Google fixes Gmail IMAP sync issue that was affecting Outlook users

Google on Thursday said that it has fixed the Gmail sync issue it was having with Microsoft servers when using Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP), which most likely affected Outlook users.

"The Gmail sync issue with Microsoft servers when using IMAP is now resolved. Thank you for your patience while we resolved the problem," the company said in its status page.

According to Google, because of the outage, that started on Wednesday, users were not able to sync new messages while accessing Outlook or Hotmail email accounts on the Gmail application across all device platforms.

On Wednesday, the company had said that its engineering team was working in partnership with the Microsoft team to investigate the email sync issue via IMAP.

"Update: Microsoft team has acknowledged that other large mail providers beyond Gmail are also not able to sync with Microsoft's IMAP server. They are working on the issue," it added.

Taking to Twitter, several users had reported the issue.

One user asked: "My outlook email has been down since the middle of the night last night. I have seen a few tweets regarding this but not many. Anyone else having issues with no emails at all from Microsoft outlook???"

Another queried: "Is anyone else having problems with #gmail accounts and #Outlook?"