Since upgrading to Mojave 10.14.4, Gmail continuously goes offline in Apple Mail. Only solution so far is to close Mail and restart. After restarting, Gmail appears to be working normally. Has something changed in the way Mail works with Gmail or has Google changed something?
MacBook Pro Retina
Sure no problem d18ge.
FINAL UPDATE: After doing alxxhrvth's 4 steps a couple of days ago (as I posted about a few replies ago), I still ended up getting the offline indicator for 5 of the 6 gmail accounts that I re-added to Mac Mail. It would happen after Mail.app was hidden for approximately 2 or more hours. So, why not the 6th gmail account? That question I had gave me an idea. Well, if you go to the menu bar in Mail-->Accounts you can adjust 4 checkboxes for each gmail account. They are Mail, Contacts, Calendars and Notes (M, Co, Ca, N). When you setup a gmail account it defaults with all 4 checked. That is probably why alxxhrvth's 4 step program works for the majority. Because it makes us setup an account back to default. But, some of us uncheck the boxes right away. When I was doing alxxhrvth's 4th step the other day, I had left one of the 6 gmail accounts, let's name it Eureka@gmail.com, with the dafault 4 boxes checked. On the other 5, I had unchecked the Co, Ca, N so that only Mail was checked. Yesterday, I checked my inbox and Eureka@gmail didn't have an offline indicator and the other 5 did. So, I messed with the 4 checkboxes on 4 of the 5 troubled gmail accounts. I did different combinations of checkboxes and then I let it run for the last 24 hours. Today, when I went to my inbox after it hiding for more than a couple of hours, they were all online except the one that I left with only mail checked. It didn't seem to matter if I checked M and N, or M and Ca, or M, N, and Ca. Just as long as M (obviously) and one of the other 4 boxes is checked.
CONCLUSION: Make sure that another of the four boxes besides Mail is checked in Mail-->Accounts-->youremail@gmail.com
I'm also having the same issue with Gmail not connecting. Email to my own domain server is working without any problem. I tried the checking the boxes for Contacts, Calendars and Notes. It did resolve the issue, however, I don't want Google's Contacts, Calendars and Notes on.
But, if I remember correctly, I had a similar problem with connection issues between Google Mail and Apple Mail app awhile back. The solution was to change the outgoing server address in the Accounts section of Mail's Preferences. (I found the recommended server somewhere in the GoogleMail forums.) But now I see that Apple mail has cleverly gotten rid of the Advanced Settings in Apple Mail. I'm going to refrain from adding a sarcastic comment. But I will look further into this. It is possible that Google mail has once again changed their preferred STMP server.
I should also note that Little Snitch only recently started to report and request connection to: googleapis.com (process from: /System/Library/Frameworks/Accounts.framework/Versions/A/Support/accountsd). I'm not sure if this has contributed to or caused the problem.
But.... just for fun, I created a test email from the Gmail account and voila, it got sent and the offline indicator went out. This whole thing is wierd but maybe working after all.
Fingers crossed.
Just went to the Feedback link to report. Everyone needs to do this, so they see how many are having this issue. Otherwise it won't get their attention, and we won't get a fix.
Already tried deleting and recreating twice but maybe the third time will be the charm. This time I will delete the Gmail account and then do a restart before adding it back. Not sure if it will make a difference but doesn't hurt to try.
UPDATE: I deleted the Gmail account, restarted macOS and recreated the account. The problem is still occurring though I have isolated it to the outgoing server. It seems as if the account looses the outgoing server to use. Once this happens, if I attempt to create and send an email in Apple Mail using the Gmail account, I will get a message saying it needs an outgoing server. Selecting the proper server seems to work but the problem reoccurs within a few hours. There is no problem with any of my iOS devices that use the Apple mail client to access Gmail, just macOS. I have not tried going the Google support route yet but that is the next step. If I do find a fix, I will post here.
Thanks to all for your suggestions.
I have this same issue. Just bought my MacBook Pro in March 2019 and have had this issue from the start. I too have deleted and re-entered all my gmail accounts multiple times. I only have this prob on my MacBook.
If I click on the little circle with the tilde in it, it does force the account back online and retrieve my emails. Just a pain to have to do that for 6 accounts every time I want to check my email!
Thanks for posting all the updates - hopefully we'll get a fix or an update that eliminates the problem.
I finished playing two-step about an hour ago. I followed alxxhrvth's 4 step program and am seeing good results so far. I reinitialized about 6 gmail acounts back into Mail.app when I got to step 4. I have only seen the offline indicator on 1 of those accounts so far and am seeing that as an outlier to our current problem. When I was deleting the accounts in step 1, I noticed that the check boxes for mail, accounts etc. were not all in the same configuration. I had them adjusted mostly to be just 'Mail' having a check mark. I had messed with those checkboxes at some point after the initial setup of the accounts some years ago. I am suspecting the preference file as the culprit (Step 3). I'll update how many more offline symbols I may or may not see over this day and this night.
Before hitting Post, I did a quick check on the mailbox and everything is online.
POSSIBLE FIX - UPDATE #2
Well, I thought this was going to work after creating a new network location (step #2) but this afternoon the dreaded dropped connection reappeared. Started to go through the entire four steps but could not located any file named com.apple.mail-shared. Has anyone else trying the four step fix run into this problem? I did delete my Gmail account, create a new location, restart and recreate the Gmail account. Now waiting to see if this solves anything.
Did you look in the private library the computer has?
Hopefully this helps.
Grrr, super annoying. It might matter which box is checked, because when I went to turn on the 6th account for good, I checked the second one down I think and it went offline. Now I have all 4 checked on that one. I'm too active on my computer right now to really test it out for a long period of time. Maybe try 3 boxes checked?
Just scanned my MacBook for any viruses and malware - none. Also checked the area you mentioned in network settings and I don't have any proxies or anything in that SOCKS area. Don't think that's my issue. I think like others have experienced my problem has to do with the account settings in the MacOS that Apple needs to figure out.
For comparison I also have a MacBook Pro 2010 that is NOT running Mavericks, is configured the same way as my new MacBook Pro, with the same accounts etc., and it does NOT have this problem...
You might be better off asking in a Google product support forum.
Try this one: https://support.google.com/mail/community or https://support.google.com/mail/
While I have occasionally had this happen, that is not what is happening here. If I have the Mail app open for any length of time, my Gmail connection will drop. It appears from best I can tell to be related to the smtp side of things as I receive email. In all the years I have had a Gmail account and used Apple Mail to access it as opposed to the web interface, I have not had this problem.
I generally keep the Mail app open on my desktop. I will get a dropped connection indication (circle with tilde symbol) next to my Gmail inbox at some point, usually within a few hours. Seems to have something to do with the smtp server connection as best I can tell. I have tried creating a specific server item in the outgoing server list but that does not seem to have resolved the issue.
I have been experiencing the same issue as d18ge for the past month or more and just grunting and bearing it. I have 6 gmail accounts plus my icloud email account in Mac OSX Mail. I can click on the offline indicator and fire them all back up each time I unhide the app, but it is annoying (as someone posted earlier). I'm running OSX 10.14.4 on a Macbook Air 13" Mid 2012. Great patience being demonstrated in this thread. I am about to try alxxhrvth's possible fix since I have half a gallon of coffee and a couple of hours free to play two-step with Google.
Gmail keeps going offline in Apple Mail
