Outlook, Gmail syncing issue is over

Google confirmed that its Gmail had problems with Microsoft’s Outlook service for almost 10 hours due to syncing issues. This prevented Gmail users from receiving emails on their apps under their logged-in Outlook or Hotmail accounts. Google said its effect was “across all device platforms.” Fortunately, the issue is now resolved.

According to Google, the problem did not have any relation to Gmail application authentication. Instead, the company explained that it occurred due to Microsoft’s Internet Message Access Protocol servers.

“IMAP syncs with Microsoft servers are experiencing failures causing sync issues with Gmail application,” Google explained in its report. “Customers accessing Outlook or Hotmail email accounts on Gmail application across all device platforms are unable to sync new messages.”

Users shared the incident on Twitter and even called the attention of Outlook. However, it said it was “not tracking any issues” on its end and suggested users directly access their emails using the actual Outlook app, causing more uproar from the Gmail community. 

On a positive note, Google said it had been communicating with Microsoft to address the issue.

“Our engineering team is currently working in partnership with the Microsoft team to investigate the email sync issue via IMAP,” assured Google. “Microsoft team has acknowledged that other large mail providers beyond Gmail are also not able to sync with Microsoft’s IMAP server. They are working on the issue.”

The issue was opened on Feb 22 at 5:10 PM UTC and was resolved on Feb 23 at 2:57 AM UTC.

“The Gmail sync issue with Microsoft servers when using IMAP is now resolved,” confirmed Google. “Thank you for your patience while we resolved the problem.”