Introduction
Emails are an indispensable part of our lives, whether for personal or work purposes. No communication medium can completely replace them. Therefore, not receiving emails suddenly can be concerning.
If you've suddenly started to miss receiving emails on Gmail, this article is for you. Here, we highlight possible reasons behind this and how to troubleshoot it.
1. Check your Internet Connection
If you're not receiving emails on Gmail, you should first check your internet connection. A slow Internet speed can affect email delivery.
Not being able to receive emails on Gmail can also be attributed to using a VPN or proxy. VPNs may slow down the connection and cause delays in receiving emails. In some cases, Gmail may also block VPNs or proxies.
2. Check Gmail Spam Folder
Sometimes, emails can be misclassified as 'spam,' and Gmail automatically moves them to the Spam folder, skipping the inbox. This can cause you to miss emails accidentally. Check your spam folder if you were supposed to receive an email for order confirmation, password reset, etc., but didn't get any, as it may have ended up there.
To prevent this from happening again, click the "Report not spam" button on the email. By doing so, no future emails from the sender of that email will be sent to spam but always land in the inbox.
3. Check Your Gmail Storage
By default, Google provides 15GB of free storage space, which is shared across several Google services, such as Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Photos. If this storage space is exhausted, you won't be able to send or receive emails.
Check whether your Google storage is full if you're not receiving new emails. You can do so by going to Gmail and clicking your profile icon. You can manage your storage by clicking on the cloud icon. Here, you can get a detailed view of how the storage space is used across all Google apps. You will see an option to clean up space.
4. Check Your Gmail Filters & Forwarding Settings
If you're not receiving new emails on your Gmail account, it could be that your email filters or forwarding settings are causing this to happen. For example, you may have set a Gmail filter to automatically delete or archive emails that meet specific criteria. Or it could be because your emails are deleted from your inbox and forwarded to another email address.
To resolve this issue:
- Review your Gmail filters.
- Check the forwarding settings on your account and ensure that the option to keep a copy of the emails being forwarded in your inbox is selected.
5. Blocked Email Address
One of the reasons for not receiving an email on Gmail could be a blocked sender. If you accidentally block a sender, all the emails sent to you by them will end up in the spam folder, causing you to miss them.
If that's the case, you can simply unblock the sender to start receiving their emails in your inbox again. As for the already blocked emails, you can find them in the spam folder.
To unblock a sender in Gmail, follow the below steps:
- Click on the gear icon found at the top-right of the screen.
- Click on "See all settings".
- Navigate to the Filters & Blocked Addresses tab.
- Find the blocked email address and click "unblock".
On the Gmail mobile app, you can unblock a sender by opening an email from them and clicking "Unblock sender".
6. Incorrect Email Address
Another reason for not receiving an email could be an incorrect email address. For example, the sender makes a typo, or you could make a typo while entering your email address on websites, thus not being able to receive emails.
Always double-check your email address to ensure you don't miss any emails.
7. Server Outage
Sometimes, the issue might be with Gmail itself. If Gmail servers are down or undergoing maintenance, you may experience trouble receiving emails.
Check the status of Gmail online to see if it is experiencing an outage.
8. Issues with Syncing
If you're using the Gmail mobile app, ensure that syncing is enabled. This way, you will automatically receive new emails without refreshing your inbox.
Syncing is enabled by default in the Gmail mobile app (for both Android and iOS). You can find this setting by opening the Gmail mobile app, going to Settings, tapping your email address, and scrolling to the bottom of the screen.
Conclusion
Not receiving emails on Gmail can be frustrating and cause you to miss important emails accidentally. In this article, we discussed a few reasons to help you pinpoint what could be causing this behaviour and provided troubleshooting solutions for each possible reason. We hope you found this article helpful.
