Gmail IMAP Mail Issues

A quick note to let Google Apps Business and Enterprise users know that Google is experiencing (and acknowledging) a known issue with their IMAP mail servers as of 3:30pm EST today. In short, the issue at hand is slow, and sometimes failing, responses from the mail server.

If you’re an Apple Mail user like myself you may be seeing the triangle with the exclamation point next to your gmail account(s) stating:

There may be a problem with the mail server or network. Verify the settings for account “Gmail” or try again.

The server returned the error: Too many simultaneous connections. (Failure)

After speaking with a representative he stated that they (Google) are working on it and that they’re hoping to resolve the issue in the next 48-72 hours. Below is the canned email response from the Google team.

Thanks for your patience.

After reviewing the information you provided, we believe that you may be affected by a known issue on our end.  Here are some details about the issue that may be affecting you:

Description:
Affected users are unable to retrieve emails via imap.gmail.com. The error message returned is “System error (Failure)”.

How to diagnose:
Attempt to sync your Google Apps account via IMAP. You will receive a System error (Failure) message.

Workaround:
The workarounds available are to:
– use the Gmail web interface (recommended)
– use POP to retrieve emails from a client
– use Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook if you’re using Outlook on Windows
– For iOS users, you can also download the Gmail application for iOS