Outlook should not require complete control over my google drive to setup gmail

Outlook uses Google’s modern OAuth-based sign-in flow for Gmail. During this flow, Google shows the list of permissions that the “Microsoft Apps & Services” connection will receive. Those permissions, including access to Google Drive, are defined and granted on Google’s side as part of a single consent package; Outlook cannot selectively remove or change them.

To use Gmail in Outlook, that Google consent must be accepted. If the consent screen is not accepted, Outlook cannot complete the account setup and will show errors such as:

• “Sorry, we could not sign you in to Google – IMAP. Please try again later.”
• “We weren’t able to set up your Google account with IMAP. You may need to make changes to your Gmail settings.”

These errors are not caused by Outlook demanding extra permissions beyond what Google’s integration path provides; they occur because the OAuth sign-in and permission grant did not complete successfully. The Outlook-side fixes and workarounds focus on ensuring that the Google sign-in window opens correctly and that the consent flow can complete (for example, updating Outlook to a fixed build, enabling optional connected experiences, or letting Outlook open the sign-in in a separate browser window).

If granting the full Google permission set is not acceptable, the only supported alternative is not to connect the Gmail account to Outlook using this integration. There is no supported way, in the documented flows, to reduce or customize the Google permissions while still using Outlook’s built-in Gmail/OAuth configuration.

References:

• Unable to add a Gmail account to Outlook "Could not sign you in to Google"
• Unable to sign in or add a Gmail account to classic Outlook