Gmail Help

This page is designed to walk you through all of our troubleshooting information in an orderly fashion. At each step, we'll provide instructions or further questions to help narrow down the issue you're facing. Following the instructions exactly will help ensure the best results.

Please choose the option that best describes your situation: I'm having trouble setting up Mail Fetcher for the first time I was able to set up Mail Fetcher, but now I'm receiving an error There are no error messages, but I'm having a problem getting my mail (messages are missing, messages aren't labeled, etc.) I'm having trouble turning off Mail Fetcher I'm the administrator of another webmail server, and users on my domain are having trouble with Mail Fetcher

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What messages do you want to fetch? Non-Gmail messages Google Apps messages Messages from another Gmail address

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Please select the error you've encountered: 'Connection timed out.' 'Connection reset by peer.' 'READ_ERROR' 'The other server sent messages in the wrong order. Please contact your other provider.' 'Received an empty line.' 'There are too many messages on the other server. Please delete some mail from your other account, or move it out of the inbox.' Other

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Please select the behavior that best describes your problem: Some messages never reach Gmail I receive some messages multiple times Some messages aren't labeled properly Gmail doesn't check my other account often enough Messages are garbled or show the incorrect time or sender

If you disabled Mail Fetcher but continue to receive mail, keep in mind that messages may continue to appear in your account for a few hours after the last successful fetch. This is especially likely if Mail Fetcher retrieved a large number of messages.

Already-fetched messages should stop appearing within one day. If you continue to receive mail addressed to your other account, or if you weren't able to find your other account in the Get mail from other accounts section of your Gmail settings, then the other account may be automatically forwarding messages to Gmail.

To check, open one of the affected messages, and click the down arrow next to Reply (in Safari, click More options). Then, select Show original. If the message was retrieved via Mail Fetcher, you'll see a line beginning with 'X-Gmail-Fetch' near the top of the headers. If there is no 'X-Gmail-Fetch' line, then the message was delivered to your account another way, like through automatic forwarding or blind carbon copy. We suggest contacting your other webmail provider for more information.

Thanks for visiting our Help Center. We'd like to work with you to resolve the issues that your users are experiencing.

Gmail's Mail Fetcher works much like a standalone POP client and supports optional SSL encryption and leaving messages on the server. Mail Fetcher doesn't support connections to non-POP3 servers, including IMAP and SMTP. In addition, Mail Fetcher may not function properly if your POP server isn't fully compliant with POP3 protocol, so please carefully review RFC 1939 to ensure compliance. Also, note the following:

• Users can't enable Leave a copy of retrieved message on the server if your server responds to CAPA with EXPIRE 0.
• Messages can't be left on the server if your server does not advertise UIDL.
• If a message contains a line containing only a period, the period must be escaped with a second period. An unescaped period can cause a READ_ERROR and prevent Mail Fetcher from retrieving messages.
• Messages must be presented in order, beginning with '1.' If your message list begins with '0,' or presents messages out of order, errors will result.

Is your POP server fully compliant? No, my server is running a noncompliant or nonstandard version of POP Yes, my POP server is fully compliant with RFC 1939

Some webmail providers, including Yahoo! Mail, Windows Live Hotmail, and Mail.com, do not support free POP access at this time.

Does your other webmail provider support POP access for your account? Yes, my other webmail provider supports POP access for my account No, my other webmail provider doesn't provide POP access No, but my other webmail provider supports IMAP or Exchange access

Please note that your other webmail provider must support POP in order for Gmail to fetch messages. We're always trying to make improvements to Gmail, so you can suggest Mail Fetcher support for IMAP or Exchange access if you'd like this feature.

Gmail provides you with two options to transfer mail.

Please choose the statement that best matches your need: I want to import old mail from my Google Apps address, in addition to fetching new messages. (There may be delays for new messages.) I only care about getting mail that arrives from now on. (New messages will be transferred instantly.)

First, please verify that you have enabled POP access for your Google Apps address. If you can't enable POP access, we suggest consulting your network administrator.

Once you've enabled POP, use the following settings to get mail from your Google Apps account:

• Username: your full email address (ie, yourname@yourdomain.com)
• Password: your Google Apps password
• POP Server: pop.gmail.com
• Port: 995
• Leave a copy of retrieved message on the server: unchecked*
• Always use a secure connection (SSL) when retrieving mail: checked

*Although you must leave this option unchecked, it won't affect your messages. The option you selected for When messages are accessed with POP on the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab of your Google Apps settings determines whether copies of retrieved messages will remain on the server. You can verify your choice in your Google Apps settings page if you're unsure.

