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#OutageAlert: Gmail, Drive, Docs, and other services are down [Fixed]

#OutageAlert: Gmail, Drive, Docs, and other services are down [Fixed]

Aug 20, 2020
05:32 pm

What's the story

A number of Google services, including Gmail and Google Docs, appear to have been affected in what looks like a major outage. The issue has affected users around the world, with many taking to Twitter to complain about their problem and its effect on their work. Google says it is investigating the matter but is yet to provide any concrete details. Here's more.

Problem

Gmail keeping users from sending, replying to emails

Going by the flurry of user complaints on Twitter, Gmail is keeping people from sending emails, due to some issue. Users mention they are getting an error saying "Oops something went wrong. Recent changes may not have been saved" while trying to send or reply to an email with an attachment. DownDetector shows the issue is predominant in India, Europe, Japan, Malaysia, and Australia.

Twitter Post

Users took to Twitter to express their frustration

Other services

Other critical services also affected

Along with Gmail, which is extremely vital for people working from home at this hour, other essential G Suite services also appear to be running into issues at the same time, including Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Keep, Google Voice, Google Chat and Google Meet. The G Suite Status Dashboard mentioned all these services as 'disrupted' at the time of writing.

Response

Google is investigating the matter, but cause remains unknown

Meanwhile, Google is investigating the matter, and has pointed complaining users to the service status dashboard that cites Gmail sending issues, Meet recording issues, creating files issues in Drive, and posting message issues in Google Chat, among other things. However, the company has not said what has caused the problem or how long it will take to be restored back to normal.

Twitter Post

Here is Google's general response on the matter

Fix

Update: Issue fixed, services are back up now

At about 4:40 pm, Google issued an update saying that the glitch has been fixed for all the services, including Gmail. "The problem with Gmail should be resolved," the company said. "We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience and continued support. System reliability is a top priority at Google. We are making continuous improvements to make our systems better."

Previous incident

Gmail went down last month too

Though Google has done a pretty good job of keeping its services up and running throughout years, many issues have surfaced lately. Just last month, Gmail suffered a major outage, creating similar woes for people working from home during the pandemic. That time around, the main Gmail page did not load for users and was fixed after several hours.