Outlook And Gmail For Mac

Sign-in to your Gmail account within Outlook for Mac. This is for users who are on Build 0902 and higher. Have you already added your Gmail account to Outlook then see, Improved auth for existing Gmail users. Select an account to sign in. Type the account password. However, after getting my whole account (3.5GB) to sync, I noticed that my Gmail IMAP subfolders were not syncing. Sending and receiving via IMAP worked great, but the subfolders were not syncing. I called Apple — they said it was a server issue. Contacted Gmail. My Outlook for Mac is not connecting to my gmail account. It previously did but I erroneously deleted folders and such from the outlook client which I now understand is a mistake because of the imap connection.

When you are using a Gmail account over IMAP in Outlook, you’ll also automatically get an [Gmail] or [Google Mail] folder containing all the “system folders” of Gmail itself.

Outlook And Gmail For Mac

Outlook Email For Mac

  1. Windows Live Mail to Mac Mail. Outlook Express to Mac Mail. Gmail to Mac Mail. Thunderbird to Mac Mail. Vista Mail to Mac Mail. Windows Live Mail Conversion Options. Choose one to learn more. Windows Live Mail to Mac Mail. Windows Live Mail to.
  2. Open Outlook for Mac and click the Home tab. Click Rules (located near the center). Select Edit Rules from the drop down menu. Be sure that your mailbox is selected on the left under Server Rules then select the plus (+) sign near bottom to add a rule. Change the rule name to Forward Email.

To break yourself out of this additional subfolder and have all these folders listed directly under your mailbox in Outlook, you can set a root folder for your Gmail IMAP account. However, this has an effect on any Labels that you might use in Gmail. Luckily, there is a workaround for that as well.

  • Getting your Labels back in Outlook

Setting a root folder for your Gmail account

To make the change, you’ll have to go to the “Advanced Settings” tab of your account configuration;

  1. Open your Account Settings dialog;
    • File-> section Info-> button Account Settings-> Account Settings…-> tab E-mail
  2. Double click on your Gmail IMAP account to open the account settings.
    • When using Outlook 2010, 2013 or 2016 (MSI), you’ll need to perform the following additional actions;
      1. Click on the More Settings… button.
      2. Select the Advanced tab.
  3. At the bottom, set the “Root folder path” option to; [Gmail]


    Setting the Root folder path in Outlook 2016, 2019 or Microsoft 365.


    Setting the Root folder path in Outlook 2010, 2013 or Outlook 2016 (MSI).

  4. After setting the option and confirming your way out of all of the opened dialogs, you may get a notification that your IMAP cache needs to be rebuild. In either case, it is recommended to restart Outlook at this point.
  5. When using Outlook 2010, in some cases, you’ll need to set the Sent Items and Deleted Items folder for the Gmail IMAP account again.

Before

After
Setting a root path for your Gmail account will free you from the [Gmail] folder structure.

Getting your Labels back in Outlook

Since you are now using [Gmail] as the mailbox root folder and Labels are created on a higher level, you won’t be able to see your Gmail Label folders in Outlook.

A way around this is to prefix each of your Labels with [Gmail]/. So a label called My Label 1 should be renamed to [Gmail]/My Label 1 via the Gmail web interface.

Instead of prefixing your Labels, you can also create a Label called [Gmail] and configure My Label 1 as a nested Label of the [Gmail] Label.


Gmail

Outlook
Prefix your labels with [Gmail]/, or make them a nested label of the [Gmail] label in the web interface, will make them available in Outlook again.

Note:
Any changes you make to the names and the structure of your folders via the Gmail web interface may not be visible in Outlook until you restart Outlook.

Grouping your Labels together

As you are now working of the [Gmail] root folder in Outlook, you’ll see all your Labels directly under your main mailbox. This might end up being a long list and make the Gmail “system folders” harder to recognize (now you know why they grouped them under a [Gmail] folder ).

To solve this, create another Label under the [Gmail] Label in the web interface and call it for instance “Labels”. Now you can make all your own Labels a nested Label of the Labels folder.

As an alternative, you can also prefix your Labels with [Gmail]/Labels/ since the / character is being used as a separator to indicate a subfolder.


Gmail

Outlook
Prefix your labels with [Gmail]/Labels, or nest them under Labels in the web interface, will group them together in Outlook.

Creating subfolders in Outlook and Labels in Gmail

Gmail itself doesn’t really use/understand the concept of subfolders; everything is a Label. If you were to create a subfolder under the Inbox folder, you’ll actually be creating the Label INBOX/My subfolder in the web interface of Gmail.

