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User profile for user: JonD25
JonD25 Author
User level: Level 1
24 points

Consistently get "server imap.gmail.com is not responding" in Mail

I keep having issues with receiving mail from my Google Apps accounts while using the Mail app on my iPhone. I currently have one Google Apps account that houses two different domain names so I can have separate emails for each domain. Up until very recently, this setup worked perfectly without issue for the past year or so, but suddenly this started happening. Usually, one of these emails will be working fine while the other is the one that stopped working. But I've noticed it's not always the same email that's having the issue, as sometimes it's one and sometimes it's the other. And I can't tell if it's an issue with Google or with Apple, but I ONLY have the problem in Mail on my iPhone. In any other email app or in Safari on my iPhone, it works fine. On my desktop in Apple Mail or in the browser, works fine. The exact error message states "Cannot Get Mail: The mail server 'imap.gmail.com' is not responding. Verify that you have entered the correct account info in Mail settings." The only way I can get it working again is if I delete the account from Mail and then add it again. Suddenly it starts working again using all the same settings I used previously...... Until the next day, suddenly it breaks overnight. I've noticed it's consistently happening in the very early hours of the morning while I'm asleep. I'll wake up and find the error again. Right now this has been a daily affair, and is proving to be really frustrating. For the record, this is on my iPhone 6s with iOS 9.0.2, and the issue is present on both Wi-Fi and LTE. Any ideas?

iPhone 6s, iOS 9.0.2

Posted on Oct 11, 2015 1:30 PM

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44 replies
User profile for user: markfromwv
markfromwv
User level: Level 1
6 points

Oct 13, 2015 6:55 AM in response to JonD25

HI there, I have an iPhone 6, 64gb on iOS 9.0.2. I too experienced something similar this morning. A reboot of the phone seems to fix it also instead of having to delete and re-add your account info. I'm actually wondering if it's to do with the low power mode, or the orientation of the phone at night. mine had the low power mode message on screen when I picked it up. My exchange accounts work fine on the phone, just not the gmail imap email. My phone may have been laying on its face, which the phone also uses to conserve power ( I believe it switches to low power mode while face down, please correct me if I'm mistaken). I'll do some more experiments to find out.

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User profile for user: JonD25
JonD25 Author
User level: Level 1
24 points

Oct 13, 2015 1:04 PM in response to markfromwv

markfromwv wrote:


HI there, I have an iPhone 6, 64gb on iOS 9.0.2. I too experienced something similar this morning. A reboot of the phone seems to fix it also instead of having to delete and re-add your account info. I'm actually wondering if it's to do with the low power mode, or the orientation of the phone at night. mine had the low power mode message on screen when I picked it up. My exchange accounts work fine on the phone, just not the gmail imap email. My phone may have been laying on its face, which the phone also uses to conserve power ( I believe it switches to low power mode while face down, please correct me if I'm mistaken). I'll do some more experiments to find out.

I don't believe the phone goes into low power mode just because it's face down. I think the screen just doesn't light up to save battery.


But I'll test the low power mode theory. Right now I got all my accounts working. I'll refrain from activating low power mode for a few days and see if the problem happens again. But usually when low power mode is on before plugging in for the night to charge, it gets turned off long before the accounts stop working (usually the last update to my mail is around 5-7am and it doesn't take that long to charge fully). But it still sounds like a plausible cause, so I'll test it out.

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User profile for user: derring do
derring do
User level: Level 1
29 points

Oct 14, 2015 5:29 AM in response to Danwuk

My own, similar, experience is on an iPad with iOS 8.4.1. Sometimes closing the mail app repairs it, sometimes not. Sometimes rebooting the iPad works, or not. A couple of times I've had to delete the entire gmail account to get it to work again. If I do nothing, it never starts working again.


All is fine during any of these entire events with both my iPhone and the Mac.


So what gives here? For me, this started this past week, after months on 8.4.x No changes by me at Gmail.


Have dropped feedback to Apple, but know the likelihood of any repairs to intermittent, Google-related problems.

