[Update: Fixed] Gmail, YouTube, Drive, and multiple other Google services appear to be down across the globe

Damien Wilde | Dec 14 2020 - 4:07 am PT

Although usually very reliable, a large outage is affecting multiple Google services including Gmail, YouTube, Drive, and more across the globe.

Update: Google since confirmed the issues and offered the following update:

We’re aware of a problem with Gmail affecting a majority of users. The affected users are unable to access Gmail. We will provide an update by 14/12/2020 12:12 detailing when we expect to resolve the problem. Please note that this resolution time is an estimate and may change.

Since this notice, most downed services including Gmail and YouTube are now returning to normal after this extended outage. Google notes that:

Gmail service has already been restored for some users, and we expect a resolution for all users in the near future. Please note this time frame is an estimate and may change.

Update 2: A Google spokesperson has since confirmed to TechCrunch that the down period was caused by an “authentication system outage for approximately 45 minutes” — which fits the time period for systems to come back online earlier today. You can read the full statement below:

“Today, at 3.47AM PT Google experienced an authentication system outage for approximately 45 minutes due to an internal storage quota issue. Services requiring users to log in experienced high error rates during this period. The authentication system issue was resolved at 4:32AM PT. All services are now restored. We apologise to everyone affected, and we will conduct a thorough follow up review to ensure this problem cannot recur in the future.”

A huge spike on DownDetector at around 11:56 am GMT (3:56 am PT) notes that multiple of the most popular Google services and G Suite applications appear to be affected. Reports have grown in the interim with YouTube, YouTube Music, Gmail, Google Drive, Meet, and many more experiencing multiple issues when users try to access the services on mobile and desktop.

The outage has yet to be noted on the official Google Workspace status dashboard, which still has all services as running as “normal” despite growing reports of users unable to access their most used platforms. At the time of writing, attempting to access Gmail will throw up a “Temporary error () (500)” notice to note that the service is currently down.

With millions across the globe relying so heavily on Google services and platforms such as G Suite and Gmail to operate, going down can be a costly issue. Attempting to access other services on mobile and desktop will result in similar issues with notices and “Something went wrong…” posts. When trying to access the Google Assistant on smart speakers and Google Nest hardware you’ll be met with a “there was a glitch, try again in a few seconds” message.

Stadia is also down, which does highlight one of the streaming platform’s major weaknesses — a reliance on cloud infrastructure to operate.

Unlike previous outages, the problems are not limited to G Suite-based products, with even the Google Play Store not allowing downloads or payments to be made on the platform. Gmail and other services going down follows minor outages for Google Weather and Search issues over the weekend, albeit on a far smaller scale.

..updating…