Apple Mail can’t find my Gmail messages

If your Gmail messages stop appearing in Apple Mail, or you can’t send emails, or you are getting an error message, here are some tricks to try.

  1. Quit Apple Mail and re-launch mail.
  2. Restart your computer.
  3. Change your DNS settings . I describe how to do this here.
  4. Quit Mail, go to System Preferences, Internet Accounts, select your account and untick the ‘Mail’ option. Start mail. Quit Mail. Go back to System Preferences, Internet Accounts, select your account and re-tick the ‘Mail’ option. Start mail.
  5. Try accessing your email from your iPhone or a different computer. If it doesn’t work there either, it may be a problem with Google. Check here to see if Gmail is working.

If these don’t work, try this guide from Apple. It’s pretty good but it doesn’t have step 3 above which seems to be a major cause of Mail not working.

https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT204075

 

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14 responses to “Apple Mail can’t find my Gmail messages”

  1. Jonathan Hartley

    I am experiencing really weird behaviour from Apple Mail whereby when I search by contact (email address) in the search bar, not all the emails from that address are appearing, as if the thread has been deleted. When I log on to Gmail, the emails are definitely still there. Its getting to the point where I can search for an email, find it, look for something else and then returning 10 minutes later to find the first email again and its gone.. Anyone else experienced this?

    Reply
  2. Daniel Dye

    Jonathan, I am having the exact same issue. All emails are there, but when I search for an address/phrase/etc, there are no results returned. Did you ever find a solution?

    Reply
  3. ADEEL FAROOQ

    SAme problem i was facing until finding this article.

    Reply
  4. ROSEMARY THOMAS

    thanks so much! Worked for me and a big relief.

    Reply
  5. Roback

    Thank you! Getting out of Mail, and unchecking and then checking Gmail worked!

    Reply
  6. R R

    Bingo, good troubleshooting. Step 4 solved the problem.

    Reply
  7. agillator

    Gratitude. Step 4 solved the problem for me as well.

    Reply
  8. Howard Newman

    Thanks! #4 did the job!

    Reply
  9. Suvajyoti Ghosh

    #4 di the job for me too!

    Reply
  10. Gary

    Stumbled across this old discussion because I have just recently had the same issues.

    #4 didn’t work for me, so I deleted Gmail from Mail app accounts, closed and reopened Mail app then readded Gmail and old emails returned. Hope that helps.

    Reply
  11. Janet

    Just wanted to say thanks so much, number 4 worked for me too. Very much appreciate your help

    Reply
  12. Becca

    I have a similar problem I can’t find my emails in settings and when I try to log in it boots me out and closes all my chrome tabs at the time I’m on a school issued computer so I can’t do a lot of things but I need my email for school weird thing is its fine on my iPhone 6 but on the Mac its not what do I do

    Reply
  13. Jimmy

    Thank you so much for these hints. Especially #4.

    Reply
  14. Dannie

    Tip #4 worked for me. Also, in Mail, select the “Show Sidebar” option, if you’re not already seeing it. That shows which of your mailboxes are active.

    Reply

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