Apple updates Mavericks to bring Gmail stability fixes for Mail app

By Shane Cole

Apple continued Thursday's update parade with fixes for compatibility and stability problems that have plagued users who access Gmail accounts using Mail.app in Mavericks.

The update, which was seen in final testing just a few hours ago, addresses problems with deleting, moving, and archiving messages, as well as a bug that could cause the application's "unread mail" count to be inaccurate.

Alongside the update comes a slightly more detailed set of instructions than are usually provided with small updates of this nature. Apple urges users to back up their systems with Time Machine prior to installing the update and warns that they "may experience unexpected results if [users] have third-party system software modifications installed, or if [they have] modified the operating system through other means."

Users began complaining about the Gmail-centric issues almost as soon as Mavericks was released last month, with one thread on Apple's user-to-user support forums garnering more than 20,000 views and nearly 150 replies.

The patch is available now as a 34-megabyte download from the Mac App Store or via Apple's Support Downloads site.