Why isn’t Gmail receiving emails?
There are dozens of moving parts behind the near-instantaneous email delivery process Connect at +1-888-303-0822 in PST to get Help . Usually, everything works fine, but that’s not always the case.
Your inbox might be full, and therefore rejecting new messages. Or maybe you’ve turned on a forwarding setting that redirects incoming emails to another inbox. Sometimes emails aren’t arriving because you’ve previously added the email addresses you’re sending to a blocked list. In rare cases, Gmail’s servers might be down.
As you can see, there’s a long list of things that could be preventing you from receiving emails. But finding the right solution depends on where you see the problem.
For example, if your phone’s mail app isn’t receiving Gmail messages, there’s a problem with your phone’s connection. If you’re not receiving messages from certain senders, you’ll need to check your filters or blocked addresses.
If you’re using a business email address in Google Workspace versus a personal email address, that adds another layer of complexity.
In short, Gmail is a powerful email platform with many ways to customize the flow of messages. But that means you need to be more mindful of what you’re doing when you’re changing settings.
9 Reasons You’re Not Receiving Emails in Gmail
Let’s take a closer look at some of the reasons why your Gmail might not be receiving emails as you expect.
- Your Internet Is Down
It sounds simple, but that could be the whole problem. Your email relies on direct access to Gmail’s servers. If your internet goes down, your device won’t be able to pull new emails from the servers.
In some cases, you may have a perfectly good wireless connection at home or in your office, but your modem can’t connect to the server. To troubleshoot, you can try restarting your modem. You can also use another device, such as your phone, to check with your Internet service provider for an Internet outage.
- Your filters or rules are sending emails elsewhere
If you’re not receiving emails in Gmail, it’s also possible that you have filters that are sending emails elsewhere. A filtered message can bypass your inbox and go to another address or folder that you mark as read. Filters can automatically sort incoming messages based on criteria you’ve set. You can create rules in Gmail to customize your email flow, but it’s important to be specific.
For example, if you create a filter to archive emails from a specific sender, those messages won’t appear in your inbox; instead, they’ll go directly to your archive folder. Likewise, if you set a filter to mark messages as read or apply a label to them, those messages may bypass your inbox entirely.
How to Check Gmail Filter Settings on Desktop
Go to Settings in Gmail by clicking the gear icon, then click View All Settings.
Select Filters and Blocked Addresses.
Check if you have any filters set up, and make sure they have the correct parameters.
Gmail Filter Settings Screenshot
Important Note: In rare cases, you may find a filter or two that you haven’t set up. This can happen if you use certain email productivity apps that claim to “unsubscribe” from marketing emails. In fact, many of these apps create a filter for marketing emails and mark them as read in another folder within Gmail. Even if you eventually delete the email productivity app, the filters may still be present in your Gmail account.
- Your Gmail Storage Space is Full
When your Gmail storage space reaches its maximum, incoming emails are blocked because there’s no more space left to store them. You probably don’t need all those attachments from 2009 in your inbox, so don’t be afraid to delete old messages.
As a Gmail user, you’re allotted 15GB of free storage shared across Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos. Once you exceed that quota, any new emails sent to your address will be returned to the sender with a notification that your inbox is full, preventing you from receiving more emails until you free up space or purchase additional storage. You can check your Gmail storage to see if you’ve reached or are approaching your data limit. Additionally, at the bottom of your personal Gmail inbox, you’ll see a gray bar (like the one below) showing how much of your remaining 15GB is left. Click that to see a detailed breakdown of your usage, and consider deleting old emails, attachments, or files in bulk to claim more space.
Gmail storage screenshot showing 86% storage space used
Want to learn more about optimizing your Gmail storage space? Read our guide on deleting archived emails to free up space in your Gmail inbox.
- You’ve blocked an address in the past
You may have blocked an email in Gmail in the past and now want to receive messages from them again. Blocking the sender’s email address will send all future messages from them straight to your spam folder.
