Not receiving Gmail emails on iPhone? Try these fixes

Gmail is still the favorite mail app for many users, despite it not being iPhone’s default mail client. It’s simply more convenient, especially if you’re already inside Google’s ecosystem. But even Gmail is not without its fair share of issues. For example, you could stop receiving Gmail emails on iOS.

If you’re unable to receive mail to your Gmail iOS app, try some of the solutions listed in this article, and hopefully, you’ll find what you’re looking for.

Table of contents:

1. Switch Gmail accounts
2. Check Gmail sync settings
3. Check your internet connection
4. Turn Background App Refresh
5. Check your storage space
6. Check for server outages
7. Offload the app

Gmail not working on my iPhone

If you’re not receiving Gmail emails on iOS 15, try checking your account or that your Google account is properly synced to your iPhone. If that doesn’t help, try some additional solutions from this article. Each solution is explained in detail below.

1. Switch Gmail accounts

The first thing we’re going to try is to make sure you’re using the right Gmail account inside the app. If you have multiple Gmail accounts but mainly use only one, it’s easy to get them mixed up when setting up the app. That ultimately leads to using the wrong account, where you wouldn’t be able to receive mail from the main one.

Here’s how to make sure you’re using the correct Gmail account:

1. Open the Gmail app.
2. Tap your account picture in the upper right corner.
3. Choose another account from the list of accounts.

2. Check Gmail sync settings

The next thing we’re going to try is checking the Gmail sync settings. If the sync period is too short, you might not see some of the emails you received a long time ago inside the app. Here’s how to check Gmail’s sync settings on iOS 15:

1. Open the Gmail app.
2. Tap the hamburger menu and go to Settings.
3. Select your account.
4. Head over to Sync settings and choose how many days to sync.

3. Check your internet connection

If you’re not properly connected to the internet, you can’t receive emails. That goes for both Wi-Fi and mobile data. If you notice there’s something wrong with your Wi-Fi connection, check out this article for more solutions. But if you can’t receive emails while on mobile data, things are a little different. First of all, there could be a problem with the service on your iPhone. In that case, check out our article for dealing with mobile data issues on the iPhone.

But it’s also possible your Gmail app is set to be inactive on the mobile network to save data. So, we’re going to make sure the app is allowed to function properly, even when your iPhone is not connected to Wi-Fi. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Go to Settings.
2. Scroll down and tap Gmail.
3. Make sure the Mobile Data option is enabled.

4. Turn on the Background App Refresh

Background App Refresh is an iOS feature that allows apps to function when you’re not using them. This permits services like Gmail to always receive new content and updates, even when the app is minimized.

With Background App Refresh disabled, you’ll only receive new emails when you’re actually inside the app. As soon as you leave the app, it will pause all the processes until you open it again. To ensure Gmail is allowed to function uninterruptedly, and that you can receive new emails all the time, we’ll check if Background App Refresh is enabled.

Here’s how to do that:

1. Go to Settings.
2. Head over to General > Background App Refresh.
3. Make sure the Background App Refresh option is on.
4. Also, scroll down the list of apps, and make sure Background app refresh is enabled for Gmail specifically.

5. Check your storage space

Google’s services work together. That’s why everything connected to your Google Account (documents in Google Drive, photos, reminders, etc.) is stored inside a single storage unit. So you don’t have dedicated space for your photos or emails, as everything counts against the same storage quota. If you exceed that quota, you won’t be able to store new stuff in your Google Account, including new emails.

So, if you don’t have enough storage space left, there won’t be enough room for new emails, therefore you won’t receive them. In that case, you have two options. You can either clear some space for new emails, or you can upgrade your Google One subscription.

You can check the status of your Google One Storage along with upgrade options.

6. Check for server outages

There have been a few server outages in the past couple of years that rendered essentially all Google services (including Gmail) unusable for a couple of hours. And while we’re having a field day here, because those kinds of problems cause enormous traffic spikes to our site, I’m sure everyone else has hated it. So, there’s a chance we’re going through a server outage at the time you’re reading this article.

You’ll quickly find out if that’s the case because the news will be flooded with reports. Just browse your newsfeed and you’ll know what’s going on. However, if there’s indeed an outage, there isn’t much you can do about it. So, your best bet is to wait for Google to fix the problem. The good news is that you probably won’t have to wait for too long because Google tackles server issues relatively fast.

You can also check the status of all of Google’s servers.

7. Offload the app

If none of the previous solutions resolved the problem with missing emails in Gmail on iOS 15, we’ll try offloading the app. Offloading is different than uninstalling because while it does delete the app from the iPhone’s storage, it preserves all your data. That way you don’t have to set everything up from scratch when you install the app again.

Here’s how to Offload the Gmail app:

1. Go to Settings.
2. Head over to General > iPhone Storage.
3. Scroll down until you find Gmail.
4. Tap the WhatsApp app and go to Offload App.
5. Tap Offload App to confirm.

Now, restart your iPhone, head over to the App Store, and download Gmail again.

That’s about it. I certainly hope at least one of these solutions helped you with the Gmail problem on your iPhone. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, feel free to write them down in the comments below.

Editor’s note: This article was initially published in February 2022. We made sure to revamp it for freshness and accuracy.