New Outlook for Mac only showing pinned emails – Google Workspace account

Preserve any Outlook-only drafts or local items, then use Tools → Accounts → Manage → Reset Account to rebuild the Google Workspace account’s local cache and resynchronize the inbox.

Safest recovery procedure

1. Protect anything that may exist only in Outlook
   • In Gmail on the web, verify that important messages, sent mail, calendar items, and contacts are present.
   • Open each unfinished draft in Outlook and copy its contents and attachments to a new draft in Gmail, or save them outside Outlook.
   • Check any On My Computer folders for locally stored messages and preserve them before resetting.
   • If practical, create a current Time Machine backup as an additional safeguard. Time Machine backs up Mac files and can help recover lost or damaged files.^1^
   This precaution is important because Google drafts currently synchronize from Gmail to Outlook, but not from Outlook to Gmail.^2^
2. Reset only the affected Google account
   • Ensure the Mac has a stable Internet connection.
   • In Outlook, select Tools → Accounts.
   • Select the Google Workspace account.
   • At the bottom, choose Manage → Reset Account.
   • Leave Outlook open while it downloads the mailbox again.
   Reset Account is Microsoft’s documented cache-repair operation for incomplete or incorrect synchronized data. It deletes information that has not synchronized with the server, which is why the preservation step must come first.^3^
3. Allow the resynchronization to complete
   • New mail should remain usable, but older mail in a large Gmail mailbox can take from some time up to several days to become available in Outlook because of Google data limitations.^2^
   • Confirm that ordinary, unpinned messages begin appearing and that Load more conversations starts returning older mail.

Is this a confirmed known issue?

Microsoft documents a broader set of Google-account synchronization issues and limitations in Outlook for Mac, and its Outlook for Mac known-issues page points to that guidance.^4^ However, the specific symptom—only pinned messages visible after a restart—is not identified there as a distinct confirmed defect.

Because Gmail and Apple Mail still show the complete mailbox, this is consistent with incomplete or incorrect data in Outlook’s local synchronized cache; it does not indicate that the server mailbox was deleted.

If Reset Account does not restore the inbox

• Do not manually delete or move Outlook profile/database folders. Manual database repair or rebuilding is not available for Outlook 2016 for Mac and later; Outlook performs recovery automatically and prompts when a rebuild is required.^5^
• In Outlook, select Help → Contact Support and report:
  • New Outlook for Mac version and macOS version
  • Google Workspace account type
  • Inbox shows only pinned messages
  • Load more conversations has no effect
  • Complete mailbox remains visible in Gmail and Apple Mail
  • Filters, conversation view, restart, updates, and Reset Account have already been tested

This gives Outlook support the information needed to distinguish an account-specific synchronization failure from a current client defect.

References

1. Automatically archive or back up Outlook for Mac items | Microsoft Support
2. Known issues syncing Google accounts to the Microsoft Cloud
3. Clear the cache in Outlook for Mac | Microsoft Support
4. Fixes or workarounds for recent issues in Outlook for Mac
5. About the Office for Mac database | Microsoft Support