WHAT'S
HAPPENING?
Many small businesses use a setup where their email address is hosted separately — with SiteGround, 123-reg, Heart Internet, GoDaddy and others — but they read and send through Gmail. Behind the scenes, Gmail has been quietly collecting those emails using something called POP3 fetching.
Google has decided to retire this feature entirely. If you're seeing errors like [AUTH] Authentication failed or emails just not arriving, this is almost certainly why.
The fix is straightforward if you know what you're doing — but fiddly and confusing if you don't. That's where we come in.
3 SIMPLE
STEPS
Book & pay — from £75
WhatsApp or call to book. Pay securely online. We'll send a short form for your hosting details.
We do the technical work
We log into your email hosting and set up proper automatic forwarding — every new email lands in Gmail the moment it arrives. Faster and more reliable than POP ever was.
All done — same day
We test it, confirm it's working, and send a plain-English summary of what we changed. Usually done within a few hours of booking.
Want a permanent fix instead?
Move to Google Workspace and never worry about this again
The forwarding fix works perfectly — but you're still relying on your hosting company for email. Google Workspace moves your email directly onto Google's servers, completely separate from your website hosting.
dns After the forwarding fix
- Works fine day-to-day
- Free with your hosting
- Dependent on hosting uptime
- Limited storage
- Google could break it again
workspace_premium Google Workspace
- Email hosted by Google directly
- 30GB+ storage per user
- Never affected by hosting changes
- Meet, Drive, Docs included
- Professional admin controls
Cost: Google Workspace Business Starter is around £5–£6/user/month direct from Google. Less than a coffee a week for proper business email that just works.