How to use, read & respond emails via Gmail offline mode?

How to read, respond, delete, use Gmail Offline Mode on Computer, Android, iOS

Here’s a quick outline of the steps to enable Gmail Offline mode.

Open your Gmail account.
Press ‘Gear’ icon and select ‘Settings’.
Click on ‘Offline’ tab then tick on ‘Enable offline mail’
Select the number of sync days, and whether you want to save or remove the cache data.
Finally, press ‘Done’ button and wait for Gmail to sync data.

Gmail is one of the widely used services to send and receive messages, files, and attachments. Most of all are well familiar with this. But so far, we can only access or send emails when we are connected to the internet. Or, we need to use additional email clients like Outlook, Thunderbird. Previously, Google itself had a separate Chrome app on the Chrome Web Store for Gmail Offline use. However, this app is deprecated and no longer available. But now, Google introduced an offline feature as part of the web app itself; Gmail Offline Mode.

What if we are traveling and there’s no internet connection but we need to access Gmail? Can Gmail be used offline? Yes, we sure can! We can use Gmail offline to search, read, and respond (yeah, keep reading to discover how to) to emails even if we are not connected to the internet.

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How to enable Gmail Offline on Windows or macOS?

One thing to note is that Gmail Offline can be used only using Chrome Browser. Users who use other browsers like Firefox, Opera, UC Browser, Brave, etc. have to wait for a while till Google enables this service.

STEP 1: If you do not have a Chrome browser, download the Chrome browser.

STEP 2: Log in to your Gmail account. Do not use Incognito mode.

STEP 3: On the top-right corner you will see a gear icon. Click on it, select ‘Settings’.

STEP 4: You will be redirected to the ‘Settings’ page. On the menu, there’s the Offline tab. Click on Offline.

STEP 5: Then tick on ‘Enable offline mail’. More setting options will be displayed.

STEP 6: On the Sync setting, select the number of days you prefer [7, 30, 90]. If you want to download the attachment, check on ‘Download Attachments’.

STEP 7: For security, you can either keep offline data on your computer or remove then. Tick on any option that is feasible for you.

STEP 8: Click on ‘Save Changes’.

When you click on ‘Save changes’, Gmail will reload automatically and the offline sync will begin. You can check the sync progress by clicking on the sync icon as shown below.

When the offline sync is complete, Ready for Offline will appear.

How to use Gmail Offline?

To use Gmail offline, go to mail.google.com or you can create a bookmark of your Gmail inbox to make accessing your email offline easier. Bookmarks for Gmail offline use can be created by opening your Gmail account, press CTRL + D or you can manually bookmark by clicking ‘Star’ sign on the right of the address bar.

Now that you’ve bookmarked, you can easily access Gmail offline by clicking on the bookmark you have just created.
You can read and search the synced mails. When you respond to a mail offline, the message will automatically go into a ‘new outbox’ and sent as soon as connected to the internet.

How to turn off Gmail offline?

You can turn off Gmail offline mode if you do not want to use it. Follow the step below to disable the offline mode.

STEP 1: Log in to your Gmail account.

STEP 2: On the top-right corner you will see a gear icon. Click on it, select ‘Settings’.

STEP 3: You will be redirected to the ‘Settings’ page. On the menu, there’s the Offline tab. Click on Offline. Uncheck ‘Enable offline mail’ checkbox.

Now, offline Gmail features will be turned off for your account. The previous offline data saved in your computer will not get deleted by disabling the offline mode. You have to delete it manually.

How to remove your Gmail offline data?

When you use the Gmail offline feature, the offline data will be saved in your computer. You have to delete the offline data manually. Follow the steps below to delete offline data:

STEP 1: Open Google Chrome. On the top-right corner, there is a 3-dot menu. Click on it, choose ‘Settings’.

STEP 2: Scroll down, then click on ‘Advanced’.

STEP 3: Under ‘Privacy and Security’, click on ‘Clear browsing data’ and the following tab will appear.

STEP 4: Under the time range, select ‘All time’. Tick on all the given options, press on ‘Clear data’.

This will clear all your cookies and cached data. The saved offline Gmail data will be deleted from your computer as well.

How to use Gmail offline on Android or iOS?

Not only on PC, you can also use Gmail Offline on your smartphone as well. Follow the instruction given below to enable Gmail Offline on your device.

Open the Gmail app, tap on the hamburger icon on the top-left hand corner as shown below. This will open the Gmail settings.

Then under the settings tap on the account you want to enable Gmail. This will open up the following settings.

Tick on ‘Data Usage’ and choose the number of days to sync the mail as well. Then tap on OK. Now your data will be synced on the device.

We are sure now you are completely aware of how to use Gmail Offline services without any additional software. If you are traveling and always access emails on-the-go, you can make the best out of this.

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