Imagine having an email client that doesn’t notify you of received messages. yes, that’s what some gmail users on android experienced recently. If you are among the affected group and gmail notifications are not working for you, be sure to check the solutions listed below.
index:
- check notification settings in app and system settings
- whitelist gmail from system optimization
- check time
- give necessary permissions to gmail
- enable syncing
- clear gmail cache and data
- update app and device firmware
- log out of your google account and log in again
why am i not getting gmail notifications on my phone?
There are several reasons why you are not receiving gmail notifications on your android smartphone. starting with a system error (or gmail error) that some samsung users encounter.
going forward, notifications may be disabled in the app or system optimization measures forcibly prevent gmail from working in the background. or maybe your gmail inbox is not updating.
solution 1: manage tags
The only solution that seems to solve this problem for most users is to change the way you manage labels within the gmail app. this is what you should do:
- Open the Gmail app.
- Open the hamburger menu, and go to Settings.
- Tap your email address.
- Go to Manage labels.
- Now, tap any mail type you want to change.
- Tap Sync messages, and choose Last 30 days.
*many thanks to david stone who showed us this solution in the comments.
Solution 2: Check the notification settings in the app and system settings
Let’s start by thoroughly inspecting both the system and the notification settings within the app. there is little chance that certain alerts will be disabled by mistake or system error. also make sure the dnd (do not disturb) is disabled. See our article on managing notifications in android for more details on how to manage alerts.
Follow these instructions to check your gmail notification settings:
- Open Gmail.
- Tap on the hamburger menu and then open Settings.
- Choose General settings.
- Tap Manage notifications.
- Ensure that everything is enabled.
- Open Mail under your Gmail address and make sure that notifications are enabled.
- Reboot your device and check for improvements.
solution 3: whitelist gmail from system optimization
The race between battery life and sot has led many OEMs to create rather annoying system utilities that tend to kill background apps.
This comes with the intention of making everything smoother while also saving some battery power, especially when idle. however, these utilities tend to kill some important applications and thus prevent important push notifications from arriving.
The procedure may differ depending on your device (samsung, huawei and xiaomi have this background optimization built in).
solution 4: check the time
Another important thing is to make sure the time and date are set correctly. the best way to do this is by setting the time zone automatically, based on your geolocation. this should avoid problems with certain applications.
here is how to enable automatic time in android:
- Open Settings.
- Choose System.
- Open Date & time.
- Ensure that “Use network-provided time” and “Use network-provided time zone” are enabled.
Solution 5: Grant necessary permissions to gmail
Go ahead and try and set gmail as the default app and make sure it starts automatically. this is generally far from being a necessity for an email client to work on android.
However, we read a lot of reports from samsung galaxy s10 users having problems with gmail. for some, adjusting permissions and using gmail as the default client helped.
Follow these steps to check gmail permissions:
- Open Settings.
- Choose Apps and then select App manager, Manage apps, or All apps (depends on the device’s manufacturer).
- Locate and open Gmail.
- Choose Permissions.
- Grant all necessary permissions.
- Now, get back to the list of all apps, tap on the 3-dot menu and open Default apps.
- Set Gmail as the default email app.
Solution 6: Enable Sync
This may sound like a shot in the dark solution, but the craziest things happened by mistake. i.e. if gmail sync is disabled by mistake, now emails will not reach you.
This doesn’t apply exclusively to gmail notifications not working, but it’s still an essential troubleshooting step worth following.
here is where to check if gmail sync is enabled:
- Open Settings.
- Choose Accounts & sync.
- Ensure that Auto-sync data is enabled.
- Then select Google.
- Locate Gmail and ensure that sync for Gmail is indeed enabled.
solution 7: clear cache and gmail data
Another thing you can do is clear the cache and data on your android phone. this will reset the app and revert it to its original state. If you have any non-gmail addresses linked to your gmail account, you will need to set them up again after this procedure.
follow these instructions to clear gmail cache and data on android:
- Navigate to Settings > Apps > All apps > Gmail again.
- Select Storage.
- Clear the cache first and then clear the data.
- Reboot your device.
Solution 8: Update the app and device firmware
In the future, make sure your gmail app is up to date. also, do the same with your phone’s firmware. when the issue occurred massively for hundreds of samsung users, the issue was fixed with a patch.
both the operating system and the respective applications should be updated automatically by default. however, you can check for updates manually by following these instructions:
- open google play store and search for gmail.
- if an update is available, install it.
- now, open settings > system.
- check for system updates and install them too.
Solution 9: Sign out of your google account and sign back in
Finally, you can try removing your google account and adding it back. that way a potential gmail outage could stop happening and your push notifications should come through. just make sure to back up your data before logging out.
Here’s how to remove your google account and add it back:
- Open Settings.
- Select Accounts & sync.
- Select Google.
- Tap on the menu at the bottom and remove the account.
- Reboot your device, add the account and check for improvements with Gmail notifications.
In addition to this, you can also try and unlink the gmail accounts on your phone (if you’re using multiple accounts, of course), and see if that makes a difference.
That said, we can call it a wrapper. thanks for reading and we certainly hope that one of these solutions helped you if you are not getting gmail notifications on your android phone. If you have anything to add or remove, please do so in the comments section below. We look forward to your comments.