Please allow several hours to complete the initial message retrieval.

If the problem persists and your network administrator can't resolve the issue, ask him or her to consult the Google Apps Support Team.

If you only want to receive new mail sent to your Google Apps address, we suggest setting up automatic forwarding:

1. Sign in to Google Apps.
2. Click Settings and open the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab.
3. In the Forwarding section, select Forward a copy... and enter your primary Gmail address.
4. Click Save changes. From now on, mail arriving at your Google Apps address will automatically forward to your primary Gmail address.

Gmail provides you with two options to transfer mail.

Please choose the statement that best matches your need: I want to import old mail from my other Gmail address, in addition to fetching new messages. (There may be delays for new messages.) I only care about getting mail that arrives from now on. (New messages will be transferred instantly.)

We suggest contacting your other webmail provider to learn about other options for transferring your messages to Gmail, like automatic forwarding.

Gmail automatically fills in settings for your other account. However, since these settings vary by domain, the auto-completed settings may not be right. Please verify the following information with your other webmail provider:

• The name of their POP3 server
• The port their POP3 server uses (Note: Unencrypted connections usually require port 110, and SSL typically uses port 995)
• Whether they support leaving messages on the server
• Whether they require SSL encryption

If you're still having trouble connecting to your other account, we suggest contacting the customer support department of your other webmail provider. If they can't resolve the issue, please refer them to this Gmail Help Center article.

This error message indicates that Gmail couldn't establish or maintain a connection with the other server. Most likely, the other webmail provider has a firewall or rate-limiting in place that prevents some or all connections by Gmail. We suggest contacting the other webmail provider's customer service department for further information. If they can't resolve the issue, please refer them to this Gmail Help Center article.

This error message generally indicates that the other webmail provider has violated the rules for POP message transfer. Fetching may resume if you delete or move the oldest unfetched message. We recommend alerting your other webmail provider that they may be in violation of POP protocol. If they can't resolve the issue, please refer them to this Gmail Help Center article.

Because Gmail obtains a list of all messages in your other account when fetching occurs, we may not be able to process your mail if your other account has too many messages. We suggest deleting some mail from the inbox of your other account. Alternatively, if your other webmail provider doesn't provide POP access to folders, you may be able to resolve the issue by temporarily moving some messages to folders.

If you encounter this error, we recommend disabling Leave a copy of retrieved message on the server.

Most likely, the other server responded to our requests in an unexpected way. We suggest contacting your other webmail provider for more information. If they can't resolve the issue, please refer them to this Gmail Help Center article.

Below are some common causes for missing messages:

• You sent the message from your Gmail address to the address you're fetching. Messages sent from Gmail and then automatically retrieved or forwarded back to the same account only appear in Sent Mail.
• You're using another email client (Outlook, e.g.), and the messages are no longer available on the server. Please verify that your client is configured to leave messages on the server. Even if your email client settings are correct, some webmail providers don't support leaving messages on the server, or, like Gmail, may only make messages available for one download by default. We suggest disabling the configuration for your other account in your email client and setting up an IMAP account for Gmail.
• You're only receiving mail from the inbox of your other account and not from any folders. Each webmail provider determines which messages to make available for POP download and sends a list of the messages to Gmail. Since Gmail can't retrieve any messages that aren't on the list, we suggest contacting your other provider to learn about alternatives.
• Mail Fetcher retrieved your mail, but the messages haven't appeared in your account. Please note that if Mail Fetcher retrieves a large number of messages, it may take a few hours for all the messages to appear in your Gmail account. If you still can't find the mail, we suggest performing an advanced search using 'in:anywhere' or by clicking here and entering the search.

If you're still unable to locate the missing messages, we suggest contacting your other webmail provider for more information. If they can't resolve the issue, please refer them to this Gmail Help Center article.

This error indicates that the messages sent to Gmail (or the list of messages provided by your other webmail server) were corrupted. Generally, this type of corruption occurs when the other server experiences POP errors. We suggest contacting the administrator or customer service department of your other provider to inform them of the error and ask that they check for any issues, as well as verify their compliance with POP protocol.

This type of error occurs when both of the following circumstances are true:

• Gmail is configured to get mail from your other account and apply a label
• Your other account is also configured to automatically forward mail to Gmail

Messages that Gmail fetches before the other server forwards them will be correctly labeled. However, messages that are automatically forwarded before Gmail retrieves them won't be labeled, since Gmail discards duplicate messages and keeps the original. In other words, Gmail keeps the labeled copy of a message that it retrieves with Mail Fetcher first, and it keeps the unlabeled copy of a message that it receives through forwarding first. We suggest disabling automatic forwarding on your other server or adding another rule in the Filters section of your Gmail settings.

