Slow loading and downloading of gmail emails and attachments

Hello, Openheaven.

I've been having the very same issue, viz., Apple's Mail app has suddenly begun to download new messages from my Gmail account very slowly — by which I mean that after clicking on the Mail icon in my Dock, the app opens (evidenced by the menubar), but the "Viewer Window" doesn't display for (sometimes) up to 15 or 20 seconds. When it does so, the messages populate the window almost instantly, as before, and all other features of the app continue to work normally (as before all this began). Quitting and immediately re-opening the Mail app yields the very same behavior, except that the delay appears to be a bit shorter than the day's initial opening.

Initially, I thought this may result of processing of Rules I had set up in Mail's Preferences, but disabling all of the Rules has had no perceptible effect on this problem. Nor does this improve if I disable all Junk Mail filtering. Moreover, if I were to log into my Gmail account via Safari, the Inbox messages continue to display almost instantly, whereas if I were to open the Mail app at this time (Safari still open to my Gmail page), it still takes anywhere from 10 - 20 seconds to display the information..

Prior to this strange and unwelcome behavior of Apple's Mail app, I hadn't made any changes to my Apple Mail Settings, nor to my Google Account's Mail Settings, nor to my router settings (Airport Extreme) or cable modem. Nor am I experiencing any other perceptible slowdown in Web traffic, including the sending and receiving of messages once Mail is open and running. This has been a vexing problem to try to resolve.

Same problem here. Even my XR takes ages to open any gmail messages. It loads hotmail instantly so it has something to do with gmail. Pity Apple does not fix this. It’s been a problem for me since ios11. Still there on 13.3. Guess it’s back to the gmail app for me.

Hey apple, anyone listening?

Exact same issue. Ever since I moved to 13.3 and 13.3.1 my GMail mails takes forever to download in the iPhone mail app. It’s instant through the native Gmail app and on my Android phone, my spouses iPhone is also facing the same issue.

Are you trying to intentionally slow down Google? Is this another iPhone slowing down issue? This is a completely unacceptable. Mail is such an integral part of the iPhone, how can this get past your “wonderful” QA team?

Hi Openheaven,

Thank you for using the Apple Support Communities! I understand you are experiencing a concern with your Gmail email account on your Mac and iOS devices. I'd like to help.

Have you isolated this behavior to your Gmail account only? Or, do you have other accounts set up on your Mac and iOS devices that are also experiencing the same concern? What type of network are you connected to when this behavior occurs? Does it happen on a specific network/location, or every network/location?

You can find some troubleshooting steps related to email issues in the below resources as well:

Troubleshoot email problems in Mail on Mac - Apple Support.

If you can’t send or receive emails on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support.

If you need continued support, reach back out with an update on your issue, and responses to the questions above.

Regards.

I having the same issue on both my iPhone and iPad. It happens with any network and also when I am using my 4G. In both devices it is taking too long to download google messages. My other accounts are downloading fine. I also noticed that I do not have this issue when I open my google messages with my desktop through Outlook.

Any idea how to actually speak / interact with anyone at Google? I believe that there is some kind of corruption or setup issue with the underlying Gmail account that causes a conflict with the Fetch processing of the Apple Email App. I guess I could move to a new Gmail address, but that is so painful in terms of notifying people, etc.

Has this problem been resolved? Recently it is taking ages for Gmail Email headers to download on my IPad Air whereas they appear instantly on my Android phone. It would appear that others do have the same problem so I would expect an easy fix. I did not have the problem when I first acquired the iPad a few months ago and set it up using a backup from my aging IPad 3rd generation.

No. The problem continues and I have been completely thwarted in getting any support from Google. the Apple Support folks tried for a while, but gave up. I even spent 2 hours in the apple store where we drastically reduced the size of my Gmail backlog, etc., tried reinstalling everything, etc. NO SATISFACTION. Seems to be correlated between my Gmail account and any apple email app. Same problem on all of my apple devices, but just with this gmail account. I have others that seems to perform OK.

I have had this issue for over a year on my iphone and iPad. Now my new iPhone 11 Pro has the same issue. In fact I get tired of waiting and will open the gmail app. That app does my gmail lightning fast. I don’t want to use the gmail app. I want the Apple Mail app to work.

Welcome to the club. I suspect there is a Gmail setting or Gmail glitch that impacts specific Gmail accounts and hinders performance when using the Apple mail app. I have been unable to get any help from Google and/or on the Gmail community.

I have isolated this to gmail on all my iOS devices thru the apple mail app. Is there a setting or something that needs to change with iOS 13?