Updated November 21, 2011
How to Make a Gmail Outlook 2010 IMAP Connection
Let’s make a Gmail Outlook 2010 connection. Gmail is an excellent email system, and Outlook is an excellent tool for working with your email. So what could be more natural than using them together? Microsoft recognized the appeal of this, and has made it fast and easy to set up a true synchronized Gmail Outlook connection using the IMAP protocol.
How fast and easy? Try 3 steps and about 3 minutes.
On this page, I’ll walk you through the (automated) process of configuring an IMAP connection between Gmail and Outlook. With a Gmail IMAP setup like this, you’ll be able to work with your Gmail in Outlook or through your web browser, with the changes you make automatically synchronized between both locations.
You get all the flexibility and mobility of Gmail, with all the management power of Outlook. A very powerful combination for sure.
NOTE: If you are working with Outlook 2007 or 2003, visit this Gmail Outlook connection page for step-by-step instructions.
Making a Gmail Outlook 2010 Connection with IMAP
Let’s get started on your Gmail Outlook IMAP connection. First things first. These instructions assume you already have a Gmail account. If you don’t, you need to create one right now. After all, a Gmail Outlook 2010 connection is hard to make without Gmail!
The following link opens a new window and takes you to the Gmail home page, where you can create a new Gmail account. Once you are done creating your account, close that window to come back here. If you already have the Gmail account you want to use with Outlook, you should of course skip right down to step 1 of the procedure.
- In Outlook 2010, click the File tab on the Ribbon. In the “File” menu that appears, click Info to display the “Account Information” screen shown below.
- Click Add Account to open the “Add New Account” page of the “Auto Account Setup” wizard.
- Select the E-Mail Account option, then enter your account information on this screen. Once you have entered all your information, click Next. The wizard begins the automatic setup process. This can take several minutes.
That’s all it takes.
From here you can:
Go to the main Outlook 2010 email accounts page.
Go to the Outlook 2010 home page.
Learn how to import your Gmail contacts into Outlook 2010.
Go to the pages that tell you how to make a manual Gmail Outlook connection. You should only need to do this if you want to make a POP3 connection from Gmail to Outlook or if for some reason the automatic IMAP setup process failed.
Related posts:
Phil,
I’ve seen a couple of posts online relating similar issues with Gmail recently, but none that have any sort of solution. Hopefully somebody else out there has seen a solution. Anyone have this problem and find a fix?
–Bill
I am running into trouble when trying to set up gmail in my outlook. I already have an IMAP account setup to connect to my other online email. I have followed the instructions here and elsewhere. I’ve tried it automatically and manually. When I click the “Test Account settings” the process is completed successfully but then when I try to exit out of the process a second ‘Test’ is performed that then fails. Please help. Phil
Thank you soooo much. My email account was been making me crazy until I found your site. ATT was of absolutely no help to me. They haven’t a clue about Outlook.
everything is working now and I am grateful. I’m bookmarking you.
Andre,
I’m sorry to say that I can’t find any information about this particular issue. Just on the off-chance that there was some kind of glitch, I suggest you give it another try. If that doesn’t do it, I don’t have any other suggestions aside from the manual set up.
Please let us know how it goes.
–Bill
Trying the 3 steps and received- An encrypted connection to your mail server is not available. Any thoughts on how to remedy without having to manually set up?
It is a known issue that sometimes synching to Gmail with IMAP can slow Outlook to a crawl. I haven’t had the problem so can’t say for myself, but some people report that the problem lessens over time as it can take days or weeks to get everything in all the Gmail folders synchronized into Outlook. As far as downloading all emails into the computer, IMAP is designed to synchronize your Outlook Inbox with your Gmail Inbox and keep the two synchronized. If you just want to get all your Gmail messages into Outlook, and don’t need to be able to access them from the Gmail web interface anymore, you should consider switching to a POP3 connection.
For more information on going POP3, visit: Use POP3 or IMAP for Your Gmail Outlook Connection
One thing you could do to possibly speed up your IMAP connection is to be sure that only headers are being downloaded for the many “hidden” folders that you get when you set up a Gmail Outlook 2010 connection using IMAP. This video provides a good explanation of how to do this:
How to.. Speed Up Outlook 2010 when using GMail (IMAP)
I hope something here helps.
–Bill
Hi, i made all 3 steps, works fine, but just fine
, it takes so much time to synchronize all emails, it freezes computer. Computer is quite fast and internet connection is 10mbit/s, so i dont know what to do?? If i want to write an email i need to wait 3-5 minutes until outlook unfreeze and later i can write and if background synchro goes well i can (sometimes) send e-mail with no problems???
is there any possibility to download ALL e-mails into computer ??? any option in IMAP “download all”
???
[...] a little help you can easily make this connection. To make a Gmail Outlook 2010 connection, go to http://living-with-outlook-2010.com/emailaccounts/2010/08/gmail-outlook-2010-how-to-configure-outloo... This entry was posted in Computers and tagged 2010, Gmail, Link, Outlook. Bookmark the [...]
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Kevin,
This is strange. Are you trying to connect your Gmail account to Outlook at work? If so, it is possible that the IT department has explicitly blocked Gmail connections as a security measure. Have you connected any non-Gmail email accounts to your copy of Outlook so far?
Hello,
I am running into trouble when trying to set up gmail in my outlook. I already have an IMAP account setup to connect to my other online email. I have followed the instructions here and elsewhere. I’ve tried it automatically and manually. However, when I click the “Test Account settings” button it always fails to connect. Please help.
Thank you,
[...] If you use Outlook 2010, go to http://living-with-outlook-2010.com/emailaccounts/2010/08/gmail-outlook-2010-how-to-configure-outloo…. [...]
Randi,
Let’s see if we can figure this out.
Did you get the message confirming that the connection was set up correctly? Does the message get sent if you use the ALT+S keyboard shortcut?
–Bill
I set up a gmail connection with outlook, but when I go to respond to an email in the INBOX, it gives me no option to send the message out. I can get the window where I can write something to the person sending the message, but I can’t send my response out. I don’t get it.
Randi
Are you still seeing this problem? I just tested moving individual messages and entire folders and it works fine for me.
this is almost very helpful — i have set up the IMAP, but I would like to know if/how i can pull my old outlook e-mails to the gmail server. when i try copying a folder (or even just one email) outlook freezes.
Sometimes I see an folder has moved to gmail, but never any of the contents.
Thanks for any help!!
[...] for people who use services like Gmail, Hotmail, or GMX Mail that synchronize with Outlook using an IMAP or other proprietary connection, [...]