Gmail not receiving emails? 12 fixes to try in order
When Gmail is not receiving emails, the message has almost always arrived somewhere. It is sitting in another folder, it was turned away because the account is full, or your phone simply hasn't synced. Work through the checks below in order: the first four solve most cases, and each takes under a minute.
Fixes inside your Gmail account
1. Check your storage
Every Google account gets 15 GB shared between Gmail, Drive and Photos. When it is full, new mail is rejected and the sender gets a bounce message. Look at the bottom-left of the Gmail window, or visit one.google.com/storage. If you are at the limit, our guide to freeing up Gmail storage shows the quickest things to delete.
2. Look in Spam and All Mail
In the left menu, click More, then open Spam and All Mail. All Mail shows archived messages too, which is where mail goes when a swipe on your phone archives it by accident. If you find the email in Spam, open it and press Not spam.
3. Check the Promotions, Social and Updates tabs
Gmail sorts newsletters, receipts and notifications away from the Primary tab. Drag a message to Primary and choose "Yes" when asked whether to do this for future messages from that sender.
4. Search for it
Type the sender's address or a word from the subject into the search bar. To include Spam and Trash in the search, add in:anywhere, for example in:anywhere from:billing@example.com.
5. Review your filters
Go to Settings (gear icon) > See all settings > Filters and Blocked Addresses. Look for any filter that says "Skip the Inbox" or "Delete it" and matches more than you meant it to. On the same page, check the blocked list at the bottom and unblock anyone who shouldn't be there.
6. Check forwarding
In Settings, open Forwarding and POP/IMAP. If forwarding is on with "delete Gmail's copy", every message leaves for another address. If you didn't set this up yourself, treat it as a warning sign and read our list of signs your email was hacked.
7. See whether another mail app is removing your mail
An old desktop program that connects over POP can download messages and delete them from Gmail. In the same Forwarding and POP/IMAP page, either disable POP or set it to "keep Gmail's copy in the Inbox".
Fixes for Gmail on a phone
8. Turn sync on
Android: Gmail app > menu > Settings > your account > tick Sync Gmail. iPhone: if you use the Apple Mail app, go to Settings > Apps > Mail > Mail Accounts > Fetch New Data and switch on Push or choose a short fetch interval.
9. Check the connection and power settings
Turn off Airplane mode, Low Power Mode and Data Saver for a moment, then pull down on the inbox to refresh. Battery savers stop background sync, so mail only appears when you open the app.
10. Update or reset the app
Install the latest Gmail update from the App Store or Play Store. On Android you can also clear the app's cache in Settings > Apps > Gmail > Storage. If you changed your Google password recently, remove the account from the phone and add it again; an old saved password silently stops mail from arriving.
When the problem is on the sender's side
11. Ask the sender what they see
If only one person or company can't reach you, ask whether they received a bounce message and what the code was. A typo in your address is the most common cause. A bounce with a number such as 550 or 552 points to the reason; we explain them in email bounce codes.
12. Check whether Gmail itself is down
Outages are rare, but they happen. The Google Workspace Status Dashboard shows a live status for Gmail. If it reports a problem, wait: delayed mail is delivered once the service recovers.
Gmail not receiving emails but can send
This exact pattern nearly always means one of three things: storage is full (fix 1), a filter or forwarding rule is moving incoming mail (fixes 5 and 6), or, on a custom domain using Google Workspace, the domain's MX records are pointing somewhere else. Sending doesn't depend on any of those, which is why it keeps working.
Not getting sign-up or verification codes?
Codes are automated mail, so they are filtered harder than messages from people. Check Spam and the Updates tab first, then wait two minutes before pressing "resend", because each new request cancels the previous code. More in verification email not arriving.
Common questions
Why did my Gmail suddenly stop receiving emails?
A full account is the top cause of a sudden stop, followed by a filter or forwarding rule that was added recently.
Why am I not getting emails from one specific sender?
They are probably blocked, caught by a filter, or landing in Spam. Search in:anywhere from:their@address.com to find out which.
Are emails lost while my storage was full?
Yes. They were bounced back to the sender, not held in a queue. Free up space and ask the sender to send them again.
Can a Gmail account stop working because it wasn't used?
Google may delete a personal account that has been inactive for two years. Signing in and reading an email counts as activity.
The bottom line
Check storage, Spam, All Mail and filters, in that order, from a computer. If the mail is there, the fault is your phone's sync. If not, ask the sender for the bounce message.