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Len_Jacobson's avatar
Len_Jacobson
Copper Contributor
Apr 19, 2026

Outlook Retrieves Emails But Fails to Put Then Into the Inbox

I have a brand new Dell desktop that replaced a previous Dell desktop computer.  I have rebuilt everything on the new computer that was on the old, but have a very strange problem with Outlook.  When I click on "Send/Receive", I see at the bottom right of the screen that it is retrieving a bunch of emails from the Gmail server.  But upon completion of the retrieval, none of those emails appears in the Inbox.  If I click again on "Send/Receive", the process repeats.  And since I have set up retrieval to automatically issue the "Send/Receive" every three minutes, this process repeats and repeats, never placing the retrieved emails into the Inbox.  I should also comment that the count of the emails only increases, telling me that those emails do not disappear from the server.

I am using POP3, not IMAP.  I am using Outlook Classic, not the new Outlook.

I have been using Outlook for many, many years, and have successfully set up Outlook many, many times.  But I am totally baffled by what I am seeing.

I would appreciate any suggestions at all.

Thank you.

Len Jacobson

office 365
outlook for windows

1 Reply

  • LisaHendrickson's avatar
    LisaHendrickson
    MVP
    Apr 27, 2026

    hi Len, from what you said POP isn't supported with Gmail anymore. You might be getting lucky with the connection but it's now disabled (from what I know) to use POP in the Gmail settings. 

    Try this, create a new Outlook profile and set up IMAP. Then add your PST to that profile, then you can view all the folders and past data. If you know how to migrate the PST to IMAP, you might want to do that, some clients just keep the PST for historical. And depending on size of the PST, the IMAP will take quite a long time to upload via Outlook to your Gmail server.