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Faizan
Nested labels (or sub-labels) graduated from an experimental add-on to a fully-fledged feature of the Gmail Web interface in 2011. Before you try and troubleshoot problems with nested labels, make sure you understand how they are supposed to work. For example, messages marked with sub-labels don't automatically adopt the parent label at the same time.
Browser Problems
It's possible that a bug in your browser or one of the extensions running on top of it is causing problems with Gmail's nested labels. The easiest way to test for this is to access Gmail through a different Web browser program and see if the issue is resolved. If your default browser is to blame, you can try disabling its add-ons, clearing the cache and cookie files, updating to the latest version of the software and uninstalling and reinstalling the program to troubleshoot the problem. These procedures reset your browser's settings and force it to reload each part of the Gmail interface rather than relying on a locally cached version.
Plugin Problems
If you're using one of the experimental plugins listed under the Gmail Labs heading then this might be causing problems with the nested labels system (or vice versa). In Google's own words, Gmail Labs is a "testing ground for experimental features," and occasionally one of these tools can interfere with your Gmail experience. You can disable these plugins from the Labs tab of the Gmail Settings screen. Switching to a different Gmail theme (from the Themes tab) or changing the display density level (from the settings drop-down menu marked by a cog icon) may help to resolve issues with nested labels not showing up correctly.
Gmail Problems
It's rare, although not unheard of, for the Gmail platform to experience technical problems that can result in nested labels not appearing or not functioning correctly. You can check the current status of the Gmail platform via the Google Apps Status Dashboard, the official Gmail Twitter and Blogger pages and the Gmail Help pages (see links in Resources). Common bugs may also be reported in the technology press. If Google does publish details of a known issue surrounding nested labels, it should also provide an estimate of when it expects the problem to be fixed.
Expected Behavior
Make sure you understand how nested labels are supposed to work in Gmail -- it may be that what you see as a problem is in fact the expected behavior for this feature. If you're accessing Gmail via IMAP, for example, moving messages into sub-folders will automatically create a sub-label in the Web interface. Nested labels can be viewed or hidden using the small arrows in the label pane on the left of the Gmail interface, and you can rearrange labels using the "Edit" option on the drop-down menu by each label.
Browser Problems
It's possible that a bug in your browser or one of the extensions running on top of it is causing problems with Gmail's nested labels. The easiest way to test for this is to access Gmail through a different Web browser program and see if the issue is resolved. If your default browser is to blame, you can try disabling its add-ons, clearing the cache and cookie files, updating to the latest version of the software and uninstalling and reinstalling the program to troubleshoot the problem. These procedures reset your browser's settings and force it to reload each part of the Gmail interface rather than relying on a locally cached version.
Plugin Problems
If you're using one of the experimental plugins listed under the Gmail Labs heading then this might be causing problems with the nested labels system (or vice versa). In Google's own words, Gmail Labs is a "testing ground for experimental features," and occasionally one of these tools can interfere with your Gmail experience. You can disable these plugins from the Labs tab of the Gmail Settings screen. Switching to a different Gmail theme (from the Themes tab) or changing the display density level (from the settings drop-down menu marked by a cog icon) may help to resolve issues with nested labels not showing up correctly.
Gmail Problems
It's rare, although not unheard of, for the Gmail platform to experience technical problems that can result in nested labels not appearing or not functioning correctly. You can check the current status of the Gmail platform via the Google Apps Status Dashboard, the official Gmail Twitter and Blogger pages and the Gmail Help pages (see links in Resources). Common bugs may also be reported in the technology press. If Google does publish details of a known issue surrounding nested labels, it should also provide an estimate of when it expects the problem to be fixed.
Expected Behavior
Make sure you understand how nested labels are supposed to work in Gmail -- it may be that what you see as a problem is in fact the expected behavior for this feature. If you're accessing Gmail via IMAP, for example, moving messages into sub-folders will automatically create a sub-label in the Web interface. Nested labels can be viewed or hidden using the small arrows in the label pane on the left of the Gmail interface, and you can rearrange labels using the "Edit" option on the drop-down menu by each label.
Posted in: gmail
