Configure Gmail offline mail
Gmail users who wanted to access emails offline had two options up until now. They could use a third-party client like Thunderbird for that to gain offline access, or use a browser extension for the Chrome web browser which added offline capabilities to Google's mail service.
Offline access to your emails gave you access to them regardless of the state of the Internet connection. While offline access is certainly not something that all Gmail users need, some might want to have access to some or even emails all the time.
Google launched a redesign of the web version of Gmail in April 2018; while mostly cosmetic, the company did add some new features to Gmail such as confidential mode, and other new features such as direct access to attachments in mail listings.
Gmail offline use
One of the new features of the redesigned Gmail is that Gmail users may configure offline access directly on Gmail; a browser extension is no longer required for that.
The main requirement is that users need to run a recent version of Google Chrome as offline mail is not available for other browsers. I did not try and fake the user agent to see if that unlocks offline access in Chromium-based browsers such as Vivaldi or Opera, or even in Firefox or Microsoft Edge.
Here is how you enable offline mail
- Open the Gmail website.
- Click on the cogwheel icon and select Settings.
- Select offline from the available options on the Settings page.
- Tip: you can open https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#settings/offline directly as well to open the offline page of the settings right away.
- Check the "enable offline mail" preference to unlock offline mail access.
Gmail lists all available preferences after you enable offline mail. It highlights how much storage space mails use on the device you use and lists the following configuration options:
- Change the storage period from 30 days to 7 or 90 days.
- Decide whether you want attachments to be downloaded as well so that they are accessible offline.
- Select the "after logging out" setting to decide whether to keep offline data on the computer or have it removed automatically.
The actual process that determines which emails become available offline is out of the user's control. Gmail does not get new options after enabling offline email that let you select emails, folders, or labels for offline access.
It seems that anything you look at gets added to the offline cache automatically, though.
Closing Words
A third-party email client is still the better option if you need offline access to Gmail emails as it is not time-limited. Gmail users who use the web interface exclusively and Google Chrome may find the new functionality useful, however.
Now You: Do you use email clients or web interfaces?
You said that Outlook isn’t your main email client, so which is your main one?
I think its thunderbird
It is Mozilla Thunderbird.
Awesome! This actually solved my problem… what a stupid bug.
If this is the same bug that I’ve encountered, there may be another fix: (1) hover over open Outlook item in Taskbar, cursor up to hover over Outlook window item, and right-click; (2) this should give you Restore / Move / Size / Minimize / Maximize — choose Move or Size; (3) use your cursor keys, going arbitrarily N/S/E/W, to try to move or size the Outlook window back into view. Basically, the app behaves as though it were open in a 0x0 window, or at a location that’s offscreen, and this will frequently work to resize and/or move the window. Don’t forget to close while resized/moved, so that Outlook remembers the size/position for next time.
THANK YOU Claude!!! I could get the main window to launch but could not get any other message window to show on the desktop. You are my hero!!!!
Solved my issue! 6 years later and this is still problem…
Fantastic. Thank you. Size did the trick.
This solved my Outlook problem, too. Thank you. :)
Thank you so much, this started happening to me today and was causing big problems. You are a life saver, I hope I can help you in some way some day.
You are a god – thank you!
thanks a lot…. work like charm.. :-)
Yah…thanks Claude. I’ve been having the same problem and tried all the suggestions…your solution was the answer. It had resized itself to a 0/0 box. Cheers
Excellent post. This had me baffled even trying to accurately describe the problem. This fixed it for me.
Thank you
Thanks a lot for the article. Don’t know why it happenend, don’t know how it got fixed, but it was really annoying and now it works :-)
Thanks a lot. I was facing this issue from past 3 week. I tried everything but no resolution. The issue was happening intermittently and mainly when I was changing the display of screen ( as i use 2 monitors). The only option i had was to do system restore. But thanks to you.
I’ve been tried to sole this problem for 12hours. Your comment about changing the display of screen helped me a lot!! Thanks!!
Thank you…don’t know why this happened but your instructions helped me fix it. Running Windows 10 and office pro 2007
Great tip! Thanks!
Worked for me, too – thank you!!!
It’s Worked for me, too
thank you very much!
I had a similar issue with Outlook 2013 on Windows 10 and this helped me to fix it. Thank you very much!
Thank you so much. Solved!
Considering you published this in 2012, incredible not been debugged by Microsoft.
Thank you again. M
This problem was faced by only one user logging to TS 2008 r2 using outlook 2010.The issue was resolved.
Thanks.
Great tip. Thank you!!!! If it helps, I had to use the Control Key and the arrow keys at the same time to bring my window back into view. Worked like a charm.
Thank you, this worked !!!!
Man, you are a fucking god. Thanks a lot, what an annoying bug!!
Awesome, this post solved the issue. Many thanks!