RSS 2.0
Add to Technorati
Save to Del.icio.us
Take it backGmail Down
PLEASE NOTE:
This blog entry is from March 2007.
If you’re here searching for a more recent outage, please go to the Google Blog, which usually catalogs such outages.
Last night, at around 12 AM (EST), my Gmail seemed inaccessible. Surprisingly, so was Google Talk. Since it was late at night and since I was tired from moving (I am moving to a new apartment), I just ignored it and went to sleep. This morning, I got to work and found out that Gmail seems to be down just for a handful few people.
When I try logging into Gmail, I either get the “Oops. Temporarily unavailable. Error 767 (or 766)” message, or I get the “Server error” message. It gets as far as the “Loading…” bar on top, but that’s the farthest I’ve gotten. Even on the customized Google Home Page, the Gmail section just says that the “Information is temporarily unavailable.”
On a related note, Google Talk logs me in but does not show any of my contacts. So, for all practical purposes, I cannot access my Gmail nor use Google Talk. I did file a bug/error report with Google, but I’m still keeping my fingers crossed.We hardly ever realize our dependence on these things, until they come to bite us in the ass.There only seem to be a handful of people for whom this has been a problem, at this point. If you think you are one of them, feel free to share your thoughts.Update 1: I just received the following mail from Google:
Hello,
Thank you for your report.
We are aware of this problem, and our engineers are working diligently to find a solution. We apologize for any inconvenience this issue may have caused.
Sincerely,
The Google Team
I’m guessing that this is a good sign and can only hope that they get this fixed soon.
Update 2: Digg would seem to indicate that there are at least two other posts (other than mine) with this problem. There is also some discussion on Google groups on this topic.
Update 3: A little more than an hour ago, Google posted an official response on the Gmail Help Discussion forums:
Hi all,
We are aware of the issues a small sub-set of our users are
experiencing when logging in and sending messages. Rest assured that
our engineering team is working diligently to resolve these errors. We
appreciate your patience.Please refer back to this thread for updates as they become available.
Thanks,
Gmail Guide
It would also seem that the forums are full of people with similar complaints — while I do understand Google’s position on things (it is, after all, still in beta), this cannot be good for their Google Apps release. I also noticed some comments from folks saying that the trial subscription of the Premium Edition of Google Apps was down for over 3 hours. Definitely not a good thing.
Update 4: It turns out that POP3 access is also down. However, I read on the forums that users who have their Gmail emails being forwarded to alternate addresses seem to get some emails (but not all). They’ve surmised (and I agree) that this could be because of the SMTP server being unable to complete some of the transactions. Others have also mentioned that it worked for them momentarily, during which they could see their old mails and some new ones. In some ways, this is quite reassuring.
Some folks have also mentioned that Gmail was back for them after an outage. I do not know if all their mails etc. were intact.
Update 5: Here is the latest update from Google (~2:30 PM EST):
Our engineers are continuing to work on this problem and we expect to have it resolved within a matter of hours. We expect users will have full access to their accounts and mail once the problem is resolved; some messages, however, may be delayed.
Thanks,
Gmail Guide
Well, keep your fingers crossed, people!
Update 6: Gmail seems to be back!
Gmail seems to be back, but it’s quite slow and I still get an error every once in a while, but I did see all my old mails and some new emails. However, not all new emails seem to be there, but I’d imagine that this is mostly due to the delays that the Google team was talking about. And oh, Google Talk also seems to work now. Now, forgive me while I knock on wood and hope that things stay this way. 
Alright, that was a little premature — it’s down again, but now that I have seen my inbox, I am a little more hopeful that this will be fixed. Has anyone else seen any progress?
Update 7: Well, it’s been more than a day and looks like everything’s finally back up and running. Whew.
Ben Said,
March 1, 2007 @ 12:51 pm
Down for me but not for the person in the office next to me. Have the exact same problems described above the 766 error, the gtalk not showing contacts, but showing me online, and no access past loading screen…
Michael Hardt Said,
March 1, 2007 @ 1:06 pm
I can confirm that my wife and I have also been unable to access GMail since last night. Everyone else in the office can access their accounts, however.
Jason Jayhawk Said,
March 1, 2007 @ 1:08 pm
My Gmail is down, too. They really do a good job of hiding downtimes for people. I guess this kind of information might make their stock price volatile…
metlin Said,
March 1, 2007 @ 1:48 pm
@Ben:
Yeah, I have the same problem. Ironically, I can occasionally see a message popup from GTalk when there is an Orkut scrap, which is weird.
