Jenson asks: Hi, for some particular reason, I can’t login into my Gmail account. I have tried all the steps that you suggested in your earlier article but the problem doesn’t seem to go away. Is there any alternate way I can check my Gmail mails.
For anyone who is facing problems in signing into Gmail, please first read this article where we have detailed common tips which you can use to solve the problems. Also take out time to read this article about changing DNS address, in case the problem is with your Internet Service Provider.As far as Jenson’s question is concerned the answer to that is yes. You can check your mails without using Gmail Login. In this article we will focus on following alternate ways to view your Gmail mails.
1: Use alternate Gmail Login Addresses
2: Use a desktop Email Client
3: Using Offline Gmail
4: Forwarding it to another Email address
5: Use Google Toolbar to Login into Gmail
6 : Use iGoogle to View Gmail Messages
7: View Gmail Inbox Messages with a Feed reader
8 : Other Methods
1 . Using Alternate Gmail Login Addresses
Here is a list of URLs that you can try if you are finding it hard to login at www.gmail.com.
a) https://www.gmail.com/ : It is Gmail’s SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) login page. It would show a security certificate error if date and time settings on your system are not up to date.
b) http://mail.google.com/mail : It is Gmail’s standard URL. You can see this URL after you log in into your Gmail account.
c) https://mail.google.com/mail : Secured version of above
d) http://gmail.google.com/gmail : Old alternate URL
e) https://gmail.google.com.gmail : Secured Version of Old alternate URL
f) http://mail.google.com/mail/?nocheckbrowser : This URL forces Gmail to skip test for browser compatibility and load in Standard Mode.
g) https://mail.google.com/mail/?nocheckbrowser : Secured Version of the above
h) http://mail.google.com/mail/h : Simple or basic html mode. If you have a slow internet connection, make sure you use this.
i) https://mail.google.com/mail/h : Secured version of basic HTML mode
j) http://m.gmail.com : Mobile version of Gmail. In normal browsers the login window is small but the Gmail loads in basic HTML mode.
k) http://mail.google.com/mail/x/ : Another URL for mobile devices and PDA. The difference between the two links for mobile devices is that if you use this link in web browser, it will load with the similar interface as in mobile devices while the m.gmail.com loads in basic HTML format.
l) https://mail.google.com/mail/x/ : Secured version of the above.
m) https://mail.google.com/mail/feed/atom/ : Secured Inbox feed URL for reading the feeds with a RSS reader. Use this if nothing of the above works. You can view feeds of messages in your Inbox.
n) https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=mail : Another Secure URL to access Gmail Login Page.
o) Gmail App for Mobiles: An advanced Java app for using Gmail on your mobile phones.
2: Download Gmail Messages with Desktop Email Client
Desktops Email clients download all your mail messages (excluding Spam and Chat messages). You can login into these email clients if all the above links can’t get you to the Gmail Login Page. You can also compose and send messages through desktop email clients. There are several such clients available but I personally prefer, Thunderbird. It’s free, it’s open source and it set ups automatically within seconds. By the way, Gmail currently supports the following Desktop Email Clients.
- Apple Mail 3.0
- Outlook Express
- Outlook 2002
- Outlook 2003
- Outlook 2007
- Thunderbird 2.0
- Windows Mail
Read this article to learn how to setup these desktop email clients with Gmail.
3: Use Gmail Offline Mode
Last year Gmail launched Offline Gmail, for people who wished they could access their Gmail even if they didn’t have internet access. It’s a great feature and works pretty well. If you want to use Gmail to browse through your old messages, you can use Gmail Offline Mode.
Once enabled, Gmail offline mode downloads all the current messages (inbox, archives, outbox ,chats etc) to your computer and will keep it updated till the last login on that particular computer.
You can read this article to learn how to setup offline mode in Gmail.
4: Forward Gmail messages to another email address
Even the free version of Gmail allows you to forward your incoming mail messages to another email address (Yahoo, hotmail, Rediffmail etc) . In case you are facing problems logging into Gmail, this is perhaps the best solution for you. You can forward all your incoming mail messages to any valid email address.
Read this article to learn how to forward your Gmail messages to another email address.
5: Use Google Toolbar to access Gmail
Browser like Firefox and Internet Explorer give you the ability to use install custom toolbar and access various services of the toolbar provider with one click. One of such and perhaps the best toolbar is Google Toolbar. It is currently available only for Firefox and Internet Explorer.
Once installed in your browser, click the Gmail icon on the toolbar and it will automatically redirect you to the login page. You can download the Google Toolbar form here
6. Use iGoogle to View Gmail Messages
You can also iGoogle to sign into your Gmail account and check mails. Just Sign into your iGoogle account at google.com/ig and add the following Gmail Gadget to it. You can enjoy all the features of Gmail with this method.
7: View Gmail Inbox Messages with a Feed reader
Gmail has a RSS Feed for inbox messages which can be read through your any RSS reader which supports “authenticated feed”. Authenticated feed means you have to authenticate with your username and password to view the feeds.
FreeMyFeed supports this feature. Alternatively you can load RSS feeds in Firefox or Chrome itself. Browsers will show only snippets of your unread inbox mail messages.
8. Other Methods
Other methods include
a. Using Google Desktop
b .Using Google Talk to access Gmail
c. Using other Google Services like YouTube and Orkut to login into Gmail .
d . Using Gmail Manager plugin to Login into your account.