Rolling Outages Frustrate Gmail Users

It's still in beta and it's free. I can't complain.

If your email is critical to you and your business then you shouldn't be using Gmail or any other web-based email system.

nuclearpenguins

I was just thinking about this today. For the past two-weeks or so gMail has had trouble sending my email, opening messages, switching folders, etc. The odd thing was that gMail would always load and to fix the problem I just had to reload the page (which can get annoying if you have written a nice long email). I have also noticed that gMail has been randomly auto-sending my email as opposed to saving it as a draft. I hope this is fixed ASAP.

computerwiz3491

I never, ever, experienced outages. Might be me being located in The Netherlands but no problems whatsoever.

A couple of weeks ago, my Gmail was down. I figured no problem, I'll log into my Comcast account and send email from there. As luck would have it, Comcast email was down for most of that day as well. I then realized it was a grand conspiracy and I just gave in and swore off email for the day.

Yeah, you should configure at least one e-mail client via IMAP (or POP3).

Gmail via IMAP has been by far the most reliable mail service in my experience, including every single corporate e-mail system that I have ever used in my life.

Deprong Mori

I have never noticed an outages yet. Though I MIGHT have looked at an outage and thought that it was prolly only my connection acting up. At that point I usually open up Google, StackOverflow, and Lifehacker to see if I can access other sites or not. I do not recall having only gmail act up on me.

on and off for me.

glaeven

It was down for me on both web and IMAP access was down for over an hour for me yesterday afternoon. On the web, it would sit there loading until it timed out. On the IMAP side, the server would stop responding after authentication.

Will Dearman

I had a very brief outage this morning, which is the first I've ever noticed. My bigger problem has been the
compose link randomly not working. Sometimes reloading the pages solves, sometimes it does not.

Bubarubu

"You're not a lone"?

Jordan117

If I'm not a lone, then am I a debt?

Just checked mine and it works fine, BBC iPlayer had an outage yesterday

I can't say I've noticed anything with my google aps hosted email...

TekWarren

My brother had trouble using Gmail yesterday, but his chat worked through the google homepage.

Today, when I go to Google Docs, it doesn't show my spreadsheets unless I search for them by name or know the url.

Whatever you do please don't accept being in beta as making outages acceptable. It's 5 years now...

My Google Apps and plain-old GMail accounts were both affected. My iPhone reported an authentication error when trying to connect via IMAP, leading to a mild state of panic until I was able to establish my account had not been compromised or frozen. The web interface reported a temporary error (500), and suggested I try again momentarily. Everything was back to normal before I had time to get irritated about it being broken.

Mike_

It's currently not working for me, however the basic HTML mode is working fine.

Yesterday I needed to print out an excel file from an email, and Gmail was down during the 30 minute window I had available.

I have 3 gmail accounts. One of them, a spam account, has been flaky for at least week. It hangs while loading and I have to click the html mode link to view my messages. My other accounts work just fine in the same browser on the same machine. What's up gmail?

louiedog

I noticed it, too... a bunch of "Sorry, your request could not be completed" and "Try loading the HTML version of this page."

But it's no biggie. I still have my MSN/Yahoo accounts to send from when I can't get to them in Gmail.

Xerloq

Ohhh.... THAT's why my email was acting funky yesterday! Out of all the outages LH has reported, this was the first one I was affected by, or at least noticed.

I actually had a friend email me something i requested and i not get it, multiple times today. I called him and he did send it. I got it by logging on as him, and it was there in his sent folder.

It was 2 gmail accounts.

Zachary Myers

I'm not a lone what?

Lone wolf?

Lone dog?

Lone piece of bad grammar?

And I use IMAP. I only use the web interface when not using my own computers, but have experienced the frustration, especially since my domain is hosted by google for email

@zenpilgrim: Hotmail seems to be mirroring that last few gmail outages too.

orlo

This is why thunderbird is awesome.

slyfoxlp

@nuclearpenguins: If you use the free version then yes but if someone is using the paid version then no.

crichton007

@Swizzler121: correction, my math sucks and i've only had gmail 4 years.

How about Spam and Trash messages not being removed after 30 days?

In the 5 years I've had Gmail, i've experienced one outage (and it was this year) that lasted about 20 mins. either you guys can't help but press f5 every few seconds or you are on the jalopy servers, while mine is ridin' gold 22's.

Sometimes i have gmail open and it says: "Can't connect with server, check your internet connection. Trying again..." but that's the only thing.

jamy016

@gazer: I agree. GoOgle has already said, "beta" is a permanent part of the service name, so that's no excuse. On the other hand, as nuclearpenguins kind of said, anything free is worth about as much as what you pay for it.

