Why the long delay for gmail?
November 6, 2008 8:07 AM Subscribe
Why does it take gmail so long to display an email?
My work email address is one of the addresses in my gmail account, but there's a delay before the emails to that address actually appear.
For example, if I send an email to my xxx@work.com address, it appears in Outlook almost immediately, but it takes anywhere for 15 minutes to an hour for it to appear in my gmail account. There is no delay when I send an email to xxx@gmail.com.
Any explanations? Fixes?
My work email address is one of the addresses in my gmail account, but there's a delay before the emails to that address actually appear.
For example, if I send an email to my xxx@work.com address, it appears in Outlook almost immediately, but it takes anywhere for 15 minutes to an hour for it to appear in my gmail account. There is no delay when I send an email to xxx@gmail.com.
Any explanations? Fixes?
I'd imagine it's because gmail doesn't check your work email every minute--it checks it every 15 minutes.
posted by djpyk at 8:22 AM on November 6, 2008
posted by djpyk at 8:22 AM on November 6, 2008
If you go to Settings -> Accounts in Gmail, you can see how long since the last time each external mailbox as checked. If you want, you can check them manually.
posted by mkb at 8:24 AM on November 6, 2008
posted by mkb at 8:24 AM on November 6, 2008
Gmail's been fast in my experience using the web client, but I haven't really tried timing it or anything lately. I haven't done anything which gets an immediate confirmation online via email in the past couple of days, so perhaps gmail is running slow?
Try checking it via several methods. Gmail has a backend (basic software which gets tasks done) and a frontend (GUI or forwarding to your method of choice for checking email), and they may "speak" less often than normal lately, if I understand correctly.
Your question is a bit confusing. From a couple reads, I can interpret that A) An email sent to your work account arrives instantly (Where are you sending it from? Another work address? Gmail? Another service?). B) An email sent to your Gmail account arrives 15 minutes after being sent (From what account? Any account?). C) An email sent to another Gmail account arrives instantly (Sent from the same account your sending from in the other examples?).
Is my interpretation correct? Also, could you fill in the questions I asked in parenthesis? They could be relevant information, because you may be sending your emails from a server which may be overloaded or just plain extremely slow. I'd recommend setting up an email client and seeing if IMAP or POP works faster. I'd recommend trying IMAP, and make sure you switch the feature on in the Gmail settings and follow the configuration advice from Google's help page.
If you're certain it's just one account that is having a problem, try looking over the Gmail help forms, or post your problem. Hopefully, someone else will have the same problem and a solution, or a Google engineer will read your post and help you out. It's unlikely, but I'd do it. Sadly, poor customer support is one of Google's main problems with its otherwise excellent services.
Is it really important that you have instant access to your new messages as they arrive? If that's the case, I'd make sure all my contacts forwarded to my work address in order to ensure reliability even if this issue is worked out. Gmail is a popular service, and it could very well be swamped.
posted by mccarty.tim at 8:47 AM on November 6, 2008
Try checking it via several methods. Gmail has a backend (basic software which gets tasks done) and a frontend (GUI or forwarding to your method of choice for checking email), and they may "speak" less often than normal lately, if I understand correctly.
Your question is a bit confusing. From a couple reads, I can interpret that A) An email sent to your work account arrives instantly (Where are you sending it from? Another work address? Gmail? Another service?). B) An email sent to your Gmail account arrives 15 minutes after being sent (From what account? Any account?). C) An email sent to another Gmail account arrives instantly (Sent from the same account your sending from in the other examples?).
Is my interpretation correct? Also, could you fill in the questions I asked in parenthesis? They could be relevant information, because you may be sending your emails from a server which may be overloaded or just plain extremely slow. I'd recommend setting up an email client and seeing if IMAP or POP works faster. I'd recommend trying IMAP, and make sure you switch the feature on in the Gmail settings and follow the configuration advice from Google's help page.
If you're certain it's just one account that is having a problem, try looking over the Gmail help forms, or post your problem. Hopefully, someone else will have the same problem and a solution, or a Google engineer will read your post and help you out. It's unlikely, but I'd do it. Sadly, poor customer support is one of Google's main problems with its otherwise excellent services.
Is it really important that you have instant access to your new messages as they arrive? If that's the case, I'd make sure all my contacts forwarded to my work address in order to ensure reliability even if this issue is worked out. Gmail is a popular service, and it could very well be swamped.
posted by mccarty.tim at 8:47 AM on November 6, 2008
Oh, I'm sorry. I reread the first line of your message. I forgot that Gmail reads and displays other accounts. I'd follow MKB's advice, then try the support idea I suggested if that doesn't work.
posted by mccarty.tim at 8:50 AM on November 6, 2008
posted by mccarty.tim at 8:50 AM on November 6, 2008
you can always upload the html-only version of gmail and it will be faster, just stripped of some features.
posted by cc5alive at 10:29 AM on November 6, 2008
posted by cc5alive at 10:29 AM on November 6, 2008
Can you change your mail configuration so that instead of GMail pulling from your work e-mail using POP or IMAP, your work e-mail server forwards (pushes) the message to GMail? That's how I have my mine set up, and work e-mails show up in my gmail inbox instantly (I have tested this).
posted by Emanuel at 3:21 PM on November 6, 2008
posted by Emanuel at 3:21 PM on November 6, 2008
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by nomisxid at 8:19 AM on November 6, 2008