IMAP Gmail Not Receiving Email

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1

Hi all,

I’ve been trying to use the IMAP Email node to fetch emails from Gmail, but it consistently fails with errors like “No mailbox is currently selected” or “UID FETCH not allowed now.” A Python script with imaplib works fine with the same credentials and settings, so I suspect a bug in n8n’s IMAP node. Here are my logs:

error Email Read Imap node encountered an error fetching new emails { “error”: { }, “file”: “EmailReadImapV2.node.js”, “function”: “onMail” }
09:54:00.442 error No mailbox is currently selected { “file”: “error-reporter.js”, “function”: “defaultReport” }

Information on my n8n setup:

  • n8n version: 1.80.3
  • Database (default: SQLite): SQLite
  • n8n EXECUTIONS_PROCESS setting (default: own, main): own
  • Running n8n via (Docker, npm, n8n cloud, desktop app): npm
  • Operating system: Windows 11

Steps tried:

  • Set Mailbox to “INBOX” and “[Gmail]/Inbox”—same error.
  • Action: “Nothing” or “Mark as Read”—no change.
  • Fresh workflow, new credentials—still fails.
  • Python script (imaplib) fetches emails perfectly with same Gmail account.

Any ideas? Is this a known IMAP bug with Gmail? Should I switch to the Gmail API node instead? My Inbox has no unread email except for the one I’ve sent for testing purposes.

2

I am also having the same issue. When I created the IMAP based creds. It ran though a test and verified the creds are working. I have tried numerous steps of deleting the task and recreating the trigger. However nothing seems to work and I can never get an email. Also I do not want to switch to the GMAIL providers at that requires additional steps. I need to keep this as simple as possible