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Email Not Displaying Correctly in Gmail: Fix CSS Flexbox Collapse for Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) for Client Rendering Engine Anomalies

Email client rendering variations are caused by differences in parser engines. Legacy Outlook engines ignore modern block models, forcing layouts to stack vertically. Below is the targeted integration guide to fix CSS Flexbox Collapse inside Gmail App (iOS & Android) templates when using Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC).

Technical Breakdown

Gmail App (iOS & Android) uses the WebKit / Blink which lacks support for standard rendering rules. This causes CSS Flexbox Collapse elements to break or collapse when rendering templates.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) Behaviors

SFMC's Content Builder wraps block exports in div frames that can break conditional comments. Additionally, AMPScript calls for personalizations can trigger parsing errors if they are inside MSO conditional comments. Ensure your AMPScript tags are evaluated *outside* the VML blocks. Test layout code regressions side-by-side using the Campaign Diff Comparator before pushing visual style changes to your production templates.

Remediation Code Block

To resolve this, modern layouts must be compiled down to Outlook-compliant nested HTML table models. Each flex container becomes a table row, and each flex child becomes a table data cell (td) with explicit pixel or percentage widths. In your Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) campaign manager, make sure you configure your links to run via %%unsubscribe_url%%.

<table role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%">
  <tr>
    <td width="50%" valign="top" style="padding: 20px;">Column 1</td>
    <td width="50%" valign="top" style="padding: 20px;">Column 2</td>
  </tr>
</table>

Live Code Sandbox Test

Interactive Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) Custom Sandbox

Target Environment: Gmail App (iOS & Android)

How to Deploy inside Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC)

1

Copy the fixed VML or table wrapper code block from the remediation box above.

2

Create an 'HTML content' layout block in Content Builder. Paste the table structure. Enclose any custom merge tags inside standard AMPscript wrapper lines.

Targeted Fixes by Use Case & Industry