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(Updated) Gmail Problems Arise Once Again. [downtime]

By Zee
September 24, 2009
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(Updated) Gmail Problems Arise Once Again. [downtime]We’re receiving messages and tweets reporting Gmail being down for some and inaccessible in parts for others.

This comes soon after a major downtime period just three weeks ago, where the company were forced to explain they had completely underestimated the load on their service when performing some standard maintenance.

The service dashboard (below) currently shows that Gmail is in fact having service issues and Google is aware of the problem.

In status update 1, Google says:

“We’re aware of a problem with Google Mail affecting a small subset of users. The affected users are unable to access Google Mail, but we’ve provided a workaround below. We will provide an update by September 24, 2009 4:29:00 PM UTC+1 detailing when we expect to resolve the problem. Please note that this resolution time is an estimate and may change. You can access Gmail via IMAP”

Update 2: In a second update, Google explains:

“Google Mail service has already been restored for some users, and we expect a resolution for all users within the next 1 hours. Please note this time frame is an estimate and may change.

The Gmail issue should now be resolved for most of our users. There still might be issues with your contacts. For Gmail users: Use www.google.com/contacts to access your contacts For Google Apps Customers: www.google.com/contacts/a/yourdomain-name.com”

Update 3: In a third update, Google says:

We are continuing to investigate this issue. We will provide an update by September 24, 2009 6:30:00 PM UTC+1 detailing when we expect to resolve the problem.
The Gmail issue should now be resolved for many of our users. Contacts and chat are still not working. For Gmail users, you can use www.google.com/contacts to access your contacts. Google Apps customers can use www.google.com/contacts/a/yourdomain-name.com
“We are continuing to investigate this issue. We will provide an update by September 24, 2009 6:30:00 PM UTC+1 detailing when we expect to resolve the problem.
The Gmail issue should now be resolved for many of our users. Contacts and chat are still not working. For Gmail users, you can use www.google.com/contacts to access your contacts. Google Apps customers can use www.google.com/contacts/a/yourdomain-name.com”
Update 4: Gmail is apparently up and running again as normal. Google reports in:
The problem with Google Mail should be resolved. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience and continued support.

Maintaining near perfect up time for a company like Google is critical. With the search giant trying to expand their array of products into business applications for major corporations, downtime, particularly for email, just can’t happen. Not this frequently anyway.

Picture 4

Tags: ,  

  • and Gmail hanging may become the largest productivity bottleneck if we continue to solely rely on it


    This comment was originally posted on FriendFeed

  • GerMen
    What would you rely on instead?
  • Anonymous
    rackspace email and apps
  • Atiya Tasneem
    i cant open my gmail account, kindly fix it immdly.

  • both my gmail.com and my apps-hosted domain account are affected.


    This comment was originally posted on FriendFeed

  • My gmail went down too. Seemed to effect my web based business for the past 6 days! NOT happy.
  • Anonymous
    My Gmail account is going bonkers - are they STILL having issues with accounts/mail? ERRRRRRRRRRR!!! I can't log into anything!
  • Gmail is not working in several southern states as well as in some Central Europe Countries. This is not a (small subset of users" as Google says ;/
  • They always say it's a small subset when something happens. I think it's just boilerplate for them.
  • still a fan
    I don't think so. I can access mail and apps at home through my wireless provider, but not at my office where I access through very different servers.
  • Trevor
    My email contacts are temporarily gone and my google websites are hung trying to load the editor.
  • I dunno. It's happened twice that I've noticed. Sure, they were close together, but that's hardly "frequent".
  • Carol Ann
    My email is wonky, my contacts are gone, Google Talk is completely effed. This is pretty frustrating.
  • Doc Holiday
    Gmail contacts are inop, thus Gtalk is not working.

    Must be back to school sex-texting is overloading the servers again.
  • It's still here for me :) (Holland)
  • tim
    Can anyone recommend a good web based email site?
  • Did anyone give you a name? Thanks Bob
  • c.j. Smith
    WHAT is the PROBLEM AGAIN!!! This is so over the top ridiculous, how are you to run a business with an email program that no employee's can use and stops our businesss!
    NO EXCUSE Gmail!
  • Anonymous
    I agree!! I am a writer on deadline - screw this!
  • Tai
    All I need is one damn address that a friend gave me in a chat log, and it refuses to load it.
  • Mallory Kydd
    First off, let me start off by saying that your "G-Fail" picture is hysterical! It is helpful that you post these types of trends. I recently just signed up for a G-MAIL account for my online media course. It seems that just relying on on one Email address is the wrong thing to do. Although emailing has become a mundane activity of our lives we need to keep in mind that it is an electronic activity and thing may go wrong.
  • Ron
    Problems today 9/24/09: Older version (far superior IMO) is gone. Copy and paste not working. Poor connectivity. And WHY, for gods sake, can't they find a way to BCC from your contact list without typing in each address??? Even Homail, the POS, can do THAT!
  • Dan
    Gmail contacts and chat still not working as of 1;37 p.m. ET. I'm not really sure that all mail messages have actually arrived.
  • Ron
    Now I get message that one or some of my contact e-mail addresses may be not be fully formed so I can't mail from the list until I go through 83 contacts, one at a time apperantly, and see what's wrong...although the OLDER VERSION worked perfectly. Good God.
  • John
    I'll take a couple hours of gmail downtime any day compared to my daily 30 minutes of slowness Outlook causes
  • +1
  • Suss
    Gmail still down "Down Under"
  • How many hours has Gmail been down this year? Compare to the uptime hours? What's that in reliability terms? Tell me which email system offers better performance metrics?
  • donna
    Gmail will not recognize username/pw....
  • donna
    Can't access Gmail in Southcentral Pennsylvania 11:05 PM 9/24/09
  • donna
    No Gmail access southcentral Pennsylvania 11:08pm Sept. 24
  • Penny
    No gmail at 11 pm in central Kansas
  • Hi,
    Make free international calls using u r free bundled minutes from u r mobile, only thing u need to do is register here link:http://www.bestmobilesaver.com
  • Henry
    mails sent not arriving at their destination, mails sent to me never arriving. Can't run my business like this, very frustrating
  • Alex
    Mine is still not working today!
  • Moritz Moeller-Herrmann
    Again a downtime in Germany on 6 October 2009.
  • Jessica
    Unable to access gmail for three days now. Constant loading/refreshing by itself. Very frustrating... what's the fix??
  • Karien
    Also down for 2 days now... My one gmail account is working through Outlook, but the other one not. Kriek Kriek...
  • TiMcK
    Been down for me for 2 days, other than for a few seconds here and there (no access for a solid 24 hours though)... although mobile gmail will work on my cell. Wierd.

    m.gmail.com won't load either. Its driving me nuts!
  • Anonymous
    My email is doing something REALLY strange. The page won't be still, it's jumpimg all around and looking at it will make you dizzy. What's going on??????
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