You can now use Gmail in offline mode 一 as surprising as it sounds, Google recently a new feature to Gmail called “ offline mail”, which essentially lets users read, respond, and search Gmail messages even when they aren’t connected to the Internet. Introduced in June 2022, the feature is now available on the Chrome browser only and as of now, it does not work in Incognito mode. The offline mail option is available only on the web and the option to enable this can be found under Settings. If you’re using Gmail with your work or school account, you can ask your admin to help change your settings. In this guide, we will take a look at the details of the features, and how to enable, use and also disable it. Let’s get started.
Also Read: How to Recover Gmail Password Without Phone Number And Recovery Email
What is Gmail Offline Feature?
As said earlier, this new feature called offline mail lets you read, respond to and search your Gmail messages even when you aren’t connected to the Internet on the desktop. With this feature enabled, you can use Gmail when you’re not connected to the Internet, go to mail.google.com, or click the bookmark you created for Gmail offline in Chrome.
You can also send mail when you are offline, but your email goes into a new “Outbox” folder and gets sent as soon as you go back online. Also, this feature is not recommended for shared devices as email will remain on this device until offline mail is disabled.
Once enabled, you can use only one instance of Gmail offline on your desktop. If you try to open it the second time, you will get a message saying “Gmail is open in another tab, switch tabs to use offline mail.”
How to Turn on and Use Gmail Offline Feature?
- Go to the Gmail Settings page on Desktop
- Click on the “Offline” Tab
- Check “Enable offline mail”
- Choose your settings, such as how many days of messages you want to sync
- Click Save changes
Since this is a newly added feature, Google is suggesting users bookmark Gmail to make accessing email offline easier. This is also the best way to reach Gmail offline.
Also Read: Gmail Sign Out: How to Log Out from Gmail or Google Account on Your Phone and Computer
How to Turn off Gmail Offline Feature?
- Go to the Gmail Settings page on Desktop
- Click on the “Offline” Tab
- Uncheck “Enable offline mail”
- Click Save changes
FAQs
Can I use multiple Gmail accounts in Gmail Offline mode?
Yes, you can use multiple Gmail accounts in Gmail offline mode. All you have to do is enable the offline mail option on all the Gmail accounts.
I cannot see any email attachments in Gmail Offline?
In offline mode, you won’t be able to preview or download attachments.
My Gmail account is showing an insufficient offline storage error in Offline mode?
You might get this message for the following reasons:
- Not enough hard drive space
- Using a Chrome incognito tab
- Using a Chrome Guest profile
- Chrome settings are set to clear on exit in Chrome
To fix the issue, you can head to Settings of Chrome and go to Advanced options > Privacy and security > Content settings and then Cookies. Here make sure “mail.google.com” or “*.google.com” is not listed under “Clear on exit.”
