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That is Google's standard wording for the only permission that lets apps like Stow (and Apple Mail) download your mail over IMAP. Google does not offer a read-only version of it for IMAP. Stow only reads: its code can send only read-only commands to the mail server, so it cannot send, change, move or delete anything in your mailbox.

Stow also asks for your account's email address, so it knows which account it signed in to. You sign in on Google's own page in your browser; Stow never sees your password.

Many organisations only let staff approve apps whose publisher Microsoft has verified. Until Microsoft has verified T1G OÜ as Stow's publisher, your organisation's administrator may need to approve Stow before you can sign in. Ask your IT administrator; they can approve it for you or for everyone.

Stow is meant for your personal and own-business mail. Check that your employer allows copying company mail to your Mac.

Yes. These are personal Microsoft accounts. Sign in the same way as for Microsoft 365, on Microsoft's own page; no administrator is involved.

Remove the account in Stow's settings. Stow stops syncing it and forgets its sign-in, and the mail already archived stays searchable. To withdraw Stow's access completely, also remove Stow in your Google Account or, for Microsoft, at account.live.com (personal) or myapps.microsoft.com (work or school). Adding the same address again later carries on where it stopped.

Gmail limits how much an app may download from each account per day, and Stow stays within that limit. A large mailbox can therefore take a few days. When the day's allowance is used, Stow says so and carries on by itself within 24 hours.

Your personal mail comes first and newsletters last, and new mail goes ahead of the backlog, so you can search what matters early.

Stow downloads while your Mac is on and connected, in the background, even with its window closed. It pauses when the battery is low or Low Power Mode is on, and you can pause it yourself from the menu bar icon. It always picks up where it left off.

Occasionally a provider lists an email but never sends it. Stow tries on three separate runs before reporting it. The email is still in your mailbox; often these are calendar or contact items that look like mail.

For each account, the coverage date is the date before which every email is archived and checked byte for byte. Stow shows it on the account's overview: "Everything before 24 Oct 2025 is safely stowed". If something older is stuck, for example an email still waiting to download, the coverage date stays before it.

Choose how long to keep mail in Gmail on the account's Free up space screen. Once the coverage date reaches that cut-off, Stow shows the steps, including the exact search to use. For Gmail:

1. Open Gmail on the web and turn off Conversation view (Settings, See all settings, General). Otherwise deleting an old conversation also deletes newer replies in it, which may not be archived yet.
2. Search for the date Stow gives you, for example before:2025/10/13.
3. Select all, then "Select all conversations that match this search".
4. Delete. To get the space back straight away, empty Bin.
5. Turn Conversation view back on if you use it.

Stow gives similar steps for Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 and Outlook.com. After you delete, Stow holds the only copy of that mail, so keep your Mac backed up and your recovery key safe.

No. Stow never deletes, moves or flags anything in your mailbox. You do the deleting, and only when Stow has confirmed the mail is archived.

Your archive is encrypted with keys kept in this Mac's Keychain, which never leave the Mac. If the Mac is lost, replaced or reset, the recovery key is the only way to open your archive, including from a Time Machine backup. Stow shows it once during setup and asks you to type two groups back before downloading anything. We never see it and cannot recover it.

If you still have the Mac, make a new recovery key in Stow's settings. Your old one stops working, and nothing needs re-encrypting. Without the Mac and without the key, nobody can open the archive, including us.

1. On the old Mac, choose Deactivate this Mac in Stow's licence settings to free an activation.
2. Copy your archive folder to the new Mac or a disk it can reach, or restore it from Time Machine.
3. On the new Mac, open Stow, choose "I already have a Stow archive", point it at the archive and enter your recovery key.
4. Sign in again to each account. Sign-ins do not move between Macs.

Yes. Disks formatted as APFS or Mac OS Extended work best. exFAT works, with a caution: it keeps no journal, so unplugging the disk while Stow is writing can damage the archive. FAT disks are refused because of their 4 GB file limit.

If the disk is unplugged, Stow pauses and tells you; nothing is lost, and it carries on when you reconnect it. An archive on an external disk cannot be read without this Mac or your recovery key.

Cloud folders would put your mail back on someone else's servers, and syncing them can damage the archive's database. Network drives have the same risk of damage. Stow refuses both. Time Machine backups are fine: the archive is encrypted and the keys are not in it.

Yes. Stow copies the archive, checks every email in the copy, switches to it, and only then asks whether to delete the old copy. The original is not changed until the copy has checked out.

It uses standard signals, such as an unsubscribe link, bulk-mail headers, no-reply senders and how many people an email went to. Every group shows its reason, the rules are visible and you can change them. Nothing is removed until you say so.

Yes, while your mailbox still has the email. Removed mail is listed with when and why it was removed, and Put back downloads it again. Removing mail from Stow never touches your mailbox, but once you have also deleted it from your mailbox, it is gone for good.

Yes. What you do in your mailbox is a hint to Stow, never an instruction to delete from your archive. Emails you mark as spam stay in the archive but are left out of search results unless you ask for them, and Tidy up lists them so you can remove them if you want.

The 14-day trial starts the first time you open Stow. When it ends, you can still search, read and export everything Stow has saved. New syncing pauses, and Stow shows the date up to which everything is safely stowed, so you know not to delete anything newer from your mailbox. Entering a licence resumes syncing where it stopped. See pricing.

In Stow's licence settings. Paste the key from your Polar receipt. Stow checks it with Polar now and about once a week after that, sending only the key and a generic device name. It works offline for 30 days from the last successful check.

No. The free trial lets you try everything before you buy, so purchases are not refunded. If you are charged twice or a paid licence will not work, contact support. See refunds.

No. Stow needs a Mac with Apple silicon (M1 or later) and macOS 14 or later.

Each key works on up to 3 Macs. Deactivate this Mac frees an activation, for example before moving to a new Mac.

Yes, at any time, with or without a licence. Export everything saves every account as a standard mbox file in a folder you choose, one file per account, with every email exactly as it was downloaded. Most mail apps, including Apple Mail and Thunderbird, can import mbox files.

Removing the app keeps your archive, because it is your data. To delete it, use Delete archive in Stow's settings before removing the app. Copies in your own backups stay until you delete those too.