"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
    2012-05-07T17:41:46+00:00

    Per a Microsoft rep 5/7/2012:

    I have found out that this is a known issue and does have a bug filed on it and is due to be fixed in an the next update,

    Looks like the update will be available in July, it will be 14.2.3

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-05-03T17:22:03+00:00

    Thanks, Diane. 

    I have not implemented your fix, because quite frankly I've too busy to try it and I have other means of seeing my Gmail accounts (e.g., Apple's desktop Mail program, iOS etc.). I have no problems with Apple iMac (.mac) account or my Exchange account.

    Strangely, this is mostly a problem on my MacBook Air (MBA) and not my iMac. Occasionally, I will get an error message on my iMac, but it will somehow fix itself. For some reason Outlook has crashed on both computers and the Microsoft Database Utility has had to run to rebuild my databases.

    On my MBA, I disabled "Send/Receive All." It did not help. I finally had to delete all my Gmail accounts because I could not get any work done with that error message popping up.

    Occasionally I get an error message on my iPhone now, but it is not that frequent.

    This problem is obviously due to SP2 since it never was an issue before. The only real reason to use Outlook now is the Calendar function, but if this keeps up I will just adapt to use Apple iCal.

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-05-03T17:10:49+00:00

    For the record, I still get the error message after disabling the "Send & Receive all". 

    MS Outlook 2011 continues to be the worst version of Outlook available.  In fact, Office 2011 lags behind the quality of Office 2007 even.  It's really a shame, because all of our work is with the US Government,  and I really need it to work better.

    Also, why is there only a "YES" choice if an answer was helpful?  Why not a "NO" choice?

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