If you are setting up your phone, desktop or other device to pull in mail from Google’s GMail, the process can have a few problems. Honestly it is normally quite simple, but if you don’t do it right you can end up locking yourself out and becoming totally frustrated. I would also add that if you have a lot of mail, the initial syncing process can take a very long time and make you think something has gone wrong. So, as with any setup, patience is your best friend.
Before attempting to connect your device to GMail, make sure you can get into your mail via the web interface. If you can’t get in via http://mail.google.com then you have bigger issue with your username or password and nothing is going to work until you fix those. So, now that you know you email is working, let’s make sure GMail will let your application get to the mail.
- In GMail, go to setting by clicking on the gear icon up in the top right corner. It will drop down and you can click “settings”.
- From the settings screen, select the tab labeled “Forwarding and POP/IMAP”.
- Scroll down and click on “Enable POP for all mail (even mail that’s already been downloaded)”
- Scroll a little farther down and click on “Enable IMAP”.
- We will leave everything else as it is (unless you know what you are doing and what to change something).
- Click the Save Changes button at the bottom.
OK, so Google Mail is now ready to talk to you application, now we need to set up that app. Since there are so many different phone, applications, tablets and other devices I cannot give you the specifics for each one. How to get to email setup should be something the device instructions tell you. But once you are at that setup, here are the account settings to add into your mail application. Be aware that some applications are smart enough to know a lot of this already if you just tell them you are using Google Mail.
Incoming Mail (IMAP) Server
- Server name: imap.gmail.com
- Use SSL: Yes
- Port: 993 Outgoing Mail (SMTP) Server – requires TLS:smtp.gmail.com (use authentication)
Outgoing Mail (SMTP) Server
- Server name: smtp.gmail.com
- Use Authentication: Yes
- Use STARTTLS: Yes (some clients call this SSL)
- Port: 465 or 587
Account Name: your full email address (including @gmail.com) note: Google Apps users, should enter username@your_domain.com
Email Address: your full Gmail email address (username@gmail.com) Google Apps users, should enter username@your_domain.com
Password: your Gmail password
If you are sure your device is set up correctly and you are still having problems signing on, it could be Google’s new advanced verification that is tripping things up. First, try clearing Google’s “Captcha”. The instructions for doing that are here. Basically you are needing to unlock the verification system so it will let the new application in. Once it has let that application in, it will remember it for the future, so no, you shouldn’t have to do this again. Use this link to allow an application to access your GMail. You do need to complete that process within a ten minute time span or Google relocks the verification and you will have to start over.
That should do it! Now remember what I said at first though, the initial syncing process can take a very long time and make you think something has gone wrong. Just relax and let it work. Please don’t be the person who keeps stabbing the elevator button repeatedly thinking that it will somehow speed it up. It won’t. It will just make it mad. And you wouldn’t like it when it’s mad.
