Google Apps

Receiving

Gmail is slow for my users

When experiencing slowness issues in Gmail, there are a number of factors that can cause lag in the web interface. Administrators should follow the Advanced troubleshooting for Gmail slowness procedure to conduct advanced tests against Google's and their own environments. They should also have their users carry out the steps below and within the Gmail is slow troubleshooter to help you diagnose the problem.

Determine scope

If a user is experiencing slowness in the web interface, the quickest way to isolate if it’s a user specific issue is by requesting another user on the same Google Apps domain who doesn’t have an issue to login to the same computer/network and browser where the problem can be reproduced.

If the second user can reproduce the issue as well, then it’s a user-end issue (i.e. browser, computer, or network-specific). If the second user cannot reproduce the slowness, it’s most likely a Google issue.

Vet the browser

Have the users determine if the issue is in their browser. There are a few ways to identify issues in the browser:

  1. Use the Basic HTML mode. Basic HTML mode removes all dependence on JavaScript, which may cause slowness depending upon your environment. To perform this test, a user should try this mode by going to https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=html.
    If the slowness goes away in the basic HTML mode, the issue is most likely related to network latency.
  2. Disable browsers extensions/add-ons. Sometimes browser extensions can cause slowness issues in Gmail. For example, having Firebug enabled while using Gmail is discouraged because of the slowness it can cause in the interface.
  3. Try a different browser. The specific browser, browser version, and browser configuration that you employ for accessing Google Apps mail can have an impact on your experience. In order to determine whether the root cause of the slowness is your browser, try different browsers, specifically:
    • Google Chrome
    • Mozilla Firefox
    • Internet Explorer
    • Safari (Mac)

Try other services

Another important test is to determine if Gmail is the only website/application where the users experience slowness. Navigate to other URLs such as http://www.yahoo.com or http://drive.google.com and determine if they work as expected.

For Google Drive, upload a file and see if it works correctly. If not, there may be a local networking/computer issue that’s causing the problem.

Disable Gmail Labs

Gmail Labs is a testing ground for experimental features that aren't quite ready for primetime. They may change, break, or disappear at any time. Sometimes lab features can cause slowness in an account.

To find out if this is the case, navigate to https://mail.google.com/mail/?labs=0 and login as normal to access a version of Gmail without labs. If disabling labs resolves slowness, then the root cause is very likely one of the enabled labs. We recommend slowly re-enabling labs to determine the exact lab that caused the problem.

Reduce labels

Too many labels in Gmail can cause performance issues. Have your users review the Using labels articles to find out how many labels they have in their accounts. If it’s greater than 5000, including sub-lables, then we recommend reducing the label count in order to improve performance in your account.

Test the network

The problem may lies within your local network or route to Google’s servers. The best way to test if an issue with your local network is causing an issue for a user in Gmail is to test the account on a different network. Make sure to turn off any proxy configurations or VPN clients to ensure the traffic doesn’t go through the same company network while on a different network.

If the issue is resolved when testing on a new network, then something in your local environment is causing the issue with Google Apps. Information in our Advanced troubleshooting for Gmail delays procedure will help diagnose issues of this type.

Report problems with Google

In rare instances, user accounts can be slow due to temporary issues on Google's end. For these cases, please have your Google Apps administrator submit a new support ticket by visiting: http://support.google.com/a/bin/static.py?page=contacting_support.html

Include the following information:

  1. Describe the specific slowness being experienced. Is it only upon account login or certain actions? Make sure to include the date/time when slowness was experienced, noting timezone, so we can check Gmail logs. Also indicate how often it occurs.
  2. Navigate to http://browserinformation.appspot.com for a problematic user, run the report, and include the information in the support ticket.
  3. If you are receiving any error codes in Gmail (ex: #707), please include this information as well.

 

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