How to check which addresses you’ve blocked on your desktop
Go to Settings in Gmail by clicking the gear icon, then clicking View all settings.
Select Filters and Blocked Addresses.
Note any blocked addresses on the page.
Unblock addresses one by one or in bulk if necessary.
- Incorrect POP and IMAP settings
POP (Post Office Protocol) and IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) services allow you to access your Gmail messages within other email clients. If your POP or IMAP settings are incorrect, your email client won’t be able to properly connect to Gmail’s servers or consistently retrieve emails. With the wrong server addresses, port numbers, or security protocols, your client won’t be able to authenticate or connect.
There are two sides to this problem. Gmail automatically enables POP and IMAP, so you may run into problems if you’ve changed the default settings in the past.
How to access your POP/IMAP settings
Go to Settings in Gmail by clicking the gear icon, and then clicking View all settings.
Click Forwarding and POP/IMAP.
Screenshot of your email POP/IMAP settings
If you have POP and IMAP connections enabled and haven’t changed the default settings, Gmail should work with other clients. But if your other email client isn’t receiving the connection, you’ll need to take a closer look at the settings in the third-party client you’re using.
Note that Google will be disabling IMAP for personal users in June 2024. At that point, IMAP will always be on.
- Your domain’s MX records aren’t configured
MX (Mail Exchange) records direct your domain’s email to your Gmail Workspace account. In other words, this is what allows you to use Gmail Workspace with your business domain and have a professional email address.
By directing these records to Google’s mail servers, you ensure that incoming emails are properly routed to your Gmail inbox.
It can take up to 48 hours for your MX records to take effect on a new domain name. So if you just created a custom email domain and a new Google Workspace account, don’t worry if it doesn’t work right away.
How to set up (or reconfigure) your MX records with Google Workspace
Open the Google Workspace setup tool, which is only accessible from your Google Workspace admin account.
In a new tab, sign in to your domain registrar.
Look for your domain’s DNS settings, which may be called Mail Settings, Advanced Settings, or DNS Management in your domain registrar’s admin panel.
Clear any non-Google MX records.
Create a new MX record. (Google offers plenty of help and instructions within the setup tool for this.)
Save the new record.
Click Activate Gmail in the Google Workspace tool.
As you can see, this is complicated, but Google breaks it down further here. Google also emphasizes that it can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days for the MX records to take effect. They’re broadcasting the change to the entire Internet, after all.
- Your iPhone’s Mail app isn’t connecting
If you recently got a new phone or reset your device, you’ll likely need to connect your iPhone’s Mail app again to start receiving emails correctly and consistently.
How to connect your iPhone’s Mail app to Gmail
Open Settings on your iPhone.
Depending on your iOS version, tap Mail > Accounts > Add Account, or tap Passwords & Accounts > Add Account.
Tap Google.
Then sign in with Gmail or Google Workspace.
You can now use the Mail app and open it.
- You changed your Google password
At first glance, this doesn’t seem like much, does it? This could be why you’re no longer receiving Gmail messages if you’re using another email provider, like Outlook or Yahoo, by signing in with your Gmail credentials. If you’ve changed your Google password, you’ll probably have to sign in to the other email provider again with your new credentials to start seeing your messages appear again.
- Gmail has a problem
This is rare, but it does happen about once a month. It’s possible for Google to experience an outage with certain services, and you just have to sit back and wait if this happens. You can use this page on Gmail Help Center to see if others are also noticing that Gmail is down.
Other troubleshooting tips
If Gmail still isn’t sending messages to your inbox, try sending yourself a test email. This can determine if the issue is with sending or receiving emails.
If that doesn’t work, switch to a different browser or device, as the issue may be specific to the software or hardware you’re currently using.
If you’re still having problems, try signing out of your Gmail account completely, then signing back in. This can often reset your session and fix temporary issues. It’s cliché but true: It can still help to turn technology off and back on again while you work on a problem.
At Last after doing all these works if you still face issue of Gmail not receiving emails then Connect at +1-888-303-0822 in PST to get help.
