that can be switched to the Gmail or Apple Mail shortcut set.

In addition, macOS itself has a way to customize the keyboard shortcut for any app’s menu items, so you can actually override this at the system-level. You can follow the instructions from Apple to do this.

Yes, please view our support article about this.

First, try downloading the latest version and manually installing it. Open the disk image, drag Mimestream to /Applications, and choose “Replace” in the Finder prompt that appears.

If that still doesn't work, we would love to get some diagnostics from you. Open Terminal, and run the following command:

/Applications/Mimestream.app/Contents/Resources/collectDiagnostics.sh 

Please send the output (on your Desktop) to bugs@mimestream.com with a brief description of the problem.

As a method of last resort, you can delete Mimestream's container to get the app running again. You'll have to set up all of your accounts, preferences, templates, and signatures from scratch. In Terminal, run the following command:

rm -rf ~/Library/Containers/com.mimestream.Mimestream

Please check to make sure that Notifications are enabled in system preferences. Open System Preferences, click Notifications, select Mimestream from the list, and ensure that notifications are enabled.

Please see our support article about Advanced Protection.

If you use the Snooze feature of Gmail, you may be encountering a common Gmail bug. Please review the article to see if it may explain your situation.

If you never use the Snooze feature, please contact us at bugs@mimestream.com to report this issue.

Please consult our support article about Spam filtering for guidance.

To suggest a feature, please visit our Roadmap. If you see the feature you'd like already listed, you can click on it to indicate the priority to you and sign up for updates about it. If you don't see it, please don't hesitate to click the Submit Idea button! Feature development is prioritized based on user demand, so your feedback and suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Please use the in-app Help > Report a Bug… menu item, or email bugs@mimestream.com to report a bug.

Bug reports are extremely helpful and your feedback is very much appreciated! We prioritize bug fix order based on a combination of severity, number of user reports, and our product judgement.

Please e-mail support@mimestream.com to contact support.

Mimestream follows the model of a traditional e-mail client: a cache of your recent messages are stored on your device, and the originals remain on the Gmail server. Mimestream communicates directly from your device to Google's APIs, without using an intermediary server. In addition, your account's access tokens stay on your device.

Mimestream's use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

When you grant Mimestream access to your Google account, Mimestream receives tokens and stores them in your Mac's keychain. Your Google account's password is not stored in the Keychain by Mimestream, and isn't even seen by the Mimestream app during the Oauth authentication flow.

No. Mimestream is a local app that stores your data and access tokens directly on your device. Mimestream does not run any servers with access to your email.

Mimestream makes a direct connection from your Mac to Gmail's servers to receive push events.

A connection is (imap.gmail.com) on port 993, and then uses the IMAP IDLE extension (RFC 2177) to listen for new message notifications. Notifications are only received while Mimestream is running.

If your administrator has disabled IMAP/POP for your Google Workspace domain, push will not work. In the future, we are considering building a secure API-based push option – please see our roadmap post for more details and to vote for this feature.