Gmail is Slow — 2015 Edition

Gmail is Slow — 2015 Edition

If gmail is still slow for you in 2015, you are not alone: gmail is slow remains a consistent search term on google trends:

gmail is slow -- google trends
gmail is slow — google trends

As it turns out, my 9 Tips To Fix Slow Gmail Load Times post is one of the all top posts on this blog.  But it was written in 2012 and it is time for an update.  If, like many others, you are still having problems in 2015, here are some things you can try:

If you are having loading speed issues with the entire gmail.com site ….

Your network connection may be the problem.   Try:

  1. Switching to your 5GHz network, if your router supports it.
  2. Try entering HTML mode.
  3. Do a speed test — If your network speed is  less than 2 Mbps, you will need to find a better network connection or switch to an IMAP-based connection like Sparrow, Mac Mail, or Thunderbird.

If your inbox (or search page) load time is slow …

  1. Decrease the number of mails shown on one page.  You can do this via General Settings via the ‘maximum page size’ setting.
  2. Try decreasing the the total space of the items you’ve got stored in your Google Account.  Some notes on this :
    • If you search for‘before:1/1/2012′ you can select all mails that were sent before that date.  Another useful search is ‘has:attachment’, which will find any emails with files attached.
    • Some folks have written in to tell me that they’ve started a completely new gmail account (for speed), retained the old account (for searching), and set an auto-forward from their old address (to keep the same email address).

If your browser gets stuck in a redirect loop …

  1. Delete your cookies and temporary internet files
  2. Disable browser plugins.
  3. Switch to a modern browser, like Google Chrome.
  4. Disable anti-virus software (or whitelist gmail.com)

If all else fails …

  1. Use a third party email client, like Sparrow, Mac Mail, or Thunderbird.
  2. Use Google Inbox
  3. Find a faster internet connection.
  4. Try a different web browser.
  5. Try this troubleshooter that Google recently launched.

It’s a real shame that so many people are still having problems with gmail being slow in 2015 — If you’ve found something that works for you, please tweet me.

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