Turn IMAP and POP on and off for users

If your G Suite users want to use desktop clients such as Thunderbird or Outlook Express to access their G Suite mail, you need to enable IMAP and POP access in your Google Admin console. You can enable access for everyone in your account or only for users in specific organizational units.

After you configure an advanced Gmail setting, it may take up to one hour for that configuration to propagate to individual user accounts. You can track prior changes under Admin console audit log.

If you're a Gmail user looking for instructions on syncing your account via IMAP or POP with a client such as Outlook or Thunderbird, see instead Get started with IMAP or POP.

Editions supported: G Suite and Education

Turn POP and IMAP access on and off

Sign in to your Google Admin console.
Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).
From the Admin console dashboard, go to AppsG SuiteGmailAdvanced settings.
Tip: To see Advanced settings, scroll to the bottom of the Gmail page.
In the Organizations section, select the organizational unit for which you want to configure settings.
Under POP and IMAP Access, select or clear the check box for Disable POP and IMAP access for all users in the domain.

If you select the check box, POP and IMAP are fully disabled for all users in your domain.

Users cannot access POP and IMAP settings in the Gmail interface.

Users cannot access their mail via POP or IMAP even if they originally had it on.

If you clear the check box, POP and IMAP using modern security standards is enabled for your users, but IMAP for use with less secure apps remains disabled.

POP access is automatically turned on for your users.

To use IMAP with less secure apps, users need to enable IMAP in their Gmail settings under Forwarding and POP/IMAP. Then they should follow the instructions in Allowing less secure apps to access your account.

It may take up to one hour for IMAP and POP changes to take effect. As long as the box is cleared, users can configure POP and IMAP access for a host of clients.

Username and password not working? Some apps require you to also turn on access for less secure apps before setting up POP/IMAP connections.

Remove folder size limits in Gmail

To use an IMAP mail client, or to migrate messages with G Suite Migration for Microsoft Exchange, you should remove any folder size limits and expose all folders in IMAP to ensure you obtain all messages.

Sign in to your Gmail account.
Click the gear icon at the top right of the Gmail window.
Click Settings.
Click Forwarding and POP/IMAP.
Under Folder Size Limits, check Do not limit the number of messages in an IMAP folder (default).
Click Save changes.

Show folders in Gmail

Sign in to your Gmail account.
Click the gear icon at the top right of the Gmail window.
Click Settings.
Go to the Labels tab.
Check Show in IMAP for All Mail and for any other label you want to include in an IMAP client or migrate.

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