IMAP in Gmail is a godsend feature for people who live life inside Microsoft Outlook.
You read messages offline in Microsoft Outlook and they are automatically marked as read on Gmail server the next time you go online. Similarly, when you delete messages in your Gmail Inbox, they disappear from your Outlook Inbox as well.
But the Gmail IMAP integration with Outlook is not so smooth as POP3 access. Several users have complained that Outlook 2007 freezes (or becomes extremely slow) until the synchronization between Gmail server and Outlook data file is complete.
If you are also frustrated with Outlook slowness, read some simple tweaks to help you improve the performance of Microsoft Outlook with Gmail IMAP:
1. Press Ctrl+Alt+S to open your Outlook Send and Receive groups*. Select the Gmail account that you have configured with Microsoft Outlook and now click Edit.
2. The next screen will have all the default Gmail labels (like All Mail, Trash, Inbox, Spam, etc) – For Spam and Trash folders, select “Download holders only”. For Inbox and Drafts, select “Download complete item including attachments.” Press OK.
[This prevents Outlook from downloading mails and attachments that are marked as Spam by Gmail]
3. You go back to the previous Send and Receive groups screen. Here adjust the time that Outlook should wait before checking for new email on Gmail server.
Sidenote: If you are a fan of Getting Things Done (David Allen), you should check your email only few times in a day to avoid distractions. Make that number 180 to sync Outlook and Gmail every 3 hours.
4. While the above tweak should solve most of your Microsoft Outlook problems, here’s one extra tip – Work Offline even while you are always connected to the Internet. [File -> Work Offline]
You can always configure Outlook to check for new mail frequently even while in Offline mode as show in Step 3 above.
The biggest advantage of working with Gmail IMAP and Offline Outlook is that your local Outlook commands (like Opening messages, Reply, Delete, Forward, etc) will be much faster because Outlook will not connect with Gmail servers before executing your command.
Quick Tip: If you want Microsoft Outlook to load the default Gmail Inbox folder during start-up, go to Tools -> Options (Other) -> Advanced Options and browse for your Gmail Inbox folder.
*If the shortcut Alt + Ctrl + S doesn’t work in your version of Outlook, go to Tools -> Send/Receive, Send/Receive Settings, and then click Define Send/Receive Groups.
Related: Improve Outlook 2007 Slow Performance
Find this article at: http://www.labnol.org/software/tutorials/solutions-for-slow-gmail-imap-with-microsoft-outlook/1761/
Tags: feature, gmail, gtd, imap, microsoft outlook, Software, Tips, Tricks, Tutorials
Reader Comments
Although, the mentioned tips should help, it still is very slow. I still had issues as I wanted to download some email in my folders (Labels in Gmail’s terms). Outlook became non responsive and I could not use email in that time at all.
After wasting nearly six hours, I moved onto Mozilla Thunderbird and have never seen back. It works swiftly and is definitely fater then Outlook 2007.
Written by Tejas Patel on 11.08.07
Excellent tip – thank you!
Written by Tim on 11.08.07
I no longer have send/receive in Outlook when connected to GMail’s IMAP server, as I receive email instantaneously. New implementation of IDLE that works better with Outlook? Previously, I could only receive email by performing a send/receive.
Written by Floepie on 11.09.07
The above line should read “I no longer have to do send/receives in Outlook….”
Written by Floepie on 11.09.07
Thanks for the tips , this is cool
Written by Azam Zaki on 11.10.07
Great tips. Worked great. Thanks!
Written by Tony on 12.17.07
Thanks mate, trying it now. Thank god for google for finding this page. Google is your friend.
Written by Sow B on 04.04.08
Great tip! I’ve been on the fence about using outlook because of its poor IMAP Gmail performance but was forced to because my Blackberry wouldn’t sync with anything else.
Written by Thai Yin on 04.17.08
I wonder if Outlook IMAP has the same issues with other services?
In other words could GMail be any part of the issue?
Written by old ecard guy on 04.26.08
This thread delivered. Especially the tip to work offline. The only thing is you can’t archive items (move them to the all mail folder).
Written by Craig on 05.30.08
You can archive. Just delete the mail from the inbox, and it will move to All mail.
Written by Zerd on 07.10.08
IMAP sucks in Outlook overall, Thunderbird is marginally better, but I use gmail and amp3pr.com IMAP email in Outlook and they are just super slow all the time, on like 6-7 of our computers. the ONLY Mail client which doesnt suck with IMAP support so far is Apple Mail. For whatever reason, APPLE Mail does NOT stop working while syncing its folders, and the search works WAY better than Outlook/Entourage.
dion
dionroy.com
Written by dion roy on 08.15.08
Hi guys, using this method that create a .pst file off line , i had problems with corrupted .pst file with 2gb limited of Microsof Office 2k or 2k3 ?
Written by Lucas on 10.17.08
Currently I am trouble shooting the whole Outlook with Gmail IMAP at a location. I am thinking of trying the Offline Mode trick and see if that helps at all.
Does anyone have a take on bandwidth in relation to the cause of the slowness? In my case there are 10+ users daily accessing email and in house application with DSL connection (about 1.5 download and .5 up)…
Written by Michael on 01.28.09
IMO: The flaw lies with the way Outlook deals with IMAP accounts. IMAP transactions should have been treated in batches, with rollback.
Written by Shamasis Bhattacharya on 04.01.09