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Android Email Sync Problems

There are a number of different reasons why you might be experiencing Android email sync problems.

Email sync issues are endlessly annoying and frustrating, but fortunately there are a few ways you can resolve these problems. 

In this article, we’ll explore:

  • Possible reasons for email sync problems on your Android phone
  • Ten different solutions to try if you’re experiencing email sync problems.

Let’s dive right in!

What’s Causing My Android Email Sync Problems? 

There’s no single definite reason for Android email sync problems. That’s to say that there are a range of potential culprits, such as:

  • Connectivity problems
  • A buggy or outdated email client
  • Cache issues.

Below are some of the ways you can troubleshoot and get your emails to load properly once more!

Android Email Sync Problems: 10 Solutions

Enable Automatic Sync

One potential reason why your emails aren’t syncing properly is that you don’t have automatic sync enabled in your email app. 

If automatic sync isn’t enabled, you won’t get new messages popping up as soon as they arrive.

In most apps, you can do this via the settings. The sync automation options will probably be under your syncing setting, which will look different depending on the app.

If you’re using the Android Gmail app:

  1. Open the Gmail app and tap the menu bar which looks like a stack of three horizontal lines
  1. Scroll down to “Settings” and choose the email address where you want to turn the automatic sync feature on
  1. Scroll down to “Sync Gmail” and make sure that it’s ticked.

Clear Up Data and Cache

Clearing up your data and cache on your email app will essentially reset your Gmail, helping things run more smoothly. You’re also less likely to encounter syncing problems. 

You can clear any app’s data and cache in your Android settings:

  1. Go to your phone’s general settings
  1. Scroll until you find “Apps”, “Application settings”, or something similar
  1. Find your email app in the list of apps, then tap on it
  1. Click “Clear cache”. This will delete temporary files that are taking up space. Don’t worry as this option won’t erase all of your app data
  1. Clicking “Clear data” will clear the app’s data completely – including all your emails and contacts – but only on your phone. You might also need to log in again.

Check Email Sync Settings

You can find many important settings to do with email syncing in your email settings. Here, you can find settings such as sync frequency, options for syncing over Wi-Fi only, syncing contacts, and more.

In your sync frequency settings, you can change how often your emails will sync. If you change it to a higher frequency, you might find you’re getting new emails more often. 

In your syncing over Wi-Fi settings, you can decide whether or not your emails will sync when you’re on mobile data. If your emails aren’t syncing over data, this setting may be the reason why. 

Email App Update

Sometimes, apps have bugs that need to be fixed. 

Updating your email app is a great way to ensure that you have the latest and best working version of the software. This will also get rid of any problems that the app developers may have recently fixed.

If you’re curious whether your syncing problems are due to a bug in the app, you can check the “What’s new” section on the app’s page in your app store. It might mention previous syncing problems that have been fixed. 

If that’s the case, you simply need to download the latest version of the app to solve the issue. To do this:

  1. Go to the Google Play Store or whatever app store you use on your phone
  1. Search for your email app and tap on it
  1. Tap “Update” and the app will download all the latest changes.

Remove and Install the Email App Again

This is your classic “turn it off and on again” troubleshooting technique, and it does work quite well! 

Removing and reinstalling your email app will clear the app’s data and cache completely, meaning any corrupted or outdated cache will be cleared and you can start again with a clean slate.

Reinstalling your email app will also restore it to its default settings. If you accidentally altered a sync setting that’s causing your emails to sync poorly, this setting will be cleared. 

You may also not have the latest version of your app (as stated above), and deleting and reinstalling will ensure that you have the most updated version of the app.

Check Your Connectivity

In order for your emails to sync properly, you’ll need to have a working internet connection. You can check your Android phone’s Wi-Fi connection by following these steps:

  1. Pull down your notification bar to its full size
  1. Hold down on the Wi-Fi symbol in the top left corner
  1. Click on your Wi-Fi network. In some phones, you can even see your network speed. If this is lower than 25 Mbps, you may need to get closer to the modem for your emails to sync. 

If you’re not near a Wi-Fi modem and want to use your mobile data, simply swipe down the full notification bar and hold down on the symbol with two arrows (one pointing down and one up). Here, you can turn on your mobile data.

Sync It Manually

If all else fails, you can still sync your emails manually. 

In most Android apps and browsers, you can swipe down the page to reload it. This will sync your emails so that you’ll see new messages if you have them.

If you can’t swipe down to reload, your email app may have a “sync” button near the top. 

Clear Up Storage

If you have thousands of emails in your email app, that may be causing some problems. Deleting emails can be a bit of a task, but there are some quick ways to mass-delete emails you don’t want. 

One way is to use your email app’s advanced search option. For example, on Gmail, you can search for only emails from one specific sender. 

It can also be a good move to search for emails from a certain company or business whose emails you don’t need to keep (such as receipts from a food delivery service) and mass-delete them. This is a quick way to clean out your email storage.

Another way to clear up space is to empty your spam folder regularly. Make sure you check that nothing ended up in there by accident before you empty the folder!

Check If Your Passwords Are Correct on Your Devices

If you’re having trouble accessing your emails, it might be that you don’t have the correct password. It can be hard to remember all your passwords and to keep track of them all!

If you have forgotten your password, you can always reset it in most cases. 

You can usually do this by tapping the “Forgot password?” option at the bottom of the login screen. You should then be able to reset it through the instructions provided.

Enable Email Notifications

If you don’t want to be constantly checking your email app for new messages, it’s easy to turn on notifications for your email app. 

To do this, go to the app’s settings and to the “Notifications” section. Here, you’ll be able to turn notifications on or off per app.

When you turn the notifications on, you may get an alert from the app asking for permission to your notifications (which you’ll need to approve).

Key Takeaways

Email sync problems can be incredibly frustrating and can result in missing out on important messages from colleagues, family, and friends. 

Fortunately, there are many efficient ways you can use to troubleshoot email syncing issues. 

You now have all the tools you need to get your emails syncing normally again on your Android phone!