Help Suddenly Gmail doesn't go to inbox or cause notification

[Marc_G]

Hi folks,

I'm a few weeks in with my Droid X on Verizon. All was working fine, until sometime late morning today, when suddenly new emails to either of my two gmail accounts stopped showing up in the droid's GMail inboxes.

If I go to ALL Mail (through the Go to Labels menu option) they are in there and are tagged as inbox. Or if I hit menu and choose Refresh they will then sync over to the inbox.

Everything is fine if I use a PC program to look at them or log onto GMail on the web. It seems to be a push/phone issue.

I didn't knowingly change any relevant settings today, but I don't rule out that some activity might have accidentally screwed something up.

I've tried a hard reboot (battery pull) and also cleared the GMail cache and when that didn't fix it, cleared the data in the GMail app (and had it resync).

Still is exhibiting the problem something like 10 hours after it started so I'm guessing it's not a google problem; they probably would have fixed it by now if it was theirs.

Help! IS there a checklist I can run through?

Marc

 

[psipher]

it sounds like you have "Priority Inbox" turned on.
Go to MENU, then MORE...then SETTINGS...and uncheck Priority Inbox.

 

[Marc_G]

Thanks for the thought, but I don't think that's the issue.

I checked both accounts via the web, and neither of them has the priority inbox turned on. Also checked on the phone and haven't found any mention of the priority inbox on it.

Any other thoughts as to what might be going on? Thanks in advance!

Marc

 

[Deleted User]

Since Gmail is just a regular app now, I would just uninstall it and reinstall it.

 

[Marc_G]

Interestingly, I'm not able to see the "Accounts & Sync" Settings. I must be doing something wrong. I removed, then re-added one of my two accounts. It says it's not set up to sync automatically (why not... it was this morning!?).

Could it be hidden somewhere?

EDIT: I did a manual sync, then I was able to see the sync settings. It shows that it's syncing 4 days for the inbox.

 

[Marc_G]

I went in and tried to uninstall Gmail app. I did a "Force Stop" but it wouldn't let me uninstall (the option to do so wasn't activated). I cleared the cache and the data next to the cache button.

Noting that I was running version 2.3, I went to the market and saw 2.3.2 available. I've downloaded it and it installed. I manually synced both accounts.

But I'm still not getting notifications etc.. And my primary account (which I don't think I can easily delete) is showing "no conversations" in the inbox, which is wrong as I've been sending test messages there all day.

What could be up?

Marc

EDIT: Freakishly, for my primary that shows "no conversations" the Inbox tab at the upper left of the screen shows: "Inbox (1)" as though there's one new message there, but still "No Conversations."

 

[old.blue]

I had problems syncing my email accounts as well. I have 4, 1 Gmail, 2 Yahoo, and a college account that all sync to my phone. I've found that using the K9 email app solved all my problems.

 

[Marc_G]

I had problems syncing my email accounts as well. I have 4, 1 Gmail, 2 Yahoo, and a college account that all sync to my phone. I've found that using the K9 email app solved all my problems.

I've considered switching Apps, but the Gmail app was fine for my needs until this morning when whatever happened, happened.

ARGGH! This is maddening.

I tried upping my sync to 7 days, in the vain hope that just implementing some change to the sync settings would fix the problem. No dice.

Is there some setting someplace that sets how frequently sync occurs? Maybe it's accidentally turned off?

Marc

 

[Marc_G]

OK, I found the solution here:

Gmail not syncing anymore; must be done manually - Android Help

See solution by "figureditout" on 9/20/2010

Basically, when messing around with the phone I had added then removed some of the widgets (kind of accidentally). In the process I had briefly played with the "Power Control" widget. In the process I must have turned off the "sync" button on that widget. Reinstating the Power Control Widget and then turning on that button fixed the problem.

I had played with that widget because I accidentally deleted the default one that had airplane mode, wifi, bluetooth, gps on it and couldn't figure out how to get it back. Oops.

After turning on that sync button I had additonal controls in Home > Menu > Accounts > (pick an account) > now Sync options show up. They were off. I turned them on. BAM. Sync started up again.

Hooray.

Thanks to everyone for your assistance, and I hope this helps someone else.

Anyone else know how to get that default widget back? The "Power Control" one isn't the one I'm used to. Then again, I'm running the ADW.Launcher so maybe that has something to do with it.

Marc

 

[Marc_G]

I'm curious to know what menu setting is toggled by that "Sync" button on the Power Control widget. I haven't found the menu analog of that button anywhere. It's gotta be in there somewhere, especially since it has pretty drastic effects if you turn it off.

Anybody know where it is? This stuff drives me crazy, even though the phone is working fine now that I've pushed the sync button back to "on."

Marc

EDIT: I decided to start a new thread on this topic, here:
http://androidforums.com/android-lounge/278447-sync-button-power-widget-menu-analog.html#post2284557

 

[old.blue]

Keep us informed if it continues to work correctly. Who knows, I could have inadvertently changed a setting somewhere, though I don't think so, because some of my accounts would sync and others wouldn't until I installed the K-9 Email app.

 

[quickaudi]

by "accidentally deleted the default one", you mean the Moto Blur widgets for airplane mode, etc.? Those would be under Moto widgets.

 

[psteichen]

Here's something else you folks can try if you have the same problem. I had this problem and found this thread, but my widget was not the problem. My sync settings were all fine. But otherwise my Gmail app acted exectly as described by Marc. In addition, I could not send emails out with the phone. Marc didn't mention this symptom, but perhaps he didn't notice.

So I gave up on fixing the app and started playing around with other aspects of my phone. I had an icon displayed at the top left of the screen indicating that the phone was running low on storage space. I realized that this had appeared about the same time as the last successful email had arrived. So I went into application management and moved one of my apps to the SD card. This caused the icon to extinguish. And 5 seconds later I got a notification of new email! The Gmail app was back to normal and synced up all the missing emails I'd been unable to see in the inbox for the last several days.

Now I think it would be pretty stupid for the Gmail app to stop working just because storage is low (still had over 40 megs free), but in case you are out of ideas and also have a pretty full phone, try freeing up some more space. I now have 46 MB internal memory free on my HTC EVO 4G, and its working again.