Gmail connection timeout when retrieving messages

[killme]

PP v 5.6.3
Gmail IMAP connection

For the past week, one of my Gmail accounts has been very slow. On the PP status bar, it says "(Gmail account): Retrieving Messages." After a few minutes PP shows an error for the account saying "Timed Out" in the Error Overview window.

New emails from this account are still showing up in the Mail window. It seems to download at least a few messages before it times out. My other Gmail accounts are not having this problem at all. I am using an app password for this account. I switch it to Oauth2, but the problem remained, so I switched back to app password.

It seems as if Gmail is throttling my connection for this account. I stopped having PP check it for a couple days, but that didn't seem to get it working again. Using the web version of Gmail has no issues so maybe it's IMAP related.

[mjs]

In most cases (server) "timeout" errors self-resolve in time. Obviously a week is too long for this error to persist and is an outlier in this respect considering that you have presumably the same settings for this account as you have for all the other Gmail accounts that do not exhibit this issue.

1) How many messages does this specific problematic Gmail account have in its In-box?

2) Would you please post your "Error Overview" results in this topic from in the Error Overview Window (that may provide additional helpful info) - press the 'Copy' button and paste the information here in this forum topic in your reply and please be sure to remove personal (private) information in the Error, such as the account name.

3) Would you please do the following:
3A) Scroll down to the bottom of your Client List pane (to the left of the PP main interface) and do a right-click in an empty area below the list (so that you're not right clicking on an account). You should get the following (as illustrated in screen-shot below) if you have done this successfully where you will see "Server info (all)" (as pointed out) instead of just "Server info" in the context menu.

this is the context menu you'll see if a right-click menu is displayed via clicking in an empty area between accounts

PIC-1 Server info all included in context menu.png (3.68 KiB) Viewed 7577 times

3B) Then click on this option and wait for window to display with data -- please either post a screen-shot of your results (similar to the screen-shot below) or post the results via a copy/paste of the data to this topic by selecting the data and doing a copy (right-click "copy") and paste to this topic (right-click "paste"). This will provide similar data as in the screen-shot below (where you see "[All accounts] - Server info" in the window Header).

Server info (all) example

PIC-1 Server info data.png (7.07 KiB) Viewed 7577 times

Thanks in advance for providing the additional info.

[mjs]

As an afterthought (not sure if this would help) - you could also try doing a right-click on that specific Gmail account (that's exhibiting the "time out" error) and if you observe the "Disconnect" option listed in the context menu (toward the top of the menu, typically the 3rd option) and performing this option by doing a (left) click on that option to see if this might help as far as when PP performs subsequent "Mail Checks".

[killme]

1. PP says total messages is 5027.

2. Error Overview window
--- Version ---
OS: Windows 11 (x64)
POP Peeper: 5.6.3.0
Webmail: 5.1.0.0
SSL: 3.0.16.1
IMAP: 5.6.3.0
RSS: 5.4.5.0
SendMail: 5.6.3.0
Notification Voice: 5.4.5.0
Profile Picture: 5.6.3.0
AntiJunk: 5.6.3.0
Spell Checker: 5.6.3.0
Trusted Sites: 5.6.3.0
PPTweaker: 5.6.3.0
Sent Mail Viewer: 5.4.5.0
PPbackup: 5.4.5.0
PPextras: 5.4.5.0
Updater: 1.0.0.0

Program folder: C:\Program Files (x86)\POP Peeper\
Ini file: C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\POP Peeper\poppeeper.ini
Data folder: C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\POP Peeper\

--- Error ---
gmail-account [1000: IMAP] ['imap.gmail.com' (993) SSL: 1] [Smtp: 'smtp.gmail.com' (465) SSL: 1] [oauth: 0] [consec: 36] [enabled: 1]
- Timed Out


3. [All Acounts] - Server Info window
[All accounts]

Session start: Tuesday, May 06, 2025 14:18:06
Ticks: 651

Accounts: 17 (enabled: 15)

Messages: 48759
Server size: 2710142 KB
Mem size: 359188 KB
File size: 3092893 KB

Last DB Maint (global): 05/06/25 08:07:43 (5 days)

[mjs]

Considering you've got over 5K messages in just the one specific account that has the "time out" issue - I'm thinking (by looking at the total number of messages for a total of 17 accounts that is just under 49K) that this problematic account has a considerably larger number of messages than most if not virtually all of your other accounts - is that about right?

Jeff will be looking at this data tomorrow and I'm sure be posting his comments regarding your issue in accordance to the data you have provided.

It would be best to wait on what he will have to say about the info. That said, (it would appear to me) getting your (In-box) messages number down considerably by moving a large number of them out of the In-box and to another folder for this problematic account would likely be helpful for one thing.

I've noticed there is some other data in your "Server Info" window that Jeff may want to discuss with you as well. So I'd recommend waiting until you hear from Jeff sometime tomorrow concerning your issue.

Thanks for the feedback.

[Jeff]

I've seen this with at least one of my gmail accounts in the past. I can't tell you why it happens (just complete guesses such as they're having a problem with the particular server that hosts your account) but it should eventually return to normal.

And as per mjs' line of thinking, it can only help to reduce the number of messages in the account. What I'd recommend is logging into gmail with your webbrowser, press the empty checkbox *above* your message list, and it will then give you the option to "select all # messages"; do so, then use "move to" (create a new folder or use an existing). If you'd like to keep some of your most recent messages, go into the folder you just moved the messages to and then select/move a page at a time back to the inbox.

If you have Pro/Plus Pack, you could still access the messages in that folder; but maybe keep it disabled until you find that it's working properly again.

[killme]

I deleted some messages and got it to under 4K. I applied a new label for my all of my inbox messages for testing purposes. I was planning to archive them, and with the new label I could easily find them and "unarchive" them later if I needed to. Before I could archive them, I noticed the connection started working again, and I haven't had any problems with it for the last few days.

I have 2 other Gmail accounts with 19K messages and 8K messages. I guess it if it happens again, I'll know what to do for future reference.

Thank you for the help.

[Jeff]

Glad to hear it's working again