Summary

If your coworkers are talking about an email you never got, or your messages are bouncing back with confusing error codes, your work Gmail might be hitting storage limits, filter issues, or server blocks. This guide helps you identify the roadblock and get your email flowing again.

Symptoms

• You haven't received any new emails in hours (and you normally receive dozens)
• Coworkers say they sent you an email, but it isn't in your Inbox
• Emails you try to send bounce back immediately with a "Delivery Status Notification (Failure)"
• Emails sit in your "Outbox" or "Drafts" instead of sending

Before You Start

• You must be signed in to your work Google account at mail.google.com

Instructions

1. Check Your Google Workspace Storage

If your Google Drive / Gmail storage is completely full, Google will stop accepting new emails. Senders will get a bounce-back saying your inbox is full.

1. Scroll to the very bottom of your Gmail inbox (on a computer).
2. Look at the bottom left corner for your storage usage (e.g., 14.9 GB of 15 GB used).
3. If it is at 100%, you must delete large files to receive mail.
4. How to fix it: Go to Google Drive and delete large video files, or search Gmail for has:attachment larger:10M to find and delete massive emails. Empty the Trash to free up space immediately.

If the storage figure is well under your limit, or you freed space and the message still has not arrived, Google accepted the mail and something inside your account moved it. Continue to Step 2.

2. Search "All Mail", "Spam", and "Trash"

Sometimes you actually are receiving the email, but a filter or an accidental click hid it from your main Inbox.

1. In the search bar at the top of Gmail, type: in:anywhere [sender's name or email].
   • (Typing in:anywhere forces Gmail to search Spam and Trash, which normal searches ignore).
2. Press Enter.
3. Look at the labels attached to the email if you find it.
   • If it says Trash, you accidentally deleted it.
   • If it says Spam, select the email and click Not Spam at the top.
   • If it has no label and isn't in the Inbox, you likely archived it by accident.

If in:anywhere returns nothing at all from that sender, the mail is being diverted before it lands in any folder. Continue to Step 3.

3. Check for Misconfigured Filters

If emails from your boss constantly skip your inbox and disappear, you might have set up a rogue filter.

1. Click the Gear icon (Settings) in the top right, then See all settings.
2. Click the Filters and Blocked Addresses tab.
3. Scroll through the list and look for any filter that says Skip Inbox or Delete it.
4. If a filter is catching mail it shouldn't, click edit or delete on the right side of that filter.

If no filter matches that sender, or the trouble is messages you send coming straight back to you, the bounce text names the cause. Continue to Step 4.

4. Troubleshoot Bounce-Back Messages (Sending Failures)

If you try to send an email and it bounces back immediately, read the failure message. It usually tells you exactly what went wrong.

• "Address not found" or "550 No Such User": You spelled the email address wrong, or the person no longer works there. Check for typos.
• "Message rejected" or "552 Message size exceeds fixed maximum": Your attachment is too big. Gmail limits attachments to 25MB. Upload the file to Google Drive and send a link instead.
• "Blocked" or "550 5.7.1": The recipient's IT department has blocked your company's emails (or flagged you as spam). You will need to contact your own IT team to investigate the blocklist.

If nothing bounces back and mail moves in neither direction, check whether the outage is on Google's side. Continue to Step 5.

5. Check if Gmail is Actually Down

It's rare, but Google's servers do go down occasionally.

1. Go to the Google Workspace Status Dashboard.
2. Look at the row for Gmail.
3. If there is an orange or red dot, there is a global outage. You have to wait for Google to fix it.

If the dashboard shows Gmail running normally and your mail still does not move, raise a ticket. Include the sender's full email address, the exact wording of any bounce-back message, and the date and time the last message reached you.

Troubleshooting

WARNING

If you are expecting an email with a password reset link, a 2FA code, or an external file, and it never arrives (even in Spam), your company's firewall likely blocked it before it even reached your Gmail account. Contact IT and ask them to check the email quarantine.

Symptom / Error	Potential Cause	Solution
Storage is 100% full	Large files in Drive or Photos	Delete large files in Google Drive and empty the trash; email flow will resume shortly after
Email is sitting in the "Outbox"	Lost internet connection	Check your Wi-Fi; Gmail will automatically send it once the connection is restored
All emails from a specific vendor are missing	Corporate spam filter block	The vendor may be on an IT blocklist; submit a ticket to have them whitelisted
"Message rejected" when sending to a group	Too many recipients	Gmail limits you to 500 recipients per email; use a marketing tool (like Mailchimp) for mass emails

Related Articles

• How to Organize Your Inbox with Gmail Labels and Filters
• How to "Unsend" or Recall an Email in Gmail
• How to Use Gmail — A Getting Started Guide for Work
• How to Recognize a Phishing Email

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