Gmail slow sync across all Mac/Apple devices (not specific to Mavericks)

Question

Gmail slow sync across all Mac/Apple devices (not specific to Mavericks)

I've been experiencing gmail sync issuessince around 12/29/13. Google hosts my business email account, and it has been very slow to sync via Apple Mail on my MacBook Pro (OS Mountain Lion 10.8.5) and MacBook Air (OS Mavericks). I also downloaded Postbox, and that, too, is also slow to sync. Both my iPhone and iPad are slow as well. (By slow, I mean several minutes to download a message.) Access directly on gmail via a browser is instant and flawless. Also to note, my other gmail accounts (which are considerably smaller in terms of messages saved) have no sync problems whatsover.

The hosted account (which is experiencing all the sync issues) has more than 25,000 messages archived. I need these messages for my business, so cannot delete nor archive offline since they need to be accessed on multiple devices. Any advice on how to fix this problem is much appreciated. (Of course, Google offers no help whatsoever.)

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Jan 3, 2014 2:46 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Chris59204

Level 1

5 points

Jan 6, 2014 8:44 AM in response to Emily Kessler

Hey Emily,

I am having exactly the same issue on my Macbook Pro in Mavericks, with the 10.9.1 update, which started right around the same time. I have another gmail account which syncs instantly, and I always seem to have mail "synchronizing with server" on the Activity window in Mail. I haven't ever paid much attention to the Activity window, so I don't know if that used to happen before, but it seems to be slowing down the fetching of my emails. My iPhone and iPad are a little slow to catch up as well. Direct access to gmail is instant.

I've tried rebuilding mailboxes, changing gmail and mail settings, an index vacuum (sqlite3 ~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/Envelope\ Index vacuum;), removing com.apple.mail.plist, and even deleting and re-creating my account in Mail, all to no avail.

For now I've just been using the Google Notifier app in the menu bar, but I would like to continue using Apple Mail since it's been working fine for me up until recently.

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Answer 2

Jan 7, 2014 5:32 AM in response to Chris59204

Hi Chris -

Sometime yesterday my problem was resolved. I'm not sure what happened, but now everything is syncing quickly. It must have been a glitch with Google.

I hope your situation clears up soon.

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Answer 3

Jan 9, 2014 6:46 PM in response to Emily Kessler

So, it finally started working for me last night. I waited 24 hours to see if the issue returned, fortunately it didn't.

I've seen this issue come up a few times in different forums, and it always ends with "it's just working now," which I know is no help to anyone, but this has been an issue for me for the past 2-4 weeks.

So if anyone is using Gmail and they're having IMAP connection trouble (even using another email application like I did), give it a little time and just use gmail in-browser until then. I spent hours adjusting settings and trying new applications, and trying to optimize this and that, and none of it did any good, so DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME likw I did, unless the problem persists.

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