Rolling anger is more like it.
For the past few weeks, like most, Gmail has been slow to open or process mail. Chat keeps cutting out or is not available.
AND MOST angering - my notes in the calendar are GONE!
I finally started adding/posting notes to my calendar towards the end of last year instead of using Act and/or Outlook and now I'm screwed. I have and will continue to use Outlook to download all my mail should Gmail fail, thank goodness. But it sucks that after 5 years of use and being a huge proponent of Google services this would happen.
Amazing that we accept the 'beta' crap still after more than five years! Would anyone accept that from MS? Doubt it.
Guess the 'cloud' is still full of holes. :-(

The university where I work (+20,000 students) has been without email all day. We switched to Google about a year ago.

EricMBlog

@computerwiz3491:
Don't know if this is related, but when Gmail acts up a bit, I use this link: [mail.google.com]

It's the older version, but not the html version. In my case it's faster (no labs but it allow more reliable usage).

Yep, was affected. Many weeks ago I decided to bail on Gmail...for good. Too many outages, enough reports of compromises to make me wonder, and a generally attitude of wanting my email on my computer...not in the cloud. So installed Thunderbird, migrated all the Gmail archives, and am working on moving important email connections away from Gmail. Will still use Gmail for public email addy, as they're the best spam filter out there, IMHO. YMMV.

I wonder how many of you having problems are using any gmail extensions or labs features? I have offline and themes enabled, but don't have any extensions for gmail installed (forgot to do so after I had to wipe my hd). I haven't noticed any problems at all.. :-\

happened to me yesterday for about 20minutes

@psychiccheese: LOL

I've had problems with both Gmail and blogger (I don't know if they're kissin' cousins or not...). Blogger loads as if without css at first, requires reload ...similar to Gmail asking for basic HTML mode.

I was down yesterday... and I spent the whole time thinking about my reliance on Gmail and Google Apps.

Hey, Lifehacker editors: it would be cool to see a post about Gmail alternatives if you all have any insight into that.

You've mentioned Gmail outages a few times but I (fortunately) have not had any at all since I started using big G's mail back in 05.

Yaay for me...

reg4c

@Lucifer_Cat: Yea, I only had it happen once. And then the other time I just had to reload gmail a few times to get it up. I'm still very satisfied.

I had difficulty accessing gmail yesterday, too. It failed to send a few emails, wouldn't load... lasted about an hour. Made me aware of what an email addict I am - I was going out of my mind...

dimethirwen

I also had trouble, but it did load in HTML mode fine. I'm not too concerned, since it's my personal email, and not critical for work. However, I have come to expect a certain level of service from The Google, and am disappointed even when the smallest thing goes wrong. Anyone else have high expectations as well?

Joy Billings

@Giannicolus Jones: FWIW I had major problems using Google Calendar with offline enabled in Firefox. The problem went away. I've never noticed problems with gmail, yet. I could switch to flaky connection mode if I needed to. The only problems I've had is when my neighborhood Caribou Coffee had a really flaky wireless connection, but lately it, and gmail, have been rock solid for me.

At this point in the semester, I wonder if I wouldn't welcome a gmail outage.

DangerousLiberal

2 Apps accounts and a Gmail account - no trouble accessing the accounts, but delivery to my TMo Blackberry has been unusually delayed and slow all week.

MINI2Go

I was down for about half an hour to an hour three times yesterday, at seemingly random intervals. But in all honesty, I didn't fret much over it because it's a free email and there was likely a reason behind it. Not the end of the world in my book.

Sabbadeus

I had a very nasty outage yesterday just as I was trying to deliver something to a client. Could not have come at a worse time frankly. It was dead for about 10-15 crucial minutes.

Big wakeup call that I depend on it a little too much.

atanguay

Yesterday I had some access issues for about an hour.

I still use Outlook (POP3) for my Gmail Apps account, just to have a safe backup of my email and Calendar.
I also use the offline feature, AND I have a IMAP2 access from my phone. So I guess I'm covered..

I'll knock on wood after saying this, but I still haven't had any Gmail outages. I have noticed the emails are coming in slower, but I haven't lost anything or not been able to access my email.

$50 bucks per year is a small price to pay for reliability. I'm on Google Apps Premium (with offline access disabled) and it's been smooth sailing, although I have noticed some delayed offline syncing. Plus with the premium, you get to call and rant at someone if you want. :-)

dcis-steve

I couldn't access my desktop Gmail for several hours. However, using the the Google mail application on the G1 was fine.

Jamie Thompson

@geckoist: LOLx2

My Google Apps Offline Gmail has never worked. It's enabled, but the icon never shows up in the upper right hand corner like it does with my free accounts.

I chalked it up to being beta. Funny enough, I setup the offline access because my performance has been terrible lately.

@leaderbuilder:
Stop paying for their service.

