"Too many simultaneous connections" error with Gmail after SP2 update

Anonymous
2012-04-23T09:00:02+00:00

Ever since updating to SP2, I regularly receive these errors from Outlook:

Mail could not be received at this time.

The server for account "Gmail" returned the error "[ALERT] Too many simultaneous connections. (Failure)." Your username/password or security settings may be incorrect. Would you like to try re-entering your password?

I'm connecting to my Gmail account via IMAP. As you would expect, re-entering my password as suggested by the error doesn't resolve the error and it continues to pop up every 10 seconds until I quit and re-lauch Outlook. I suspect it's something to do with the way this new version of Outlook handles multiple connections to the same IMAP server?

Is anyone else seeing this?

Outlook | MacOS | Legacy Outlook for Mac | For business

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Anonymous
2015-03-13T03:37:03+00:00

from Google

Too many simultaneous connections

If you have multiple users frequently accessing the same account or more than one IMAP client accessing Gmail at the same time, you may reach a connection threshold and receive the error message, 'Too many simultaneous connections.'

Gmail currently has a limit of 15 simultaneous IMAP connections per account.

Please note that your mail client may actually open multiple connections in the background. This means it's possible to reach a connection threshold simply by using only two mail clients to access the same account at the same time.

If you often use multiple mail clients or mobile devices with the same Gmail account, we recommend closing and/or signing out of any mail clients you're not actively using.

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Anonymous
2012-07-12T01:52:12+00:00

Microsoft appears to have released an update that deals with this problem: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2721015

Specifically, MS says that:

<ul><br><li>This update fixes an issue where some users who have IMAP accounts intermittently receive a “Too many simultaneous connections” error. A setting is now available to control the polling interval that Outlook uses with IMAP servers. <br><br><br><br>To adjust this setting, select <b>Tools</b>, select <b>Accounts</b>, and then select <b>Advanced </b>for the IMAP account. The setting defaults to synchronize all lMAP folders every two minutes. </li></ul>

I updated MS Office on both my iMac and MacBook Air, and I didn't change the new default synchronization setting. The iMac only occasionally had this problem, and I cannot tell if the problem has gone away completely yet on that computer.

On my MacBook Air, I had resorted to deleting my Gmail accounts as I could access them via Apple Mail desktop application and I really didn't need Outlook functions with Gmail. I started to add back my Gmail accounts, but I was getting the error message again. I turned off synchronization of IMAP folder while my mail downloaded, and the error message went away. After all my old email was downloaded, I turned IMAP folder synchronization back on (at the default 2 minutes).

It seems to have solved the problem for the most part. If you still get the error message, GMail folders may still be synchronizing, so you might have to keep hitting "No" a while longer until everything is synchronized.

So, with all due respect, it looks like it was a Microsoft problem after all. Fortunately I didn't try that time-consuming, tortuous fix recommended earlier.

I'll post an update on whether this fix has continued to work.

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  1. Anonymous
    2012-06-01T04:30:30+00:00

    This is a very bad bug.

    I've found that often times this error occurs when I switch WiFi networks with my MacBook Air.

    While the error itself is in fact caused by Google's Gmail IMAP limitations (See below), the error handling in Outlook is HORRIBLE.

    Pre SP2 the errors were handled in a better way as they didn't interrupt your workflow - or in this case make it impossible to work given the pop-up messages that even when dismissed just keep coming up again and again.

    Microsoft needs to go back to the error handling pre SP2 immediately.  This is a huge issue.

    http://support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=97150

    Too many simultaneous connections

    According to the Gmail Terms of Use, each user account is intended for single use. This means that if you have multiple users frequently accessing the same account or more than one IMAP1 client accessing Gmail at the same time, you may reach a connection threshold and receive the error message, 'Too many simultaneous connections.'

    Gmail currently has a limit of 10 simultaneous IMAP connections per account.

    Please note that your mail client may actually open multiple connections in the background. This means it's possible to reach a connection threshold simply by using only two mail clients to access the same account at the same time.

    If you often use multiple mail clients or mobile devices with the same Gmail account, we recommend closing and/or signing out of any mail clients you're not actively using.

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-05-21T23:04:35+00:00

    Now this problem is present on my iMac, and now my iPhone has trouble accessing my Gmail accounts. I ignore the error messages and then it seems to work ok. The latest Office update didn't help. 

    Quality work by Microsoft.

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-05-20T16:52:11+00:00

    Thanks mpjalexander for raising this issue. Sounds like there's a few of us in the same boat.

    Unfortunately this is the reason I gave up on Microsoft products for the Mac a long time ago; releases of products that must be tested by the consumer and not Microsoft QA engineers. I thought I'd try Office 2011 thinking (hoping) Microsoft had finally got their act together.What was I thinking?!

    After installing Office 2011 and running into this same thing you and others have described I tried the fixes and even tried some of my own; standing on one foot, tongue on one side of my mouth, closing one eye, etc. All joking aside, I've updated to 14.2.2 and tried some of the suggested fixes but still experience the same "too many simultaneous connections" message with my Gmail account.

    Good luck mpjalexander and others. It's "bye to Microsoft" yet again for me. I'm heading back to using Apple's Mail as I know it works as it's apparently been tested by QA engineers who seem to believe the consumer shouldn't have to endure what Microsoft's QA engineers seem to be okay with... using the customer to do the QA work for them!

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