How To Use Gmail offline if you don’t have WiFi

Google’s email service is one of the most used and we can use Gmail offline to be able to consult it even when we do not have an Internet connection, do not have coverage or if you are going to travel by plane and need to read emails during the trip, for example. We can use it automatically without having to be using a WiFi network or data rate or if we are connected to the Internet but we want to improve the speed of Gmail on a computer and quickly load all the emails that we have stored in the trays.

You must bear in mind that if you do not have an Internet connection, you will not receive new emails, but you can read the ones you already have in your inbox if you had them pending, without having to be connected to the Internet … One of the advantages One of using Gmail offline is that it will load faster on a computer that does not have too much power or that is usually slower. By having all your emails downloaded you will not have to wait for all emails, attachments to be fully loaded … They will already be loaded when you open the email.

What can I do offline and what not?

There are many things you can do offline but not fully utilize it. You can read the emails that you have stored in your inbox and you can even consult the different labels or folders that you have saved and registered to organize all your pending emails. It also allows us to see all the attachments of the registered emails.

We can also compose emails that we want to send later . We cannot send them if we do not have an Internet connection but we can write normally and leave them in drafts or even in the outbox ready to be sent as soon as you connect to the Internet, for example. Not only write new ones but respond to all those that you have pending if you want to take advantage of a free time without coverage.

What can’t I do? Of course, you can’t send emails if you don’t have a connection . You can leave them written but not send them definitively. When you send it and you are not connected, they will be added to a folder called “outbox” and will be sent automatically when you already have Internet.

How to activate

You cannot activate Gmail offline in all browsers so try Chrome if the others do not allow you the option by following the steps that we are going to explain below. We must go to the browser and our Gmail account.

  • Open your Gmail account by logging in with email and password
  • Tap in the upper right corner of the screen and open the menu
  • Choose “Manage your Google account”
  • The Settings section will open
  • Go to the tabs or options at the top of the screen
  • Look for the “No connection” section

Once we have reached this point we will see a single button that allows us to check the “Enable offline mail” box. You must check this box that will automatically enable a series of settings and options.

Storage

You must bear in mind that the emails you save will take up space in the internal memory of your computer or the device you are using. The first thing we will see in the configuration of the Gmail offline mode is the amount of storage gigabytes or megabytes that what we download will occupy. The first thing you will see in this mode from Google is that it indicates ” You are using X MB of XXX GB of available storage for offline mail on your computer”. So you can get an idea about the space it occupies or if it is worth dedicating it to emails and their attachments.

Choose days

Another setting that Gmail’s offline mode allows us is synchronization . We can choose from when the emails are saved, from what day to the present. We will find it just below “Storage” with the name “Synchronization settings”. You will see a phrase that says … ” Save emails from the last X days .” Here you will have three different options: seven days, thirty days, or ninety days. You can choose the one you want and you can change it as many times as you need.

You will also see a box that allows you to check or uncheck if you want to download only the body text of the downloaded emails or if you also want to download the attached files that they include . Keep in mind that this will mean more space occupied in the memory of the computer.

Safety

The third of the options or sections that Gmail allows us is the security one that will delete the data on the computer when you log out or not. There are two options: Keep the data offline on the computer or delete it after logging out with the Google account. The second will give us greater security but it will be more annoying to have to synchronize the data again and it may take hours to do so. The former will keep the data stored on the device when you log out and will remain there even if you change the password . It is more useful if you do not have anything confidential in the mail but it is less secure if you share a device, for example.

Disable Gmail offline

If you are no longer going to use it, you can deactivate it from their settings by following the previous steps and unchecking the corresponding box:

  • Open the Settings section
  • Go to the tabs or options at the top of the screen
  • Look for the “No connection” section
  • Uncheck the box that you will see at the top of the page

But keep in mind that this will not delete the stored data … To do so, you must go to the browser’s Cookies and delete them so that the data generated offline on your computer is deleted, freeing up that occupied space.

  • Open the Google Chrome browser
  • Tap on the three dots in the upper right corner
  • Go to the Advanced Settings section
  • Go to the Privacy and security section
  • Choose “Cookies and other site data”
  • Go to “See all cookies and site data”
  • Look for those corresponding to Gmail or choose “Delete all”

You will have already deleted the stored data from your email.

Errors and possible failures

It may not always allow you to enable offline mode in Gmail . For example if your email is not from Gmail even if you use this client. Also in the case of having a work or educational center account, you may see that it does not allow you to activate it and it is necessary to ask your account administrator to change it.

Another common failure is that you do not see the preview of the attachments . Not being seen does not mean that you cannot see them in full. As they explain from Gmail itself, “When you don’t have a connection, you can’t preview attachments in Gmail. However, you can download and open them with an application installed on your computer ”.

The “ insufficient offline storage error ” is another common problem and is caused by not enough space on the hard drive but it can also be caused by using a Chrome incognito tab or a guest profile. In these last two cases you should simply avoid using these modes. It may also be due to the fact that you have automatically configured cookies so that they are deleted when you close the browser window. But you can avoid it from the browser settings, adjusting this option:

  • Open Google Chrome
  • Touch the three dots in the upper right corner
  • Open Settings
  • Go to Advanced Settings and Privacy and security
  • Open the Cookies and site data section
  • Check that Google and mail.google.com have not marked “Delete on exit”

This way the cookies will not be deleted when you close Chrome and you will be able to see the attached files.

by Abdullah Sam
I’m a teacher, researcher and writer. I write about study subjects to improve the learning of college and university students. I write top Quality study notes Mostly, Tech, Games, Education, And Solutions/Tips and Tricks. I am a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence or virtue.

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