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Annoying imap.gmail.com is not responding.

I have been unable to resolve this after trying many suggestions on the web. This is a Verizon IPhone 4S. Daily I get this message and it's usually when I change from 3G data to wireless or the opposite. I have no problems with data other than GMAIL. The message I get is "The mail server imap.gmail.com is not responding. Verify that you have entered the correct account info in the mail Settings". See SnapShot Attached.



User uploaded file


I am running IOS 5.1.1


The only way I can resolve the problem is to reboot the phone and it starts working again.


These are all the things I have tried to resolve it.


  • Deleted and recreated gmail account several times (works temporaily then problem returns)
  • Tried changing IMAP server from imap.gmail.com to imap.googlemail.com (works then problem returns again)
  • Tried the Google Unlock CAPTCHA suggestion
  • I am using IMAP vs Exchange account setup on the Iphone becuase I need to send email as another identity. When I switch to Active Synch it is much faster, works better, but I see no way to send as another email account using that setup. I have my personal email account forwarded to GMAIL. I also have my personal email as my primary ID in gmail. Regardless, the Iphone sends as the gmail.com account instead of my personal alias.


Please let me know if anyone has any suggestions.

Posted on Aug 8, 2012 7:31 AM

Reply
229 replies

Sep 24, 2013 4:38 PM in response to ov10mech

guys! iphone/ipad MAIL is a app. i had the same problems did every thing and ended up in square 1. if you have noticed our gmail accounts has a 2-step verification. under application-specific passwords. i added "mail" and it generated a random password. in gmail.com website, we would enter our email and password. but in the mail/add account app we would NEED to enter our email then the random password generated by the application-specific password. i guess it's security reason in google's part since a lot of apps do have a keylogger these days. these step worked for me so hopefully this will work for the others that still have imap.gmail.com issues :$

Nov 16, 2013 10:04 PM in response to ov10mech

This has been annoying me for the past few months. Even the Genius Bar could not figure it out. After reading a few of these posts I figured out what was wrong (for me). A few solutions were suggested.


I tried:


Changing passwords, rebooting, restoring without success. I did have the gmail app which was ok, but I hate having more than one app doing the same thing.


Then I realised I had a two step verification which was working fine until the new iOS came in a few months ago. After disabling the verification step everything worked again! YES!!! OMG finally!!!!


Cheers!

Nov 27, 2013 11:44 AM in response to Magnus Hjert

I've been having the annoying imap not responding message all day.

Everything was working fine yesterday.

I just tried the 2-step verification, generating a new Application-Specific password for my iphone 5s.

That didn't work.

I've tried re-booting the phone.

I can access my gmail just fine on my laptop.

I have another gmail account that's picking up my messages via Mailclient just fine on my phone.

I am stumped.

Any suggestions?

Nov 27, 2013 5:09 PM in response to ov10mech

I have been having problems with IMAP access to gmail for the last two days now, having used it successfully with multiple devices and computers for years. I thought I had fixed the problem today when suddenly everything other than browser access stopped working - my iPhone, iPad, Outlook for Mac, Mac Mail, Outlook on a PC - all were unable to access my main work Gmail account. A different personal Gmail account continued to be accessible from these clients, however. I disabled 2-step verification on the work account but still no luck. I am able to access the problem account using a browser, and now with the gmail app. Hopefully the problem will fix itself soon, but I have wasted many hours trying to sort this out.

Dec 6, 2013 7:50 AM in response to ov10mech

Is anyone still struggling with this, or suggest any other solutions.


My config has been working for many months on iPhone 5, iOS 6 and then 7 - up to a few days ago when I got the imap.gmail.com not responding error. To the best of my knowledge nothing changed on the phone.


Recently set up the same config on my iPad and that continues to work OK. Have compared the settings between the two devices and can see no difference. (for the record, using WiFi or Cellular connections also makes no difference)


Have tried resetting the device specific password - if I deliberately enter the wrong password then I do get an error saying that the username/password is incorrect. Enter the correct password and it seems to pass validation but I get the server error again.


Have tried setting the default account to something other than the gmail account and no-change.


Anyone have any other suggestions?


cheers

Dec 6, 2013 9:17 AM in response to FlyingBoatman

Same issue here. Multiple Gmail accounts. all working except one. My mail work account. All devices stopped working gradually since yesterday am. By 2 AM this morning none of them work, I have restared everything, disable and reinabled imap on GMail, changed pass words, changed servers, deleted the account and resetup the account. But I can send just can't recieve. Gmail app and online works just fine though. Very strange Nothing seems to work. Help????

Annoying imap.gmail.com is not responding.

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