We all travel from time to time and if we take a plane we must put our smartphones into airplane mode. When we take the train and go though tunnels, we lose signal and the internet connection interrupts and we can’t read our emails. For this problem, there’s a simple solution: an email program that allows you to read your emails, compose messages and send them once the connection is back. You will need to up POP or IMAP access, then turn off your internet connection and Gmail offline will take care of the rest.
If you’re using Google Chrome, go to the chrome.google.com and look for Gmail offline, then add it to your browser. If your browser is Safari, go to mail.google.com/mail/mu/?mui=ca and set mail.google.com to store data on your computer when you will ask it, then select Allow offline mail under Allow offline mail, and click on Continue.
Accessing Gmail Offline with Google Gears
You can install the Google Gears add-on, which is available for Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox in Windows, Safari, Mozilla Firefox and OmniWeb in Mac OS X 10.5 and Mozilla Firefox in Linux. Open Gmail and go to Settings>Offline tab and enable Offline Mail for this computer, under Offline Mail, then click on Save Changes>Next and you’ll see an authentication dialog. https://mail.google.com should appear because the site’s address is in the authentication dialog. Click on I trust this site and make sure to check Allow it to use Gears. If you’ll click on OK, you’ll have a link to Gmail on your desktop, but it’s recommendable to click Cancel / Never allow this shortcut. Gmail will finish the initial synchronization, then you’ll click on the big X to close the offline status pane. This won’t stop Gmail from downloading emails in the background. To check the synchronization status, you’ll hover the mouse over the offline Gmail icon, which you’ll see in the status bar.
How much data do you want to keep offline?
By default, Gmail might synchronize all mails you’ve sent and received in the past year, plus personalized mailing labels you’ve used for a greater flexibility. However, you can choose manually how recent should be your mails and which labels Gmail offline should keep on your computer by going to Settings > Offline tab and selecting how far in time you want your emails to be available under Recent message range. This can be done under the Download options. You can select a different timeframe for labeled emails (all or individual labels) by going to Change Label Settings and you’ll specify the maximum file size for attachments, then you’ll click on Save Changes and that’s it.
If you’re sharing your computer with a family member or a friend, make sure to delete Gmail’s cached data.
- TFJ
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