@Michael:
I think the problem is only for some accounts – there are some people here who can access and a couple that cannot. So, it seems to me like some accounts are affected but some are not.
@Jason:
Yup, unless you really go looking for these problems, nobody hears of them. The sad thing is that despite these occasional problems, Google is still miles ahead of others. Yahoo! and Hotmail have lost my entire account on several occasions (which doesn’t say a lot about them, I guess).
elaisha Said,
March 1, 2007 @ 2:16 pm
well! My gmail has been down for 3 hours now. every so often I can log in and see the outdated page for about 2 seconds and then nothing again. I have to say I am extremely dissatisfied with this situation. I understand that outages occur, but the level of communication from google is absolutely unacceptable. I’m learning a valuable lesson here on the drawbacks of web-based email…
Robert Miller Said,
March 1, 2007 @ 2:19 pm
Jason,
You do realize that gmail is a beta product right?
Katie Said,
March 1, 2007 @ 2:43 pm
I have been having the same problem since yesterday afternoon. I have Gmail Notifier installed, so I can see that it works for a couple seconds every few hours, and then stops again. It must be one server that’s down, since I haven’t heard anyone else say they’re having a problem with their accounts.
CJ Said,
March 1, 2007 @ 2:45 pm
Yup, gmail is down for me too! Glad to see I am not the only one, but I know how annoying it is
It *is* kind of weird that some people have access and some don’t…. what is the link between us have-nots I wonder?
Hope its up soon, I have an appt time coming in mine
TCho Said,
March 1, 2007 @ 2:55 pm
came across your blog when I googled “gmail down”. anyway, mine has been down since 10AM, EST today. But i’m getting Error Code 717, whatever that means.
Sendar Said,
March 1, 2007 @ 2:57 pm
Mine is down too, but mine gf’s not
SC Said,
March 1, 2007 @ 3:10 pm
Came across this blog when searching for “google down” info as well. Mine gmail has been out since just before midnight PST on Feb 28. Still down today as well. However, my google calendar works just fine.
JC Said,
March 1, 2007 @ 3:20 pm
Yup my Gmail is down also since about 9am. Ironically I made the mistake of changing all my business to Gmail because of problems with another service – go figure. I will say this is the first problem like this I have ever had with them. At most I lost it for a few seconds or so. Anyone know what happens to email sent to us in this situation?
metlin Said,
March 1, 2007 @ 3:27 pm
@Robert:
Sure, it’s understandable for Gmail — but it would seem that the trial subscription for the Google Apps Premium Edition is also down. That cannot be a good thing.
@Katie, CJ, TCho, Sendar, SC:
It is reassuring to know that you are not the only one, right?
@JC:
I read somewhere that some folks were able to momentarily login and could see their old mails and some new mails. So, I am guessing (rather, hoping) that not everything is lost to the bit-bucket.
Lisa (Homesick Texan) Said,
March 1, 2007 @ 4:18 pm
Another “have not” here! Found your blog via Google (how ironic!), and just glad I’m not alone in this frustrating situation. It seems everyone in my office has their GMail, so I was beginning to get paranoid! Congrats on your engagement, btw!
Hidayath Ansari Said,
March 1, 2007 @ 4:24 pm
My account has been inaccessible for the past 6 hours now
Any thoughts on whether mail will be lost?
metlin Said,
March 1, 2007 @ 4:50 pm
@Lisa:
You are not alone — there are a lot of folks out there for whom Gmail isn’t working. And thank you!
@Hidayath:
As far as I could tell from the comments that I saw, there has been no talk of data loss. Those that had their emails forwarded seemed to receive new mails, albeit intermittently. And those that could momentarily login to their accounts seemed to find all their old emails as well as few new ones. See updates 4 for details.
rads Said,
March 1, 2007 @ 6:39 pm
hehe, I was one of those unlucky few a couple of weeks back and I went bersek and totally lost. Dependance on google and its products is putting it mildly!
meera Said,
March 2, 2007 @ 2:41 am
had some trouble yesterday. it said server down or something like that but it was back in a few minutes. i haven’t had much trouble with gmail. guess i am one of the haves.
metlin Said,
March 2, 2007 @ 3:20 pm
@Rads:
I totally know what you mean. I was almost crippled — in fact, I did not know that people had commented on my blog entry and that a lot were using this to know about the status because all my website notifications were sent to Gmail. Isn’t that ironic?
