Outlook gmail sync takes forever

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Outlook 2016 very slow to sync with Gmail. Worse, trying to use define/send-receive to sync certain folders has no effect whatsoever. “Trash” is syncing and nothing I do stops it. Finally when I right click on a mail folder  and select show imap folders, the program freezes. I’ve tried a number of suggested fixes, even had a tech spend an hour with program. There is clearly something wrong with the communication protocols. Net connection solid and fast. Something in Outlook is off. Tried a repair as well, and had the same result. Need an Outlook expert. Thanks.

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F A Kramer

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Welcome to my world. I have the latest Outlook as part of Microsoft 365. Exact same behavior. Often MS Outlook takes minutes to sync my folders, even includes the trash folder. Then, sometimes very quick, and even appears not to sync at all. Also, sometimes, Outlook will not open to its “home screen” when the icon on the taskbar is clicked, but Task Manager says it is loaded. MS perhaps has more important things to work on, like advertising everywhere.

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@F A Kramer I had a client with the same issue not opening. Found this and the registry entry worked. No more complaints.
https://www.slipstick.com/problems/outlook-exe-continues-running-after-you-exit-outlook/

If you use an IMAP account in Outlook 2016 and newer, Microsoft is investigating an issue where outlook doesn’t close properly. There is a registry key to use as a workaround.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\IMAP
DWORD: AllowLOGOUTWithoutOK
Value: 1

 

2 users thanked author for this post.

RetiredGeek, windbg

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I’m giving this one a try. I’ll report back if I see a difference.

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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If you log into your Google account using your browser and then use GMail through the web browser, does that work fine?

For your GMail account on Outlook are you using the same password as your Google account or are you using a separate Google application specific password just for Outlook email? (modern auth (OAuth2) verses basic auth)

Is your Outlook OST file(s) backed up? Back it up before trying more dangerous steps.  You don’t want to loose any email.   (OST/PST files can become too corrupted, but typically Outlook lets you know.)

Windows 10 22H2 desktops & laptops on Dell, HP, ASUS; No servers, no domain.

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As to the slowness, read NeilTicktin post at
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook_com/forum/all/super-slow-gmail-imap-sync-glitch/82c97fb8-46e3-4fe6-93d5-af55f28a313c

Google THROTTLES your account — even the paid ones — once you’ve moved a paltry 500MB of data (including attachments).

Worse yet, it can be unreliable on sync — with varying results in message counts, etc… over IMAP with not only Outlook 2016 for Mac, but Apple Mail as well.

How do I know this? We found these out the hard way when doing the massive benchmarking project earlier this year to compare Outlook 2016 to Outlook 2011. See http://labs.mactech.com/2015/04/14/outlook-benchmarks/ for the article if you’d like.

I believe it as I’ve seen it take multiple tries to fully sync using other archiving programs in addition to Outlook.

This link may help. Haven’t tested it.  https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/2217882-gmail-imap-with-outlook-2016-2019-very-slow-synching-subscribed-folders

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Thanks most of all for the suggestions. The sync is still slow, I can’t unsubscribe “trash,” but Outlook 2016 does the job albeit in its own time. I’m thinking of setting up Gmail up and running in Chrome, from which you can one-click to google contacts and calendar. It appears the three apps can be synced with iphone. Also have been reading about SyncGene. Trying to find someone you uses it regularly. Thanks again

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Hi,
I had the same issue of slow syncing for Gmail on Outlook. What worked for me was changing Server Port numbers:
Incoming Server IMAP – 993, Use this type of connection: SSL/TLS
Outgoing Server SMTP – 587, Use this type of connection: STARTTLS

Next, went to Task Manager, Right clicked Microsoft Outlook, Select “Go to Details” (or you can go directly into “Details” tab; Find the Outlook process line, and right click – from menu options, “Set Priority” as High (is usually normal).

Then restart Outlook, My Gmail on outlook now syncs very fast, never seen it this fast

 

 

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But if you then restart Outlook, you will find that its priority is back to normal. Setting the priority to High only seems to be applied to the current process, which ends when you restart.

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