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We have 3 Gmail.com accounts. My wife and I each have one and we share a joint account. We can receive/send emails on our iPhones, but starting 03/17/2026 stopped being able to do either on our PC. There has always been a lag between when emails hit our iPhones and then show up on our PC up to an hour or so later. As of 03/17/2026 however, no emails are coming in (and we cannot send them) and when I select the send/receive box in outlook we get an error message that says "cannot synchronize subscribed folders. Cannot connect to the server. If this continues contact your service administrator or internet provider." I have tried to trouble shoot and even figured out how to delete the content of the sync issues folder. I even contacted Spectrum and they told me to disconnect my router/modem for 30 seconds to see if that worked. If it did not they advised me to contact Google. I am really well outside of my element here but I have googled several troubleshooting sites with no luck. Can anybody help??? Thanks. Chuck
Using Classic Outlook on Windows for personal email, calendar, and contact management
Answer accepted by question author
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Removing the account does not delete any emails from Gmail. Your messages stay on Google’s servers. In Outlook, your folders and cached emails for that account are removed from the profile, but they return after you add the account again and sync completes. Custom folders stored in Gmail will sync back as well.
Hi Arlene. I am back. I successfully removed and added back our 2 individual accounts. Then I removed our joint account. It will not, however, allow me to add it back. I hope I did not screw something up. The joint account is the email address used to identify my Google account so it cannot be changed. The recovery address is ******@gmail.com in the event I cannot get messages on the joint account. Does my problem have to do with the joint address identified with my Google account? Not sure what to do. BTW, I did not need to restart outlook to send/receive in the 2 individual accounts. I hope you can help. You have been GREAT so far. Chuck
Sounds good, please take your time.
Thanks for your reply.
Yes, remove and add the Gmail accounts again. Go to File > Account Settings > Account Settings, remove each Gmail account, restart Outlook, then use Add Account and sign in through the Google window with permissions allowed. This refreshes the connection and fixes the sync error. Also check Send/Receive > Work Offline is off.
Thanks will give it a try when I can today and let you know.
Arlene, hate to show my inexperience, but does removing those accounts (1) do anything to the email in those email accounts or (2) remove them from all the folders I have created on the left side of outlook? I am pretty confident the answer to (1) is no. Not sure about (2). Thanks. Chuck
Hi,
Are you using the classic Outlook app with your Gmail added as IMAP, or did you switch to the new Outlook recently?
This issue often happens when the Gmail connection in Outlook needs to be reauthenticated. Open Outlook, go to File > Account Settings > Account Settings, select your Gmail account, then choose Remove and add it again using Add Account. Sign in through the Google sign-in window and allow all permissions. Also check File > Office Account > Update Options > Update Now to keep Outlook updated, and confirm Work Offline is not enabled on the Send/Receive tab. This refreshes the secure connection and restores sync.
I never switched to the new outlook. Still using Classic. Should I still remove and then add the Gmail accounts?