@Meera:
You should be thankful.
But don’t worry, the way things have been, your turn just might come. 
Soft Review » Gmail Down Said,
November 7, 2007 @ 9:38 am
[...] read more | digg story [...]
Dennison Uy - Graphic Designer Said,
February 11, 2008 @ 7:03 am
It’s down for me. I heard POP3 works. I have it activated but I never used it so I will have to download thousands of e-mails. This sucks
James Vreeken Said,
February 28, 2008 @ 1:52 am
down for me since 9pm…
pop3 is not working either…
GMail experiences huge systemwide outage! | iMod Said,
August 11, 2008 @ 6:25 pm
[...] around the net quickly, showed a number of other people experiencing this, so I guess it’s bed time for [...]
Kasey Said,
January 21, 2009 @ 2:52 am
I have the same problem with both my personal and business accounts when trying to access them from my laptop, but i can still get into, read, and reply from my smartphone (an HTC Touch with windows mobile), where i also have the accounts set-up for updates. yay technology!
Kasey Said,
January 21, 2009 @ 2:54 am
totally didn’t realize when this post was made, but gmail has been down for me all day so i searched for something! Woops!
James Said,
February 2, 2009 @ 10:54 pm
it has been down for me since this morning (Australia time)
ST(E)AK Said,
February 24, 2009 @ 7:30 am
Its been down in South Africa since 12:00 about… it sucks
KingCast Said,
March 2, 2009 @ 7:59 am
It is not back. Here in Boston, 6:48 a.m. 2 March 2009. It was back for an hour last night.
Anna Augustin in France Said,
April 14, 2009 @ 6:29 pm
So what does this mean?
Google
Error
Request-URI Too Large
The requested URL /accounts/ServiceLogin… is too large to process.
Anthony Said,
April 14, 2009 @ 8:40 pm
Gmail has been horrible and/or down since February 2009 for me. This sucks.
Richard Said,
May 8, 2009 @ 6:27 am
My gmail account is down (error 500) and I can’t get gmail via OS X Mail either.
Before we all flip we should realize that this happens so infrequently with gmail that we take it for granted. Other mail services have many more issues. They’ll fix it.
I will say that for the past few weeks gmail has seemed a bit balky to me. I can never tell if the problem is Safari loading pages or gmail but it may have been a bit of both and gmail may have been having issues for a while.
Richard Said,
May 8, 2009 @ 6:29 am
Ah, just as I posted my comment above it’s back. Great. Seems I lost nothing and all is well with the world.
kindyroot Said,
May 10, 2009 @ 8:58 pm
In my case, I don’t even get an error! just a blank screen!
Richar J Olivera Said,
June 14, 2009 @ 8:34 am
If you select at the bottom right, BASIC HTML Version you should be able to access, read foward reply….IN OTHER WORDS use your email, not fully functional like standard version. but you can do pretty much everything.
Hope this works for all of you as well.
Steven Lindenau Said,
June 22, 2009 @ 7:59 pm
I got in with Google Chrome when IE and Firefox didn’t work.
Steven Lindenau Said,
June 22, 2009 @ 8:06 pm
I finally got in using Google Chrome when IE and Firefox didn’t work.
Marcia Said,
June 28, 2009 @ 9:27 am
I can not access google search and am not able to log in to gmail for the last couple of days.
Levikus Said,
September 1, 2009 @ 4:08 pm
I can’t log into gmail but it works through igoogle.
Aaron Said,
September 1, 2009 @ 4:23 pm
Here we go again, this really sucks for me! Google Gmail is down and I was in the middle of something extremely important! I hope I don’t lose any email. WTF!!
Natashaw VanBryce Said,
April 3, 2010 @ 8:08 pm
Yes !!!! I have been having trouble with gmail as well. I have been tring to get into my gmail since friday to check important e-mails that I'm waiting to recieve. I'm doing work search and awaiting for replies…What is this problem and why can't I access my e-mail account.
Is there still others having this problem as well.
John Said,
April 26, 2010 @ 5:54 pm
Google SUCKS! If only I hadn't bought that crappy nexus one phone that relies on Google.