Your phone's been sitting idle for hours and you haven't heard a single tone for incoming email. If this is unusual, you might have an issue: your Android phone is likely not syncing your emails, and so you aren't actually receiving any messages on your device.
Issues like this can make you miss out on important emails, which can be a costly issue if you don't resolve it quickly. Luckily, we'll show you ways to fix when your email won't sync on your Android device.
Most email clients have automatic sync enabled so you can receive emails without any delays. However, if you have changed any settings pertaining to email sync, that can affect how apps sync your emails.
You can check if this is why your emails aren't syncing by enabling the auto-sync option in your email app. The app should then automatically look for new emails and let you know when a new message arrives.
You can enable auto-sync from the settings menu of your email app. Here we show how to do it in Gmail, but the steps should be similar for most other email clients:
- Launch your email app, such as Gmail.
- Tap the hamburger icon at the top-left corner and select Settings.
- Choose an email account, if you have multiple accounts added to your phone.
- Scroll down and ensure the Sync Gmail or a similar option is enabled.
2. Perform a Manual Email Sync
If automatic sync won't work for some reason, your phone has an option to perform a manual sync. This forces your email app to sync, find, and download new emails to your device.
This option works just like the regular sync, except you need to manually go into the settings and tap an option. To perform it:
- Open the Settings app on your phone and select Accounts.
- Choose the email account where you have sync issues.
- Tap the Account sync option to view all features that you can sync.
- Tap the three-dots at the top-right corner of your screen and select Sync now.
- Your phone will begin to sync your data, including your emails.
- If any new emails are available, you should see them in your email client.
3. Clear Your Android Device's Storage
When your phone downloads an email, it takes up some space on your phone's memory. If you're running out of storage on your phone, that may be why your emails aren't syncing (especially if you're trying to download an email with a large attachment).
Thankfully, you can fix this by deleting unneeded files from your phone as follows:
- Open the Settings app and tap on Storage.
- You'll see the total and available memory space on your device.
- Tap Free Up Space to find files that you can remove to make space on your device.
Not all Android phones have this option to find and remove space-hogging files. If yours doesn't have it, find out other ways to clear space on Android.
4. Ensure the Correct Password Is Entered in Your Email App
When you change the password for your email account, you must update it in the email app on your phone as well. If you don't do so, your phone won't be able to sync new emails, as it simply doesn't have the authorization to do so.
You can fix this issue by opening your email app and entering your new password. The app will then connect to the email servers and fetch new messages for you.
Remember to update the password everywhere else you use that account whenever you change the password for it.
5. Clear the Cache and Data for Your Email App
Like all apps on your device, your email app saves data and cache files on your phone. While these files don't normally cause any issues, it's worth clearing them to see if that fixes the email sync issue on your Android device.
Deleting data and cache files won't delete your emails; your emails are stored on your email provider's server. To clear cache:
- Access the Settings app and tap on Apps & notifications.
- Find your email app, like Gmail, and tap on it.
- Tap the Storage option.
- You'll see how much space your email app uses. Tap on Clear Cache to remove cached data. You can also select Clear Storage if you want, but keep in mind this will remove all the app's data from your phone as if you reinstalled it. You'll need to sign in again and perform an initial sync of your messages.
- Open your email app and reconfigure it if needed.
6. Update Your Email App
For best performance, you should keep your apps up to date. If it's been a while since you updated your email app, it's worth looking in the Play Store if an update is available.
New updates fix many existing bugs in the app. If your emails aren't syncing because of such a bug, this will fix the issue for you:
- Launch the Play Store on your phone.
- Search for your email app using the search feature, or open the left sidebar and tap My & games to look for apps with pending updates.
- If an update is available, tap Update to download and install the update.
7. Re-Add the Email Account to Your Email App
If you still haven't found the fix, you may have an issue with email account configuration. In this case, removing and re-adding your account to the app could fix it. This way, you can confirm the settings to make sure nothing is misconfigured.
To do this, you'll need to first remove your email account from the app. Use the options in the app to do that; you can also head to Settings > Accounts, tap an account, and choose Remove account to take it off your phone. Then, re-add the same account using the option in your email client.
8. Enable Notifications for Your Email App
Lastly, it could be that emails are syncing just fine, but your phone isn't sending you notifications for them. You can fix this issue by enabling notifications for your email client:
- Head to Settings > Apps & notifications and tap on your email app (use See all X apps if needed).
- Tap the Notifications option.
- Turn the toggle for all Show notifications options to the On position. Tweak the categories below if you like.
If you've been missing your emails because your phone wasn't syncing them, you should have fixed the issue using the above methods. You're now back on track with your regular emails and work.
Now that your emails are back up and running, you should make sure you're getting the most out of your email app. Have a look at our tips for mobile Gmail for some advice.