I'm not complaining, it's free. I do, however, wish Google would (if they are scheduled) have a schedule of outages. My email was out for a few hours on a couple occasions. What can you say, it's free! GMail is still a great service, and this doesn't affect my opinion one bit on the service.

dnRoyston

I didn't notice any problems on any of my accounts.

David Quigley

I have had issues for the last several days and have had to resort to using the basic HTML version...no biggie.

It would hang on "Loading" and I would have to reload the page which was getting annoying.

I simply switched to basic HTML and have had no issues since.

It is free so I guess you get what you pay for :)

I have no problems using Chrome to access GMAIL but Windows Live Mail using IMAP has been complaining a LOT lately. Outlook Express used to have the same problems before I upgraded. It's always been rocky.

my gmail went out around 10 last night, but came back online after 15 - 20 minutes, no big deal

Evan Sangetta

"several" users here, "a couple" of users there = "rolling outages"?

How does that not equal coincidental connection issues and rumor?

Show us clean traceroutes and pings without packet loss, then start making accusations about 'rolling outages'

You're usually much more fact-based. Methinks you let your frustration get the best of you.

Talthybius

I've had outages twice. The first was months ago when a huge number of people lost service for what felt like a whole day. The second was a few days ago when I couldn't use it for about 30 minutes.

Both times, the problem was apparently in the web front end, because both times I was able to continue to use gmail via POP throughout the "outages."

stubear

No problems in North Carolina. So, seems like the Lenoir station is doing quite well.

@undefined: No frustration has not got the best of me or many, many others.
I believe you have just been very lucky.
I am in Gmail 15 hours a day nearly every day.
I am a network adminstrator for a national company.
I have two separate very high-speed lines - one cable and one dsl, both dedicated at home. And have had issues here.
At my office I have two T1's separate providers there also. And have had lots of issues there.
I live in the north west and have family and friends in the southwest, the south, and back east. And all of them have had some of the same issues too, and these have all been, for me and mine, occurring for the past few weeks.
How do I know - because I am the guy they call when they have issues. I don't need to show you my net stats unless you can resolve the issue.
I think the article is making the prudent point that reliance on the 'cloud' can be fraught with problems and even danger.
I have been a huge proponent of Google apps in the past but the past four months have put a huge damper on that.
And I have been using Gmail for over 5 years.
Yes people like me are very frustrated. And rightly so. I will state again if it was MS or even Apple that had a product in beta for 5 years they would be vilified. Somehow Google is getting a pass.

@fly-by-night: LOLx3

In my google adsense account there is a scheduled maintenance for today maybe that has something to do with it.

Thomas Alan

I haven't had any problems. Actually, I've been really impressed with Gmail of late.

www.careerbags.com

It's nice to know that it's not my DSL connection. For the past week or so, I have been noting random problems with Gmail: timing out after trying to connect, getting login error messages, spontaneously sending emails from my draft folder. During these times, I've still been able to access Google Docs, my Picasa Web folder, and also chat. However, there isn't a single email provider I have who doesn't also have periodic outages: this include my ISP Bellsouth.net, which is not webmail-based; and my MobileMe account. My solution is to have multiple email providers. Yesterday, after Gmail started acting wonky yet again, I was inspired to add yet another account, this one at fastmail.fm

chiralangel

Been on and off for weeks now, server errors, not loading properly etc. Thinking about creating a new account somewhere else as an alternative. Looking for some options now.

matilde

The Google Apps Dashboard seems to confirm that have been e-mail issues nearly daily for the past few weeks:

[www.google.com]

@psychiccheese: You mean 'loan'?

I was having problems a few days last week with my Google Apps Gmail. Mail wouldn't send, chat wouldn't work, it was just very frustrating... what was really crazy is that I could Compose and email and add attachments, but it would not send. I shut my browser down and started Gmail back up and the emails were in my Drafts... strange stuff. I don't have Offline enabled because corporate policy will not allow me to install it.

Jimmy Greene

louiedog, I have also got 3 gmail accounts ad one of them is for spam (another for prank!)

I live in Japan and online all the time either through laptop or through iPhone and never noticed anything wrong with Gmail in last 1 week. As someone pointed out earlier, I sometime have problem with "C" keyboard shortcut for composing, that is all and I forgive google geeks for that.

@computerwiz3491: Seems like there's something wrong with your browser. Have you tried using another browser?

ssj4Gogeta

@nuclearpenguins:

It is not free, free. There are advertisements in it that pay for it and invade our real state screen.

matilde

@fly-by-night:

Yeah.. cuz itz free we should all just be quiet and obey right?

Well it is not free, free. There are advertisements in Gmail that pay for it, and invade our real state screen.

That is the price.

matilde

@LaptopBags: Self promoting isn't permitted.

@matilde: Yeah, but there's also programs and add ons to browsers that remove those adds. ITS FREE

BurnZ_