Google will discontinue Gmail POP3 support on January 1, 2026. This change affects you if you use the Gmail app with a POP3 connection to read emails from a web hosting email mailbox.
Email access using Gmail can continue by configuring Gmail to use an IMAP connection, or by using another IMAP-compatible email application.
What happens to existing messages?
By default, POP3 downloads messages from your web hosting email account and removes them from the server.
Downloaded messages are visible in webmail only if the setting “leave a copy of messages on the server” has been enabled.
- If this setting has been enabled, messages remain available in webmail and can continue to be accessed.
- If the setting has not been enabled, messages previously retrieved to Gmail are available only in Gmail.
Messages that have already been downloaded to Gmail via POP3 will remain available in the application, but new messages will no longer be retrieved after POP3 support ends.
Email access can continue by configuring the Gmail app to use an IMAP connection, or by using another IMAP-compatible email application.
Commonly used IMAP-compatible applications:
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Android: Mozilla Thunderbird
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Apple (iOS/macOS): Apple Mail
