Sometimes your internet connection is down but you really need to check something in your email account. If you use email on the browser, this is the time when you most miss a standalone mail client like Outlook, right?
If you use Gmail, there is another way to access your email offline and also in your browser (apart from accessing it through the desktop email client). Gmail offers an “Offline” option that uses Google Gears to download emails to your computer and keep them in sync with Gmail’s servers.
This article will talk about both methods of using Gmail when you’re offline – through Gmail’s built-in offline option and through a desktop email client that uses POP or IMAP.
1. Use Gmail and Google Gears Offline Options
Gmail’s Offline preferences let you check your email offline and do everything else you normally do in your Gmail. All activities will be synced to the Gmail server when you are online. The emails you send are stored in the Outbox and sent when you are connected to the internet.
You’ll find the offline option as one of the links in your Gmail Settings navigation bar. Click on it and you will have an option to enable offline mail.
Click that option and then click “Save Changes” at the bottom. You get a pop-up asking you to set up offline access for Gmail.
As mentioned earlier, the offline functionality in Gmail uses Gears and it works on Firefox 1.5+, Internet Explorer 6.0+, and Chrome. There is a “Configure” link as you can see in the screenshot above. This allows you to set your preferences for offline email downloading and syncing. You can also set a maximum attachment size and the labels will be synced.
If you’re using Chrome, when you click next in the box above, you’ll see a pop-up asking you to install Gears. For other browsers, such as internet explorer 8, it may just open a full-fledged window with a large Gears settings icon. Whatever the presentation may be, the bottom line is that you need to install Gears in the next step.
You will see a small box showing the installation status. Chrome also allows you to create shortcuts to quickly access offline messages.
That’s about it. From now on, you will have a small green icon in the top right of Gmail. This icon will show the sync status and whether you are checking your email online or offline. Here is a screenshot describing what those icons mean.
That’s the whole process of setting up offline mail for Gmail using Google Gears.
2. Use a desktop email client (POP/IMAP)
We have talked in great detail about the difference between POP and IMAP email protocols. Both have advantages and disadvantages.
Gmail allows you to access your email using both protocols. You can find the setting in the “Forwarding and POP/IMAP” section of the main Gmail settings page.
If you’re using a desktop mail client like Thunderbird or Outlook to access Gmail and use the POP protocol, you can already access your email offline because the message has already been downloaded to your computer. (See instructions for setting up POP access for Gmail in Thunderbird and Microsoft Outlook)
If you use the IMAP protocol (see how to set up IMAP for Gmail in Thunderbird), for Thunderbird we covered the process of accessing IMAP emails offline.
Similarly, I believe you can also work in offline mode in Outlook, although I have not personally tried that. Outlook, as far as I know, is not known to work well with Gmail in IMAP. If you have used or are using then I would love to know your experience and the exact options you use to check email offline.
That concludes this post on how to access Gmail offline. If you have any tips or tricks to share, listen to them in the comments.
Categories: How to
Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
