Google isn’t down: Malwarebytes antivirus app blocks Google.com for many

Having trouble accessing Google.com this morning? Google isn’t down, but it might have to do with Malwarebytes being used on your device.

Update: Malwarebytes says this issue has been resolved, though the fix may take time to roll out to all users. The company has yet to offer an exact explanation as to what caused this problem.

A spike in users on DownDetector today are reporting that Google Search is down, with Google.com not loading on their devices. But Google is not down today; the issue rather seems to be coming from an error with Malwarebytes, a popular antivirus program.

An issue with Malwarebytes is flagging Google.com and other domains incorrectly and blocking its users from accessing those domains. The issue appears to have hit widely as of 11am ET on September 21, and causes users to be unable to access Google.com, as well as receiving notifications for malware alerts. Other Google products, such as Gmail and YouTube, are also affected by this issue.

The cause of this error is not clear, but Malwarebytes has confirmed that it is looking into the “temporary issue” on Twitter.

The good news? Google isn’t down, and this issue is actually pretty easy to fix. The bad news? There’s no exact timeline on when this will be resolved.

While Malwarebytes gets things back to normal, you can get access to Google back by turning off “Web Protection” within the antivirus app. You’ll find that option under “Real Time Protection” in the lower right of the app. Some users have also found that updating Malwarebytes seems to fix the problem, and you can also just remove the app from your device altogether to fix the problem.