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Enable “Offline Gmail”

Read, compose and answer your email offline. Learn how to setup the Offline Gmail lab feature.

"Offline Gmail" is a Gmail lab feature provided by Google. The lab feature needs "Google Gears", a browser extension, to operate.

Mac OS X Lion (10.7)

There is no Google Gears for Lion (Mac OS X 10.7) version from Google. Therefore, "Offline Gmail" doesn't work with Lion.

Google Gears for Mac OS X Snow Leopard

Currently there is no official Google Gears for Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6) version from Google. If you wish to use "Offline Gmail", you may want to try the unsupported workaround.

Important: Google Gears is working less and less reliable. Many users get infinite "Still Working" messages and need to reload Gmail.

Prerequisites

Download and install Google Gears for Safari. Important: Google Gears for Firefox doesn't work with Mailplane, you need the Safari version. Visit the Google Gears page in Safari to download the software under Mac OS X Leopard or Tiger. Snow Leopard users can get a compatible version here.

Tip: In case the Gears installer complains about incompatible Safari version (3.2.1 and you have 4.0.4, for instance): Please move Safari to the /Applications folder and restart the Gears installer.

Restart both Mailplane and Safari after the Google Gears installation.

Enable Google Gears in Mailplane

Inside Mailplane Open Preferences > Advanced and make sure the "Enable Google Gears for Offline Gmail" setting is checked.

offline_preference.png

Setup

offline_setup.png

  1. Click Gmail > Settings
  2. Select the "Offline" tab
  3. Enable "Offline Gmail"
  4. Click Save Changes to apply the changes

setup_offline_1.png

  1. Click the "Offline" link to open the setup wizard
  2. Click "Next" to start the installation process

offline_shortcut.png

  1. Click "No", you don't need a shortcut to open Gmail.

offline_synchronizing.png

Wait until the download has finished...

offline_download_finished.png

Customize

offline_customization.png

  1. Click "Settings"
  2. Activate the "Offline" settings tab
  3. Enable/Disable Offline for your Mac
  4. Decide which folders need to be downloaded
  5. Decide how attachments should be handled
  6. In case of trouble: Visit the Offline Gmail troubleshooting page
  7. Save changes

Offline Gmail stopped working?

  1. Make sure you have the latest Google Gears version
  2. First try Mailplane > Reset Gmail Session
  3. If that doesn't help, consider to re-setup your offline database:
    1. In Finder go to /Users/USERNAME/Library/Application Support/Google
    2. Move "Google Gears for Safari" to the Trash
    3. Restart Mailplane and redo the installation above

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