Solved: How to speed up slow Gmail on older and slower computers

The new Google update has made Gmail run much slower than it used to. Make Gmail faster with these 3 very simple steps.

Gmail is now much slower on some computers because Google has increased the complexity of what Gmail does. On one hand this is good for users because it means that you can do more with your email, however if you have an older computer, or a slower computer, then your computer will not be able to keep up with everything that the new Gmail now wants to do.

The solution is to turn off some Gmail features (which are not needed) and then apply a few simple speed tweaks. After applying these fixes your Gmail will run as fast as it used.

Step One: Turn off Hangouts Chat

Hangouts is Google’s chat application. It’s a very useful application however you probably don’t need it loading every single time that you go to check your email. It uses A LOT of your device’s resources which slows down Gmail. Here’s how to turn it off.

• Go to “mail.google.com” (without quotations)
• In the upper right of the Gmail window you’ll see a grey icon that looks like a gear wheel. Click on that.
• In the menu that appears click on Settings
• Click on the Chat tab
• Select “Chat off”
• Click Save Changes

Gmail will close and then re-open without Hangouts. There should be a noticeable speed improvement.

Step Two: Reduce the number of conversations per page

By default Gmail loads more emails than it (or you) need it to load. By reducing the number of emails per page you’ll increase the speed of your Gmail.

• Go to “mail.google.com” (without quotations)
• In the upper right of the Gmail window you’ll see a grey icon that looks like a gear wheel. Click on that.
• In the menu that appears click on Settings
• In the General tab find the option labeled “Maximum page size“
• Reduce the number of conversations to either 15 or 20 conversations per page.
• Scroll down the bottom of the page and click Save Changes

Step Three: Prevent browser checks

By default Gmail will scan your browser every time that it loads in order to determine compatibility and load the correct browser features. However if you’re using a modern browser such as Chrome or Firefox or Safari this step isn’t really necessary.

(At least I have not noticed any difference.)

You can add a “nobrowsercheck” flag to the end of the Gmail url in order to have Gmail skip the browser check. This speeds up the load time. In order to have Gmail skip the browser check every time you can create a bookmark with the following link:

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?nocheckbrowser#inbox

Bonus Option: Use HTML

I don’t really recommend this last option because you’ll loose a lot of Gmail features. However if you want a blazing fast Gmail experience then you can downgrade to the HTML Gmail page.

What this will do is allow you to check your emails in a stripped down Gmail environment.

Here’s what to do:

• Go to “mail.google.com” (without quotations)
• As the page is loading look in the bottom right, they’ll be a link that says “Load Basic HTML (For Slow Connections)”
• Click on the link. If you don’t click it in time then reload Gmail and try again.
• Gmail will now load in HTML mode.

To go back to Standard mode just reload the page. If you want to stick with HTML mode then click on “Set basic HTML as default view” at the top of the page in HTML mode. You can always return to Standard mode in the future if you change your mind.

Do you have any other tips or suggestions on how people can speed up Gmail? Please leave your suggestions in the comments below so that you can help others.