Gmail isn't working in Outlook all of a sudden

Question

Gmail isn't working in Outlook all of a sudden

Mathilda Navias 0

I've had a gmail account I access via Outlook for years, along with several non-gmail accounts. All of a sudden, the gmail account isn't working. It's not getting all my emails (I've checked it against the account directly on the web).

I get a banner across the top of the Outlook screen: Your account [account name].gmail.com needs attention, please sign in to use your account. Button: Sign in via browser.

Sorry the description below is so long, but I'm trying to include all the pertinent info.

When I click on the "sign in" button, it brings up a popup window with "Adding this place to your Office account..." which shows a progress bar that goes on forever and never finishes. When I click the Cancel button on that, I get a popup that says: Google - IMAP. Sorry, we could not sign you in to Google - IMAP. Please try again later. Button: OK.

At the same time that window shows up, I automatically go to a web site at https://accounts.google.com/signin/oauth/id? etc. that says, Sign in to Microsoft apps & services. Google will allow Microsoft apps & services to access this info about you

Name and profile picture
Email address

Review Microsoft apps & services's Privacy Policy and Terms of Service to understand how Microsoft apps & services will process and protect your data. To make changes at any time, go to your Google Account. Learn more about Sign in with Google.

Two buttons: Cancel and Continue.

When I click Continue, it goes to another web page that says, Microsoft apps & services wants access to your Google Account. Select what Microsoft apps & services can access.

Read, compose, send, and permanently delete all your email from Gmail. See access details. Make sure you trust Microsoft apps & services. Learn why you're not seeing links to Microsoft apps & services's Privacy Policy or Terms of Service. Review Microsoft apps & services's Privacy Policy and Terms of Service to understand how Microsoft apps & services will process and protect your data.

To make changes at any time, go to your Google Account. Learn how Google helps you share data safely.

Two buttons: Cancel and Continue.

When I click Continue, it processes for a while and then shows a screen with the Firefox logo (my browser) that has a banner across the top: Your connection may not be private. Learn more. The main text says: Unable to connect. Firefox can’t connect to the server at localhost:8011. Button: Try again

Clicking Try Again just takes me to the same screen again.

I've found on the web that this can occur when trying to ADD a gmail account to Outlook, but this gmail account has been set up and working for years in Outlook. In February, Google got rid of the ability to manually set IMAP to on or off. It's supposed to be on all the time. How do I get Outlook and gmail to work together correctly? The only thing I can think of that may have affected it is using Norton Utilities to clean up my computer.

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2 answers

Your answer

Answer 1

Hornblower409 16,580

@Mathilda Navias said

I've found on the web that this can occur when trying to ADD a gmail account to Outlook, but this gmail account has been set up and working for years in Outlook.

You are correct. But in your case something similar is the the first thing to try. This will remove all your cached GMail authentication data so you can do a clean re-authentication.

From: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/support/known-issues/unable-to-add-a-gmail-account-to-classic-outlook

Close Outlook
Do the steps under "Manual Workaround"
(For Step #2, stop when you have done sub-step 5. You don't need to do any Registry stuff)

Start Outlook and it should give you that same Account Needs Attention or take you straight to the Google Authentication browser window. Go thru the same steps as before, but this time it might work.

If it still fails, come back here and we'll dig even deeper.

Do NOT remove/delete the existing GMail account from Outlook.

If you have any local "This Computer Only" folders (e.g. Calendar, Contacts) they will be lost. If we do have to delete and re-add the account, I'll give you instructions on exporting this data first.

Mathilda Navias 0 Reputation points

2026-10-10T14:07:35.54+00:00

Thanks for this. I'm on a desktop running Windows 11. Following your directions and the ones on the website you linked, I got as far as the Security & Sign-in screen. The instructions in the "Manual Workaround" say "Scroll down to Your connections to third-party apps & services and select Microsoft apps & services." There is no "Your connections" on the screen. The closest thing is "Linked Apps", which doesn't list Microsoft.
Mathilda Navias 0 Reputation points

2026-10-10T14:09:41.8366667+00:00

Thanks for this. I'm on a desktop running Windows 11. Following your directions and the ones on the website you linked, I got as far as the Security & Sign-in screen. The instructions in the "Manual Workaround" say "Scroll down to Your connections to third-party apps & services and select Microsoft apps & services." There is no "Your connections" on the screen. The closest thing is "Linked Apps", which doesn't list Microsoft.
Hornblower409 16,580 Reputation points

2026-10-10T15:43:01.5666667+00:00

@Mathilda Navias said

There is no "Your connections" on the screen. The closest thing is "Linked Apps", which doesn't list Microsoft

Doc is out of date. You're in the right place. If you had a Microsoft OAuth you would see it.

https://myaccount.google.com/connections
Hornblower409 16,580 Reputation points

2026-10-10T16:12:51.35+00:00

One trick to try when you get to re-authenticating with Google. Have your default browser open and logged into Google at https://myaccount.google.com/ before you start the OAuth process in Outlook.
Mathilda Navias 0 Reputation points

2026-10-10T20:37:26.0633333+00:00

I've removed OAth gmail stuff. Outlook still won't bring in my gmail account. Moving on, the directions say to remove the matching Outlook identity registry key: "Identify the Gmail-related identity under the Outlook Identities registry area, then delete only the matching Gmail identity key."

