Home » Gmail » Is Your Gmail Running Slow? – Try These 8 Expert Fixes

 

Gmail is certainly one of the highly popular services from Google. With the passage of time, this service has become an integral part of the life of almost every individual who uses it for daily communication. Although it provides many features, sometimes, these exact functionalities reduce its performance. Many users commonly complain about the Gmail slow problem. Either the service gets stuck on the loading screen or takes an enormous time to load. This can be irritating for many users who rely on it to carry out their work-related tasks. However, it’s also possible to enhance its performance. In this article, you’ll find different ways of tackling a slow Gmail. 

Related Post:- Why Gmail Not Sending Emails

 

Gmail Slow? Useful Fixes to Implement

You can make your Gmail fast in many different ways. Follow these methods and speed up its working.

 

1. Archive Your Messages

You don’t need every email in your inbox. You can archive them so that they don’t remain visible. If you archive your messages in Gmail, Gmail will load new messages. In order to archive your email, place your cursor over a specific message. After that, hit the first symbol that comes at the right corner of it. You will see a box having a down arrow. It is the button of ‘Archive.’

Although the email will be deleted from your Gmail inbox, you can still view it by tapping the ‘All Mail‘ option. Like a single email, you can archive multiple emails also. Just tap the checkbox on the left part of the email to archive. Afterward, hit the ‘Archive‘ button present on the toolbar.

 

2. Get Rid of the Chat Window

You might have noticed a chat window at the left part of your Gmail inbox. This window usually slows down the loading of your Gmail inbox. As a result, you will notice Gmail running slow. It also takes a lot of screen space. So, when you remove it, you can view more labels and don’t need to scroll through them all. 

Just press the ‘Gear‘ icon in the top-right part of your inbox. Select ‘Settings‘ and from the tabs on the top of your screen, select ‘Chat.’ As the last step, choose ‘Chat off’ and save your changes.

 

3. Check and Delete the Browsing Data

Often, excessive browsing data like cookies and cache takes up a great amount of your disc space. This usually reduces the performance of Gmail. So if you are wondering why is Gmail so slow, the cause may lie in the excessive browsing data. Follow these points to clear this data in Google Chrome. 

• Go to the browser and tap the three-dot icon. 
• Now choose ‘More Tools‘ followed by ‘Clear browsing data.’
• Go to the ‘Time Range‘ section and choose ‘All Time.’
• See the options of ‘Cookies and other site data,’ ‘Browsing history,’ and ‘Cached images and files.’
• To begin the data clearing process, tap ‘Clear data.’
• After that, open the browser again and see if Gmail is running properly or not. 

 

4. Examine Your Browser and Reset It

It may be that Gmail is running slow because you are using it on an incompatible browser. As a general rule, it’s best to download Google Chrome for Gmail. But if the email service is still running slow on this browser, you can reset it. 

• Launch Google Chrome and tap the three-dot icon. 
• Now choose ‘Settings.’
• Go down and locate the ‘Advanced‘ button. Tap this button. 
• Below the section of ‘Reset and Clean up,’ tap ‘Restore settings to their original defaults.’
• Lastly, tap ‘Reset Settings‘ in the window that comes up.

 

5. Don’t Clutter Your Gmail with Extensions

Are you one of those who have many third-party extensions installed on your Gmail? It can be the reason for Gmail loading slowly. Disable them, and you will instantly experience a reduction in the loading time. 

• In the address bar of your Google Chrome browser, enter ‘Chrome://extensions/.’ 
• Hit Enter, and you will find all the extensions you have installed.
• Toggle off the button for these add-ons in order to deactivate them.
• If your problem resolves, determine the problematic extensions and delete them.

 

6. Minimize Email Conversations in Your Inbox

If you have many emails locally saved on your system, the desktop application that manages them can become slow. So, try to remove all unwanted messages to boost the speed of the application. However, Gmail stores your messages in the cloud. In this case, you can minimize the conversations that are visible. You can scale them back to 15 or 20 so that Gmail doesn’t take much time to show them to you.

• Hit the ‘Gear‘ icon followed by ‘Settings.’
• Now, hit the dropdown beside ‘Maximum page size‘ and choose how many email conversations you want to be displayed in your inbox.
• Scroll at the end of your page and save the changes you have made.

 

7. Employ Gmail’s HTML Version

If you’ve attempted the fixes above but still find your Gmail very slow, you can try using the HTML-only version of this email service. When your Gmail is being loaded, you can see the ‘Load basic HTML (for slow connections) link. When you click this link, Gmail will load in a much simple interface. You can easily perform basic things such as writing and sending an email or deleting a message. If you have some urgent task and your Gmail isn’t loading, you can use this version of Gmail. However, you won’t be able to leverage other features such as scheduling an outgoing email or using various extensions. 

 

8. Limit the Tabs You Use

Gmail categorizes your inbox into various categories such as Updates, Social, Promotions, Primary, and Forums. Sometimes all these tabs can cause Gmail to become slow. To speed it up, you can uncheck the tabs you aren’t using. 

Just go to the ‘See all Settings‘ option and from there to ‘Inbox.’ Remove the tick from the categories you aren’t using and tap ‘Save Changes.’

 

Final Words

The Gmail slow problem is often the result of excessive cache and add-ons. Checking on these things will help you improve the performance of this email. If you find loading problems in Gmail even after implementing these fixes, it’s best to talk to a Gmail support professional.