Google Confirms Widespread Outage: Gmail, Drive, Calendar, Play, Chrome Sync Affected By Authentication System Issue

According to our own tests and many reports on Twitter, Gmail and other Google services, such as Google Play, Google Drive, Google Calendar, and Chrome Sync, appear to be down for many users. While many people are experiencing the outage, it is not a total outage. The authentication system is probably to blame.

Some users report that their Chrome browsers are crashing when they load gmail.com. What started as a Gmail outage is more important than expected. Google Drive, Google Calendar and Google Play appear to be down for many users. There may be an authentication bug affecting Chrome Sync and Google’s authentication system. If you disable Chrome Sync and your browser stops crashing, it confirms that it comes from the authentication part.

When it comes to Gmail, mobile apps and IMAP through a regular mail client don’t work, either. For now, users can try alternative methods, such as the basic HTML version, the mobile version, etc. There is no guarantee of success.

Google hasn’t updated the status page yet. We’ve reached out to Google for a statement and will update as we learn more.

Update: Some users report that they can now load the Gmail web interface again.

Update 2: A Google spokesperson told TechCrunch:

We are currently experiencing an issue with some Google services. For everyone who is affected, we apologize for any inconvenience you may be experiencing. We will be posting updates to the Apps Status Dashboard.

Update 3: According to the apps dashboard, all services are now operational.

Gmail is down. Cue the panicked crowds running and screaming.

—
  (@TechyDad) December 10, 2012

No one panic....actually GMail is down.....everyone panic!!!

—
Michael LaRocco (@poolman21089) December 10, 2012

Does the Earth stop turning on it's axis when Gmail is down?

—
Sarah Solomon (@sarahsolfails) December 10, 2012

Crunchbase

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Company: Google

Website: google.com

Launch Date: September 7, 1998

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Google provides search and advertising services, which together aim to organize and monetize the world’s information. In addition to its dominant search engine, it offers a plethora of online tools and platforms including: Gmail, Maps, YouTube, and Google+, the company’s extension into the social space. Most of its Web-based products are free, funded by Google’s highly integrated online advertising platforms AdWords and AdSense. Google promotes the idea that advertising should be highly targeted and relevant to users thus providing...

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