Once the mailbox is rooted to the [Gmail] folder, and since the Inbox folder lives outside it, unfortunately it is not possible anymore to create or access subfolders directly under the Inbox folder as you would be able to if it wasn’t rooted. Trying to create a subfolder for the Inbox folder will then result in the following error;


Setting a [Gmail] root folder prevents you from creating subfolders under the Inbox folder in Outlook.

To work around this, you can create a new label via the Gmail web interface called;
[Gmail]/Inbox/My subfolder

Unlike any INBOX/name subfolders, folders prefixed with [GMAIL]/Inbox/ will show up in Outlook as a subfolder of the Inbox folder even when the mailbox is rooted to [Gmail].


Gmail

Outlook
Prefix your labels with [Gmail]/Inbox, or nest them under the Inbox label in the web interface, will allow you to create subfolders under the Inbox folder.

Note:
This is only required for any folder which should be a direct subfolder of the Inbox folder. Any subsequent subfolders can be directly created in Outlook without errors.
However, in the web interface of Gmail, this folder will be created with the name “INBOX” instead of “Inbox” which could separate the folders again in Outlook after a restart. In that case, you’ll have to rename the “INBOX” part of the label to “Inbox” in the Gmail web interface and restart Outlook.

Final thoughts

How useful is this change? Well, if you are also often using the web interface of Gmail and are a heavy user of Labels, I’d say it is not very useful at all. After all, instead of having the [Gmail] folder structure in Outlook, you’d then have it in the web interface. Combine that with the amount of work it is to set it up and the 40 character limit of Labels (including the characters of parent folders!), it’s probably not worth the trouble.

However, if you mainly use Outlook (or any another mail client for that matter), sort your mail into subfolders and don’t really care about the Gmail web interface and its Labels, setting a root folder would make sense. The result would be a flatter and more consistent folder structure in Outlook.

© POJCHEEWIN YAPRASERT PHOTOGRAPHY/Getty Images You can add your Gmail account to your Outlook account to view all your emails in one place. POJCHEEWIN YAPRASERT PHOTOGRAPHY/Getty Images
  • Microsoft Outlook allows you to add other email accounts, such as Gmail, to your account so that you can use Outlook as your primary email client.
  • You can add your Gmail account to Outlook using both a PC and a Mac, but the process is slightly different between the two.

If you have a Gmail account, but prefer to use the Microsoft Outlook interface for your email communications, you're in luck.

Outlook allows you to add your Gmail account to your Outlook account so that you can access both simultaneously within Outlook.

Here's how to connect your Gmail account to Outlook on either a PC or a Mac.

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How to add Gmail to Outlook on a PC

1. With your Outlook inbox open, click on the 'File' tab in the upper left corner of the screen.

Gmail© Chrissy Montelli/Business Insider Select 'File' in the upper left corner. Chrissy Montelli/Business Insider

2. Click on 'Add account.'

© Chrissy Montelli/Business Insider Select 'Add Account' in the upper left of the screen. Chrissy Montelli/Business Insider

3. Type the Gmail address you want to add to your Outlook account, then click 'Connect.'

© Chrissy Montelli/Business Insider Type in your Gmail address and click 'Connect.' Chrissy Montelli/Business Insider

It might take a few minutes to fully load.

© Chrissy Montelli/Business Insider Wait while Outlook loads your new account. Chrissy Montelli/Business Insider

4. The next steps involve signing into your Gmail account. Type in your Gmail address again and click 'Next.'

© Chrissy Montelli/Business Insider Type your Gmail address again and hit 'Next.' Chrissy Montelli/Business Insider

5. Type in your password and click 'Sign in.'

© Chrissy Montelli/Business Insider Type your password to finish signing in. Chrissy Montelli/Business Insider

6. Click 'Allow.'

© Chrissy Montelli/Business Insider Click 'Allow' to let Outlook access your Gmail account. Chrissy Montelli/Business Insider

7. If the process was completed successfully, you should see a window confirming that your account has been added. Click 'Done' to finalize the changes.

© Chrissy Montelli/Business Insider Your Gmail account has now been added and will appear on the left bar. Click 'Done.' Chrissy Montelli/Business Insider

How to add Gmail to Outlook on a Mac

1. Open Outlook, click on 'Preferences,' then click on 'Accounts.'

Download Outlook Email For Mac

2. Click on the plus sign icon ('+') and then click 'New Account.'

3. Type in your Gmail address and password as though you are signing into Gmail, and click 'Add Account' when you are finished.

4. Click 'Continue,' then 'Sign in to Google.'

5. Click on your Gmail account, type in your password, and then click 'Next.'

6. Click 'Allow,' then 'Open Microsoft Outlook.'

7. Click 'Done' when you are finished and your Gmail emails should now appear in Outlook.

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