As an administrator, you can enable your users to work in Gmail offline. That way, when internet access is unavailable, you and your users can still read, write, search, delete, and label email messages. Later, when a connection becomes available, Gmail automatically updates and sends messages in your outbox and downloads any new messages to your Inbox.
By default, Gmail stores the last 30 days of mail, including attachments. Spam and trash are not stored.
Requirements
To work offline in Gmail for Google Workspace:
- You need the latest version of the Chrome browser, version 61 or later. Gmail web offline replaces the Gmail offline Chrome app.
- Gmail must be open in a single tab in your browser.
- An admin must enable offline Gmail in your Admin console (steps below).
Step 1: Enable offline Gmail access for users
Before users can enable Gmail offline in their Gmail settings, an admin must enable offline capabilities in your Admin console.
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Sign in to your Google Admin console.
Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).
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In the Admin console, go to Menu
Apps
Google Workspace
- Scroll to Gmail web offline.
- Check the Enable Gmail web offline box.
- (Optional) If you want offline content deleted for all users when they sign out of their Google account, check the Force deletion of offline data on log out of Google account box. This prevents users from keeping content on their local devices.
- Click Save.
Changes can take up to 24 hours but typically happen more quickly. Learn more
Step 2: Have users enable Gmail offline
Users who want to work offline need to enable Gmail offline individually in their Gmail settings.
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From your inbox, choose Settings
- Click the Offline tab.
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Check the Enable offline mail box.
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Under Security, select one of the following to indicate how to handle offline content when you sign out of your Google account. (If your administrator set the option to delete offline content for all users when they sign out of their accounts, this option is not available to individual users.)
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Keep offline data on my computer. Data stored on your device will not be deleted when signing out of your Google account or when changing your password. To delete account data from your device disable offline mail and save changes.
- Remove offline data from my computer. Data will need to be resynced to your computer when signing back into Google.com Mail. It may take a few hours to resync the mailbox.
Note: If an admin enables the option to remove offline content when users sign out of their account, users don't have the option to change this in Gmail Settings.
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- Click Save changes.
Open Gmail offline
You can open Gmail offline from Chrome in the following ways:
- Create a bookmark for your inbox, and then use the bookmark to open Gmail when you're offline.
- When you don't have an internet connection, open a Chrome browser window and type mail.google.com.
Set offline preferences
By default, Gmail offline stores the latest 30 days of email and attachments on your local device, and Chrome allows Gmail to use up to 60% of your available hard drive space for offline content. To reduce the amount of storage space your offline content uses, uncheck the Download attachments box in Sync settings or reduce the storage duration to 7 days.
- In Gmail, click Settings
- Click the Offline tab.
- Choose a value in Sync settings.
Values are 7, 30, and 90 days. - (Optional) Uncheck the Download attachments box.
- Click Save changes.
Troubleshoot common issues
Take note of common issues you might experience while working in Gmail offline.
Offline capabilities stop working
- If an admin disables Gmail offline for a domain, it becomes unavailable to individual users, even if they've enabled it in their Gmail settings.
- Gmail offline services only work when Gmail is open in one tab. Check your browser tabs and close any additional tabs running Gmail.
Gmail won’t open or quits unexpectedly
If Gmail won’t load or stops working, try clearing your browsing history:
- From your Chrome browser, choose More tools
- Check the Browsing history box and click Clear Data.
Gmail offline is out of storage space
If your mail contains a large number of attachments, uncheck the Download attachments box in Sync settings and reduce the storage duration to 7 days (see steps 1 through 5 above).