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User profile for user: JonD25
JonD25 Author
User level: Level 1
24 points

Oct 14, 2015 1:32 PM in response to JonD25

JonD25 wrote:


markfromwv wrote:


HI there, I have an iPhone 6, 64gb on iOS 9.0.2. I too experienced something similar this morning. A reboot of the phone seems to fix it also instead of having to delete and re-add your account info. I'm actually wondering if it's to do with the low power mode, or the orientation of the phone at night. mine had the low power mode message on screen when I picked it up. My exchange accounts work fine on the phone, just not the gmail imap email. My phone may have been laying on its face, which the phone also uses to conserve power ( I believe it switches to low power mode while face down, please correct me if I'm mistaken). I'll do some more experiments to find out.

I don't believe the phone goes into low power mode just because it's face down. I think the screen just doesn't light up to save battery.


But I'll test the low power mode theory. Right now I got all my accounts working. I'll refrain from activating low power mode for a few days and see if the problem happens again. But usually when low power mode is on before plugging in for the night to charge, it gets turned off long before the accounts stop working (usually the last update to my mail is around 5-7am and it doesn't take that long to charge fully). But it still sounds like a plausible cause, so I'll test it out.

For those interested, I didn't turn on Low Power Mode last night. Woke up to the issue occurring again. So I doubt the two are related at all.

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User profile for user: JonD25
JonD25 Author
User level: Level 1
24 points

Oct 14, 2015 1:36 PM in response to derring do

derring do wrote:


My own, similar, experience is on an iPad with iOS 8.4.1. Sometimes closing the mail app repairs it, sometimes not. Sometimes rebooting the iPad works, or not. A couple of times I've had to delete the entire gmail account to get it to work again. If I do nothing, it never starts working again.


All is fine during any of these entire events with both my iPhone and the Mac.


So what gives here? For me, this started this past week, after months on 8.4.x No changes by me at Gmail.


Have dropped feedback to Apple, but know the likelihood of any repairs to intermittent, Google-related problems.

This is upsetting. I figured it was an iOS 9 bug, but if you're still running iOS 8, then who knows if it'll be fixed soon. Has anyone installed the 9.1 beta and seen the error go away? Hoping that will fix it when the official release comes out.


Side note, I didn't know that closing the Mail app from the multitasking screen could fix it. I tried just now and sure enough it's working fine now. It's odd though that you said that doesn't always fix it, or rebooting even doesn't always work.

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User profile for user: derring do
derring do
User level: Level 1
29 points

Oct 14, 2015 2:24 PM in response to JonD25

This inconsistent, buggy behavior would make me think it really WAS a Gmail server issue if I didn't have zero problems on my other two devices, and if the behavior would solve itself over time. It simply will not. It stopped working last Thursday, and I left it alone until Sunday. Since then, I've had to "fix" it 3 times, from killing the app to rebooting, to reinstalling my Gmail account in Apple mail.


We seem to have plenty of company, I wish that was reassuring.

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User profile for user: David Shanahan
David Shanahan
User level: Level 4
1,004 points

Oct 15, 2015 1:19 AM in response to JonD25

I've been getting this problem every couple of days since upgrading my iPhone 6 and iPad Air 2 to iOS 9 (currently on 9.0.2). My sister has the same problem on her iPhone 4s with 9.0.2 too. To clear it I just flick up the Mail app window in task switcher and relaunch Mail. That seems to correct the problem for a day or two until it recurs. I also have an iCloud imap account set up in Mail and that has never given any problems, so it seems like it's a bug with Mail talking to Gmail unfortunately.

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User profile for user: JonD25
JonD25 Author
User level: Level 1
24 points

Oct 22, 2015 6:47 PM in response to David Shanahan

I updated to 9.1 yesterday. This morning I woke up with the issue again.


I don't know, it's not that big of a deal anymore to me. I mean, Apple should fix it. And I left them feedback to make sure they know. But closing Mail from the multitasking screen and opening it again has fixed it every time... until it breaks again. But usually not for a whole 24 hours. That's not a terribly inconvenient fix. So I'm not too upset.

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User profile for user: markfromwv
markfromwv
User level: Level 1
6 points

Oct 25, 2015 6:41 PM in response to David Shanahan

I too have the same issue on 9.1 as of today. Seems to be angmail imap related issue I'm thinking.. I have an iPad 4th gen and was registered back when Google allowed exchange to be used with their gmail... The mail comes through perfectly on it every time. The newer iPhone 6 I have cannot use gmail on exchange unless I have a paid account, and it gives me issues. Outlook mail comes through ok, a test to my gmail at the same time did not.


Not sure what to look at now....

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Consistently get "server imap.gmail.com is not responding" in Mail

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