Gmail does provide POP3 access so you can easily read your Gmail messages offline in Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird or any other email client. The only problem with the POP3 approach is that Gmail cannot synchronize with Outlook so there’s lot of duplicate work.
For instance, if you download your emails from GMail to Microsoft Outlook and mark them as read, the messages will still show a status of “Unread” in your Gmail Inbox. Similarly, if you delete emails in Outlook, they’ll still exist in your Gmail account.
These limitation of POP3 are a thing of the past has Gmail has added support for IMAP - that means, in very simple terms, if you delete a message in Outlook, it will also be deleted on the Gmail server.
When you Flag a message in Outlook, it’s starred inside Gmail. When you move a message to Outlook Spam folder, it’s equivalent to reporting that message as SPAM in Gmail.
The best part - if you move a message downloaded from Gmail to some Outlook folder, Gmail automatically applies a label to that email on Gmail server with the same name as the Outlook folder.
IMAP support will be a blessing especially for Gmail users who manage multiple web email accounts from Outlook or Windows Live Hotmail. There’s little need for a GMail offline client now.
To use this feature, you will have to enable IMAP through the POP/IMAP and Forwarding settings of your Gmail account. If you don’t see the IMAP settings it in your account yet, wait for some more time.
If you are using Gmail with Google Apps, always enter your full username during the configuration process including your domain.
Remember that IMAP is only for synchronizing your emails. To sync your Outlook contacts with that of GMail, you will still have to export the GMail contacts as an Outlook CSV file (see example) and import that into Outlook.
Gmail IMAP FAQ |Thanks eD, Chris, Techmeme
Related: Replace Outlook with Gmail, Tags in Outlook
Update: The official announcement is up the Gmail blog.
Find this article at: http://www.labnol.org/internet/email/synchronize-gmail-emails-outlook-express-labels/1615/
web: http://www.labnol.org/ email: amit@labnol.org
Reader Comments
that is a good feature. wish other email providers give POP/IMAP access free.
Written by Vivek on 10.24.07
Finally IMAP support.
Next waiting for some sort of LDAP interface through which we can sync contacts too !
Written by Anjanesh on 10.24.07
for those who still don’t see the option in their accounts (like me :( ) google says be patient. It will be a slow roll out. Something very typical of google off late i guess.
Written by Rohan on 10.24.07
That’s the only thing it was missing in GMAIL. I was power user of outlook but with only POP excess it was very difficult me to track emails at work and home so I stopped using outlook. Now with this now I can again make use of new outlook 2007.
Written by Kinjal Savai on 10.24.07
Just the opposite is NOT possible… I am constantly on move and would like to have Exchange Emails / Folders (iMAP) in my Gmail… it is still a taboo
Written by user6300 on 11.09.07
I have the same question with user6300. I have been using Gmail labels, and stars. I wanted to start using outlook and wanted to sync all emails, its folders and stars. Couldn’t do it. Any idea?
Written by David on 06.06.08
Dave, I’ve got the same problem. I’d love to sync my labels & folders between the two email clients…but can’t. Maybe I just can’t figure it out- doesn’t the article above claim that said feature is the “best part”? Help us out someone!!
Written by mrosa on 08.11.08