Is Your Gmail Running Slow?

Users that have Gmail account face a general problem that their account opens very slowly and it takes too much time switching between folders. The topic covers 5 ways to fix this problem.

1. Enabling Gmail Labs settings that you need and disabling the low priority ones
   You can apply this by disabling all the Gmail Labs features, then testing the speed, enabling one feature and retesting the speed. Continue this process until you get a slow speed. By following this process you will come to know that which feature is affecting the speed and after which you can disable this feature to avoid slowness.

2. Lower down the no. of browser extensions or plugins
   If you are using firefox with extension installed then the memory usage will be high. Following the same procedure as in first tip you can avoid lower speed. Disable all the extensions, check the browser speed, enable one extension and then rechecking the browser speed. Continue this process until a slowdown occurs. At a particular time disabling the extension slows down and you can disable this particular extension to increase the speed.

3. Make use of html mode
   When you use html mode you lose some of the AJAX-driven features. Besides increased speed you will have refresh the browser at regular intervals. Even though this is a negative aspect html mode loads a lot faster.

4. Try to use mobile mode
   Although mobile mode was made for mobile devices but opening it in standard web browser works quickly and easily. You can easily log into your account and easily read your mails.

5. You can use third party email clients
   All the above options will help in opening your Gmail faster. But if you still find that these methods are not working for you, then you can use third party email client such as Thunderbird which works on Windows, Mac and Linux. Enable the IMAP/POP settings on Gmail, set up Gmail POP/IMAP settings in Thunderbird and utilize Thunderbird to fetch, read and send mails.

This works well but the major drawback of this method is that you can utilize it only on that computer where Thunderbird is installed.