Gmail determines when to check your other account based on how frequently your other account receives mail. This means that Gmail may check your account as often as every two minutes or as infrequently as once per hour. If your other account begins receiving more or less mail, Gmail's checking frequency automatically adjusts.

There's currently no way to specify your own default checking frequency, but you can always manually check your mail by pressing the Check now button on the Accounts and Import tab of your Gmail settings. If the Check now button doesn't appear, Gmail is already in the process of checking your other account.

If you need to receive your mail more quickly, you may want to disable Mail Fetcher in Gmail and configure automatic forwarding from your other account instead. We suggest checking with your other webmail provider to learn whether automatic forwarding is supported. For other Gmail addresses, you can set up automatic forwarding on the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab of your Gmail settings.

We regret that Gmail's Mail Fetcher may not work properly with nonstandard or noncompliant POP servers. We suggest reviewing POP3 protocol and resolving any inconsistencies.

Thanks for checking your POP3 compliance.

Mail Fetcher may also experience errors based on the following circumstances:

• The firmware on one of your devices is incompatible with Mail Fetcher. If the problem began after a recent upgrade, please try rolling back your firmware. Otherwise, try updating to the newest version.
• Your server has a firewall or other spam-filtering device that is blocking Gmail. Gmail may be unable to retrieve messages if you are blacklisting, graylisting, or otherwise blocking Gmail IP addresses.
• Your server uses rate-limiting for incoming connections. Gmail may perform a health-checking, non-SSL handshake before creating the actual POP connection. Please be sure that you aren't blocking repeat connections from Gmail.
• Your server uses a load balancer affecting Gmail's ability to retrieve messages.

Does your network use a firewall? Yes, I use a firewall, rate limiter, or load balancer No, I don't use any firewalls, rate limiters, or load balancers; or the same problem occurs even after disabling or circumventing all these devices

We suggest temporarily disabling any devices to see if Mail Fetcher can connect to your server. If you can't disable the device, please try circumventing it by connecting directly to your POP3 server another way, like with a proxy. If disabling or circumventing the device resolves the problem, we recommend contacting its manufacturer for further troubleshooting information and directing them to this Gmail Help Center article if they can't resolve the problem.

Please review your server's POP logs for the most recent affected transaction. Check for connectivity issues, packet loss, and other irregularities.

Select your situation after reviewing the logs: The POP logs show irregularities, and I haven't investigated yet The POP logs don't show irregularities; or the POP logs are irregular, but I've checked for connectivity issues and can't resolve the problem

Please thoroughly investigate any irregularities in the POP logs.

Thanks for the troubleshooting you've performed so far. Please contact us so our team can investigate further. Be sure to include the affected Gmail usernames, as well as their corresponding email addresses on your server. In addition, provide the full error message returned by Mail Fetcher (if applicable) and any relevant POP logs, SMTP logs, firewall logs, and/or full message headers.

First, please sign in using your secondary Gmail address, and verify that you have enabled POP access.

Next, please sign in with your primary Gmail address, and use the following settings to get mail from your secondary Gmail account:

• Username: your full secondary Gmail address (ie, yourname@gmail.com)
• Password: your Gmail password for your secondary account
• POP Server: pop.gmail.com
• Port: 995
• Leave a copy of retrieved message on the server: unchecked*
• Always use a secure connection (SSL) when retrieving mail: checked

*Although you must leave this option unchecked, it won't affect your messages. The option you selected for When messages are accessed with POP on the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab of the fetched address's settings page determines whether a copy of retrieved messages will remain on the server. Please check these settings for your secondary Gmail address if you're unsure.

Please allow several hours to complete the initial message retrieval.

If the problem persists, try changing your secondary Gmail account's password, and be sure to update your Mail Fetcher settings in your primary account. You can also try clearing the CAPTCHA.

For further troubleshooting information, we recommend checking out the Gmail Help Group.

If you only want to receive new mail sent to your other Gmail address, we suggest setting up automatic forwarding:

1. Sign in to Gmail with your secondary Gmail address (the one that receives mail you want forwarded).
2. Click Settings and open the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab.
3. In the Forwarding section, select Forward a copy... and enter your primary Gmail address.
4. Click Save changes. From now on, mail arriving at your secondary Gmail address will automatically forward to your primary Gmail address.