How do I do that?
Hornblower409 16,580 Reputation points

2026-10-11T02:52:09.0633333+00:00
@Mathilda Navias said

the directions say to remove the matching Outlook identity registry key

Those instructions are for how you can use the Registry to identify which GMail account each Windows Credential belonged to, so if you had multiple GMail accounts, you could remove the Credentials for only a single account,

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/support/known-issues/unable-to-add-a-gmail-account-to-classic-outlook

If you want to avoid removing Google IMAP credentials except for the specific affected account,

1 -- Do you still get

Your account needs attention

The Google consent screens

Firefox unable to connect to localhost:8011 page

If so, temporarily make Microsoft Edge your default browser and then try the Gmail sign-in process again from Outlook

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/change-default-apps-in-windows

2 -- Can you correlate your use of Norton Utilities to when the problem started? Are you still running any Norton, or was that a one-shot?
Mathilda Navias 0 Reputation points

2026-10-11T19:58:44.13+00:00
I've done the manual steps through sub-step 5. It still doesn't work. When I follow the prompt to login with the browser, I get the usual screens and click on the usual continue buttons. I end up at http://localhost:8011/?etc. showing the usual window:

You have denied Office access to Google - IMAP. Please grant Office access to Google - IMAP and try again. For more information: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2297591

I also get the usual popup message in Outlook saying "Google - IMAP, Sorry, we could not sign you in to Google -Imap. Please try again later."
Mathilda Navias 0 Reputation points

2026-10-11T20:34:46.91+00:00
Ignore that last post. OK, so I made Microsoft Edge my default browser, and the computer did do something different. It asked for me to login for the email account that was probably used to set up either the computer or Outlook (my husband's). Fortunately, he still has a record of the password for that - he doesn't use that email account any more.

It accepted the password, and sent me on to another screen. This time, Microsoft asked me to log in ("Sign in to Microsoft apps & services". When I used my husband's old email and password, it wouldn't take the password. When I used mine, it sent me on. In the meantime, the usual working on it but never getting anywhere popup showed up on top of the email window. When I canceled that, it showed the usual IMAP connection not being made message.

Now, when I log into Microsoft when prompted (and now it doesn't require me to log in first as my husband, so that seems to have been taken care of), it takes me to the usual screen "Microsoft apps & services wants access to your Google Account". When I click Continue, I get the usual http://localhost:8011/?etc.screen:

You have denied Office access to Google - IMAP. Please grant Office access to Google - IMAP and try again. For more information: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2297591
Mathilda Navias 0 Reputation points

2026-10-11T21:01:11.7433333+00:00

And I also got to this screen:

Answer 2

This matches a known Classic Outlook Gmail sign-in/sync issue. The most direct fixes are:

Check Outlook build first.
- Microsoft fixed one Gmail sign-in issue in Version 2008 Build 13127.20296.
- Microsoft also fixed the newer Classic Outlook Gmail browser sign-in issue in Version 2404 Build 17531.10000 for Beta, Current Channel Preview, and Current Channel, and Version 2407 Build 17727.10000 for Monthly Enterprise Channel.
- In Outlook, go to File > Office Account > Update Options > Update Now.
If the error is “Sorry, we could not sign you in to Google - IMAP”, enable connected experiences.
- Open Outlook or another Office app.
- Go to File > Office Account.
- Under Account Privacy, select Manage Settings.
- Turn on Enable optional connected experiences.
- Restart Outlook, then try the Gmail sign-in again.
Verify Gmail IMAP settings.
- In Gmail, go to Settings > Forwarding and POP/IMAP.
- Confirm IMAP is enabled if that option is still shown.
- In Settings > Labels, make sure Show in IMAP is selected for Inbox, Sent Mail, Trash, and All Mail and any other labels that should appear in Outlook.
- Sync refresh can take up to 15 minutes.
Reset the stored Gmail OAuth credentials in Windows.
- Close Outlook.
- Open Credential Manager from the Start menu.
- Select Windows Credentials.
- Under Generic credentials, find entries starting with MicrosoftOffice16_Data:OAUTH2.
- Remove the Gmail-related entries.
- Reopen Outlook and use Sign in via browser again.
If Outlook still does not prompt correctly after removing credentials, remove the matching Outlook identity registry key.
- This is higher risk than Credential Manager changes. Deleting the wrong registry key can affect Outlook profile data.
- Close Outlook.
- Identify the Gmail-related identity under the Outlook Identities registry area, then delete only the matching Gmail identity key.
- Restart Outlook and sign in again.
If the Gmail account was removed from the profile, add it back and complete browser sign-in again.
- In Outlook, go to File > Add account.
- During browser sign-in, make sure the consent for Microsoft apps & services is accepted.

The localhost:8011 browser failure is consistent with the known browser-based Gmail sign-in problem in Classic Outlook. Updating Outlook and clearing the stored OAuth credentials are the primary corrective actions from the documented fixes and workarounds.

References: