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.

These instructions are aimed at problems with your POP client settings and the interaction of your POP client with our servers. If you're having trouble enabling POP or saving changes to your Gmail settings, please use our troubleshooter.

Let's get started:

Please ensure that your settings are identical to those listed below. Even small differences may prevent Gmail's POP service from functioning properly.

Account Settings (Main Tab):

Server Settings Tab:

Outgoing Server (SMTP) tab:

Your next step will depend on what type of issue you're facing.

If you're receiving 'Username and password not accepted' or 'invalid credentials' errors, or if you're repeatedly prompted to enter your username and password in your mail client, please visit https://www.google.com/accounts/DisplayUnlockCaptcha and try clearing the CAPTCHA.

If you're a Google Apps user, visit https://www.google.com/a/yourdomain.com/UnlockCaptcha. Be sure to replace [yourdomain.com] with your actual domain name.

This extra step is required when many logins have occurred within a short period of time.

For further information please visit the Gmail Help Forum.

Please choose the error or symptom that best matches your experience.

This error message usually indicates that you are not authenticating your outgoing mail. Make sure that 'My outgoing server requires authentication' is checked, and that you are using the same credentials as your incoming server.

To better diagnose the problem, you'll need to run a telnet test, which will check that your computer can contact our SMTP servers.

If you're running Windows Vista, you'll first need to enable the Telnet feature:

1. Click the Start button, then Control Panel, and Programs.
2. Click Turn Windows Features On or Off.
3. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
4. In the Windows Features box, check the box labeled Telnet Client, and click OK. (It may take a few minutes for the installation to complete.)

To run the telnet test on a Windows computer:

1. Open the Start menu, and select Run.
2. Enter command in the Open: field, and click OK.
3. Enter 'telnet smtp.gmail.com 465,' and hit Enter.

The issue you're experiencing indicates that security or anti-virus software could be blocking your mail client's access to our servers. Please disable any internet security software you have installed on your computer or router and try accessing POP again.

We're glad to hear your problem has been resolved. Click here to return to Gmail.

For further information please visit the Gmail Help Forum.

The error you're experiencing indicates that your network is blocking access to Gmail's POP servers. Please contact your local network administrator or your Internet Service Provider's customer support department for further instructions.

If you are having trouble sending mail, please try the following in order:

1. Confirmed that SSL is enabled for SMTP in your mail client and try sending.
2. Configuring your SMTP server on port 465 and try sending.
3. Configure your SMTP server on port 25 and try sending.
4. Switch back to port 465 and try sending.
5. Change your Outgoing SMTP server from 'smtp.gmail.com' to 'smtp.googlemail.com' and try sending.

Delivery failures are not typically caused by the mail client itself. To diagnose your issue please read about bounce messages.

Your next step will depend on whether your issue generates an error message in your mail client or if the client fails without showing an error.

Please choose the error or symptom that best matches your experience.

The server errors you're experiencing are most often temporary and will resolve themselves within 24 hours.

If the errors have started recently, please wait 24 hours before troubleshooting further.

For further information please visit the Gmail Help Forum.

It appears that POP has not been enabled in your Gmail settings. To enable POP, please follow these steps:

1. Sign in to Gmail via the web interface.
2. Click Settings at the top of any Gmail page.
3. Click Forwarding and POP/IMAP in the orange Mail Settings box.
4. Select Enable POP for mail that arrives from now on or Enable POP for all mail
.
5. Choose the action you'd like for your Gmail messages after they are accessed with POP.
6. Click Save Changes.

If POP already appeared enabled in your settings, please disable it, then reenable it after an hour has passed.

Lockouts are often caused when abnormal or excessive usage with POP access is detected in a very short period of time. This is often caused by users frequently downloading their entire inboxes to a mail client or using third-party software that automatically signs in to Gmail and is not supported by Google.

Please note that these lockouts are temporary, and you will be able to access Gmail again within 24 hours.

In order to resolve this issue, please try changing your incoming POP server from 'pop.gmail.com' to 'pop.googlemail.com' and download again.

To better diagnose the problem, you'll need to run a telnet test, which will check that your computer can contact our POP servers.

If you're running Windows Vista, you'll first need to enable the Telnet feature:

1. Click the Start button, then Control Panel, and Programs.
2. Click Turn Windows Features On or Off.
3. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
4. In the Windows Features box, check the box labeled Telnet Client, and click OK. (It may take a few minutes for the installation to complete.)

To run the telnet test on a Windows computer:

1. Open the Start menu, and select Run.
2. Enter command in the Open: field, and click OK.
3. Enter 'telnet pop.gmail.com 995,' and hit Enter.

Your next step will depend on what type of issue you're facing.

To better diagnose the problem, you'll need to run a telnet test, which will check that your computer can contact our SMTP servers.

If you're running Windows Vista, you'll first need to enable the Telnet feature:

1. Click the Start button, then Control Panel, and Programs.
2. Click Turn Windows Features On or Off.
3. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
4. In the Windows Features box, check the box labeled Telnet Client, and click OK. (It may take a few minutes for the installation to complete.)

To run the telnet test on a Windows computer:

1. Open the Start menu, and select Run.
2. Enter command in the Open: field, and click OK.
3. Enter 'telnet smtp.gmail.com 465,' and hit Enter.

Your next step will depend on whether your issue generates an error message in your mail client or if the client fails without showing an error.

To better diagnose the problem, you'll need to run a telnet test, which will check that your computer can contact our POP servers.

If you're running Windows Vista, you'll first need to enable the Telnet feature:

1. Click the Start button, then Control Panel, and Programs.
2. Click Turn Windows Features On or Off.
3. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
4. In the Windows Features box, check the box labeled Telnet Client, and click OK. (It may take a few minutes for the installation to complete.)

To run the telnet test on a Windows computer:

1. Open the Start menu, and select Run.
2. Enter command in the Open: field, and click OK.
3. Enter 'telnet pop.gmail.com 995,' and hit Enter.

Please choose the error or symptom that best matches your experience.

In order to resolve this issue, please try the following troubleshooting steps:

1. If you're not using recent mode, ensure that the option to Leave messages on server in your POP client settings is not checked.
2. Try enabling recent mode in your POP client by replacing 'username@gmail.com' in the Username field of your POP client settings with 'recent:username@gmail.com', and enable Leave messages on server in your POP client settings. Recent mode fetches the last 30 days of mail, regardless of any other factors. If you don't 'Leave messages on server' your messages will be moved to Trash after download.
3. Try deleting the entry for your Gmail address in your POP client and then re-adding it with all the correct settings. Please note that you may lose your local copy of any previously downloaded Gmail messages.
4. Try Gmail IMAP as a better alternative to accessing your messages on your mail client.

For further information please visit the Gmail Help Forum.

To access your messages with multiple POP clients, use recent mode in every client to make sure that all messages are made available, rather than only to the first client to access new mail. Recent mode fetches the last 30 days of mail, regardless of whether it's been sent to another POP client already.

To enable recent mode, replace 'username@gmail.com' in your POP settings with 'recent:username@gmail.com'.

For further information please visit the Gmail Help Forum.

If you've enabled POP, Gmail will download a copy of every message you send or receive in the web interface, except for messages in Chats, Spam, and Trash. In order to avoid duplicates, Gmail doesn't download copies of messages sent from within your client, or messages already available in your client.

For further information please visit the Gmail Help Forum.