How to Enable POP3 and IMAP in Gmail Account – Setup & Configuration Step-by-Step

This post will share the techniques to perform IMAP and POP configuration in Gmail. Gmail is one of the most popular web-based email clients in the world. Nonetheless, many people use multiple email accounts and desktop-based email clients occupy a significant part of the whole count. Gmail users who also use desktop-based email clients like MS Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, Eudora Mail, and Apple Mail, can enable IMAP and POP on their system. By configuring IMAP and POP, users will be able to access Gmail from their desktop email. Here, we will show you Enable POP3 and IMAP in Gmail Account.

How to Enable IMAP in Gmail Account

1. Go to Gmail and click on Sign In. You will see Sign in page where you need to enter your Gmail ID and password:

 

2. Gmail will open. Click on the Gear icon located at the top right corner of the page.

 

 

3. From the drop-down menu, select Settings.

 

4. The settings page will open. Select Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab.

 

 

 

 

5. Users will see a section named IMAP Access to Enable IMAP in Gmail. Here we can see the option is disabled.

 

6. Select the radio button beside Enable IMAP option to Setup IMAP for Gmail. Upon this selection, related options will come. The link to Configuration instructions will also come handy. Click on Save Changes button to start applying the changes.

Once users click on Configuration instructions link, they will be redirected to a Google support page where they will find the below information to Enable IMAP in Gmail

 

While configuring IMAP into any of the desktop-based emails, add this information when prompted.

 

How to Enable POP in Gmail

If any Gmail is to be accessed from a single system, POP can be a good choice. However, it does not offer real-time synchronization. Rather, the emails are downloaded after a regular interval chosen by the user.

1. Sign in to your Gmail account using Google account credentials.

2. On the Home screen of Gmail, click on the Gear icon on the top panel. A drop-down list of options will appear.

3. Click on Settings from the list.

4. From the tabs of the Settings page, click on Forwarding and POP/IMAP.

5. In the POP Download section, users can enable POP in Gmail by selecting Enable POP for all mail or Enable POP for mail that arrives from now on.

 

 

6. Users can also choose what will happen to the emails after enabling POP. They can also select Configuration instructions link to get the required POP settings for the desktop email. Finally, click on Save Changes.

Enable POP3 and IMAP in Gmail Account: FAQs

Here are some of the issues users often face while you enable IMAP and POP in their Gmail account.

1. “My emails are getting deleted from Gmail.”

Ans: This problem usually occurs due to the incorrect POP setting. To fix it, go to the Forwarding and POP/IMAP settings page to check the settings of POP Download section. If any one of “archive Gmail’s copy” or “delete Gmail’s copy” options is selected, unselect it.

2. “My email client is either crashing or the download is taking unusually long time.”

Ans: It happens when a large number of emails get downloaded at the same time. Update IMAP settings to not sync unnecessary folders and synchronize folders containing not more than 10,000 emails. If these do not work, users can also try removing and re-adding the Gmail account in the desktop-based email client.

3. I am getting an error message that says “Account exceeded POP command or bandwidth limits.”

Ans: The reasons for this error is the frequent access to your Gmail account by the POP clients. Users can fix this by changing the setting and make sure that the client does not check for new emails too often.

4. “Encountering “Too many simultaneous connections” error”

Ans: IMAP allows maximum 15 connections for one account. In case too many desktop emails are gathering messages from Gmail at the same time, this error might show up. To solve it, try to log out from some clients or devices.