[SOLVED] How Do I Permanently Change Gmail Back To The Classic View?

NOTE: The old way of changing back to the Classic view of Gmail doesn’t work anymore. There are tons of blog posts incorrectly telling people how to change your Gmail appearance using this out-of-date-method and Google has started removing that temporary option.

Don’t be frustrated, though, the details throughout this post will help you change your Gmail view permanently (or at least until the next update) to look more like the Gmail Classic view.

Usually, I find technology changes to be a good thing. Sometimes, though, they are so disruptive to my normal groove that I just have to figure out a way back.

Some historical examples include:

• Turning off the “office assistant”…you know Clippy the Paperclip?
• Viewing Facebook in the most recent view, instead of their terrible algorithmic view.
• The 2011 Twitter interface update (yes…I’m still sore about that one).
• How to change Gmail view back to the Classic view, rather than this modern, huge-font view they recently rolled out in the Gmail Update 2019.

I don’t know what it is about the new Gmail look, but those rounded buttons and GIANT BOLD fonts just mess with my mojo when I’m reading my email.

The new rounded buttons and big bold fonts of the updated Gmail look just doesn’t work for me. I like the old Gmail version much better!

For a little while, Google gave us a way to change back to the “classic view” of Gmail. Previously, the way to revert to the Gmail Classic view was:

1. Go to Gmail.com
2. Login to your account
3. Click the gear icon in the upper-right corner of Gmail and choose “Go back to classic Gmail”.

Gmail previously offered the ability to go back to classic Gmail. This, however, has since been removed.

Once you clicked on that, Gmail would revert back to the classic view. The problem is, that was only a temporary thing.

I reverted back to the classic view back in August and today, when I logged in to Gmail….the modern view of Gmail was back. I wondered if I could revert back again, so I clicked the Settings icon and there was the “Go back to classic Gmail” link again. Whew!!

But, alas, it was a cruel trick perpetrated by Google. When the page reloaded, the modern view of Gmail was still in place and the link to go back to the classic view was gone.

Grrr….

The ability to change the Gmail appearance back to the Classic view has been removed from the Settings menu.

So…what to do? You can either live with the new, modern view or you can adjust the modern view to look a little more like the classic view.

Personally, I like the Classic view, so I decided to find the adjustments. The rounded buttons, I can live with but the giant font just rubs me the wrong way.

Changing Back To Gmail Classic View Step 1 – Adjust The Display Density

So, to reduce the font size back to look a bit more like the Classic view, the first thing I did was adjust the Display Density of the text. To adjust your Gmail display density:

1. Go to Gmail.com
2. Login to your account
3. Click the gear icon in the upper-right corner of Gmail and choose Display Density

In the Classic view of Gmail, the display density was much more compact, so more emails were displayed on the screen. Choose the Compact view and then click OK to close the popup box.

The compact display density will adjust the number of lines visible in Gmail back to be more like the Classic view

Changing Back To Gmail Classic View Step 2 – Ditch The Side Panel

The next step in adjusting Gmail to look more like the Classic view is the remove the side panel. Classic Gmail didn’t have a side panel and I don’t use it, so I just clicked the Right-facing arrow in the bottom-right corner of Gmail and choose Hide Side Panel.

You can hide the side panel in Gmail to adjust the UI to look more like the classic view.

Changing Back To Gmail Classic View Step 3 – Make More Room In The Folders Pane

The last step in moving Gmail back to look more like the Classic view is to adjust the folder list to display more folder. In the modern view, Google shortened the pane by default to only show about 10 folder. this allowed your Google chat pane to be more prominent.

Personally, I want to see more folders and Google gave us the capability to adjust the folder pane. To adjust the folder pane size:

1. Go to Gmail.com
2. Login to your account
3. Click and hold the bottom of the folder pane and drag down

You can drag the folder pane down to make it larger to look more like the Classic view of Gmail.

And that pretty much does it. With the more compact display density, the absence of the side panel, and the taller folder pane, Gmail feels more like the standard Classic view.

I hope that helps those of you who are like me and like the Classic view better. If I missed something or if you have another tip, let me know and I’ll take a look at it and potentially add it to the post.

Cheers!

–Sean

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