Gmail is one of the most popular free email service providers on the web. The popularity can be attributed to the straightforward interface and ease of access. However, many users have reported being unable to receive emails on Gmail.
In the following sections, we will understand what leads to the error and walk you through the various fixes.
Why Am I Unable to Receive Emails on Gmail?
There could be a lot of issues that might lead to problems receiving emails on Gmail. Although, most of them are trivial and can be fixed right away. We have listed a few of the common issues that lead to the error.
- Gmail Account Storage is Full
- Firewall Blocking Emails
- Email Filters are Applied
- Gmail Servers are Down
Although the underlying cause is trivial in most cases, the error as a whole wreaks havoc. Imagine being unable to receive important works emails. We have listed the most effective fixes to help you resolve the error.
1. Check if Gmail Server is Down
When you are unable to receive emails on Gmail, your prime approach should be to check if the servers are working fine. Generally, people go for the other fixes and later find out that it was the server leading to the error.
To check if the servers are down, you can do a simple Google search. There are some websites that help detect if a particular service is not working. Downdetector is one such popular service that you can rely upon.
If the servers are all running fine, it’s time you move to the fixes below.
2. Try Gmail on a Different Browser
Opening Gmail on a different browser has worked as an effective fix for many users. You can use any of the popular browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, Opera, or Edge. In case you can now view the recently received mails, try switching back to the former browser after a while or continue using the current one, as you deem suitable.
3. Check Account Storage
If you send and receive a lot of emails or have stored a lot of data on Google Drive or Photos, it’s likely that the account storage is full. Google provides users with 15 GB of free storage that’s shared across Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Photos. Once the storage is full, you wouldn’t be able to send or receive emails.
To check the the account storage, go to one.google.com and check the storage details.
If it’s the account storage that’s causing the error, you can either delete emails on Gmail or clear up space on Google Drive or Google Photos.
To delete the emails on Gmail, tick the checkbox before the emails that you want to delete and click on the ‘Delete’ icon.
This is a fairly time taking process and wouldn’t help clear considerable storage quickly. But there’s an option to quickly filter the emails that take up a lot of storage space.
To find such mails, enter the following in the ‘Search Bar’ and press ENTER.
has:attachment larger:15MWe have set a filter for emails with attachments larger than 15 MB to be displayed. You can change the size of the attachment and it will filter the results accordingly.
Next, delete the required emails from the filtered list. This makes the process of clearing storage space a lot quicker and convenient.
After you delete the emails in ‘Inbox’, they are moved to ‘Trash’ folder. To clear up space, you will have to permanently delete them from the ‘Trash’ folder. Navigate to the ‘Trash’ folder from the left, and click on ‘Empty Trash now’ at the top.
Next, click ‘OK’ on the confirmation box that pops up.
The emails have finally been removed and storage space cleared. Now, check if you are able to receive emails. In case the error persists, move to the next fix.
4. Remove Filters
If you have set filters for Gmail, it may be behind you not receiving the emails in your inbox. For instance, you may have set email from that particular account to be deleted right away. In that case, it would appear that you are not receiving emails.
To check if you have set any filters, click on the ‘Settings’ icon near the top-right corner of Gmail, and then select ‘See all settings’ from the drop-down menu.
In the Gmail ‘Settings’, navigate to the ‘Filters and Blocked Addresses’ tab from the top and check if any filters have been created. As so you see below, a filter has been set to delete emails from a particular account.
If you find a similar filter on your Gmail account, it’s time you delete it.
To delete a filter on Gmail, select the checkbox behind the filter and click on the ‘Delete’ option under it.
After you have deleted the filter, ask the sender to resend the email and check if you are now able to receive it.
5. Check Email Forwarding Settings
If you have turned on Email forwarding on Gmail and set the settings such, to delete the existing account’s email copy, the emails wouldn’t appear. To fix this, either change the current settings or simply turn off the email forwarding.
To check email forwarding settings, go to Gmail ‘Settings’ as discussed earlier and navigate to the ‘Forwarding and POP/IMAP’ tab at the top. Next, check if the ‘Forwarding’ is enabled and the current settings.
To change the forwarding settings and keep the email in the inbox, click on the second drop-down menu and select the ‘keep Gmail’s copy in the inbox’ option.
To disable email forwarding, simply select the checkbox for ‘Disable forwarding’.
Whatever changes you have made earlier wouldn’t be in effect unless you save them. To save the changes, scroll down to the bottom and click on ‘Save Changes’.
After you have either modified the forwarding settings or disabled them altogether, check if the error has been fixed. If not, move to the next fix.
6. Disable Firewall
A number of antiviruses have the ‘Firewall’ feature enabled by default which could be leading to the error, since it may be blocking the emails. In this case, you can either try disabling the firewall or the antivirus from running at startup altogether.
Note: We will be disabling the firewall on Windows Security. In case, you use a third-party antivirus, the steps would be different. Either look up the FAQ section of the antivirus website or search the web for the steps to disable the firewall. Also, disabling the firewall is not recommended and it should be just temporary. Use a different antivirus if the current one is leading to the error.
To disable the firewall, search for ‘Windows Security’ in the ‘Start Menu’ and click on the relevant search result to launch the app.
Next, select the ‘Firewall & network protection’ option.
You will now see three options on the screen, select ‘Domain network’.
Now, click on the toggle under ‘Microsoft Defender Firewall’ to disable it.
Similarly, disable the firewall for other networks as well.
To disable an antivirus from running at startup, press CTRL + ALT + DEL, and select the ‘Task Manager’ option. Next, navigate to the ‘Startup’ tab from the top, select the antivirus and click on ‘Disable’ at the bottom.
Now, restart the computer and you would no more be facing issues with receiving emails on Gmail.
The fixes mentioned above would fix the errors pertaining to receiving emails on Gmail. Also, we would like to reiterate that you shouldn’t keep the firewall disabled for long and look for an alternative antivirus to keep your system safe and secure from malware and cyber-attacks.
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