Is Gmail Down?
Gmail is online
No issues reported. The website, app, and services are fully operational.
Service status is calculated by merging official data with a 24-hour baseline of user-reported issues. Our tool recalculates these metrics every 30 minutes to provide a real-time, 360° view of connectivity.
Major Gmail outages and their causes
While Google's infrastructure is incredibly resilient, Gmail occasionally suffers from routing errors or authentication API failures that can paralyze workplace productivity. Below are a few notable examples:
December 2020: The Global Workspace Authentication Crash
In one of the most widespread outages in Google's history, an internal storage quota issue crashed the central authentication system. This completely locked out millions of users worldwide from their Gmail accounts, Google Drive, and Docs for nearly an hour, bringing many remote businesses to a standstill.
Source: The Verge - Massive Google outage knocks Gmail, Drive, and Workspace services offline globally
August 2020: Massive Attachment and Routing Failure
A severe backend disruption specifically targeted Gmail's file handling infrastructure. While users could still log into their inboxes and read text emails, attempting to attach a file, download a document, or use Google Meet resulted in endless loading screens and failure prompts across the globe.
Source: TechCrunch - Gmail suffers widespread global disruption affecting file attachments and Google Meet
February 2023: Widespread IMAP and Sync Delays
A routing malfunction within Google Workspace caused a massive bottleneck in email delivery. Users reported that emails were getting stuck in the "Queued" folder, and third-party mail clients (like Outlook and Apple Mail) repeatedly failed to sync via IMAP and POP3, throwing constant credential rejection errors.
Source: The Times of India - Gmail hit by widespread sync delays and IMAP routing errors worldwide
How our status checker works
We combine official data with a dynamic User-Report Baseline to calculate real-time connectivity. By analyzing user-reported issues over a rolling 24-hour window, our tool recalculates the health of each service every 30 minutes.
Online
When report volume remains below the 50% threshold, the service is confirmed "Online," reflecting stable performance and no widespread issues.
Partial outage
A report surge between 50% and 75% triggers a "Partial outage" alert, indicating localized disruptions or specific feature instability.
Down
Reports exceeding 75% of the baseline classify the service as "Down," signaling a critical failure or a major connectivity outage.
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Official Sync
What to Do If Gmail Is Down
If you're having trouble accessing discord, follow these steps to troubleshoot and restore your connection:
1Check Google Workspace Status
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Check Google Workspace StatusBefore troubleshooting, check the official Google Workspace Status Dashboard. An orange or red icon next to "Gmail" confirms a known backend outage. If services are down, you must wait for a fix. Follow @GoogleWorkspace on X for real-time updates.
2Verify Storage and Clear Cache
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Verify Storage and Clear CacheBouncing emails often mean your Google One storage (shared with Google Drive and Google Photos) is completely full. If the web interface is stuck loading, press Ctrl+F5 to hard refresh or use an Incognito window to bypass ad-blocker conflicts.
3Update IMAP/POP3 App Passwords
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Update IMAP/POP3 App PasswordsIf third-party clients like Microsoft Outlook or Apple Mail show authentication errors, re-add your account using the "Sign in with Google" prompt. If you use 2-Step Verification, generate a unique "App Password" to bypass IMAP connection failures.
4Bypass Geo-Blocks with BearVPN
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Bypass Geo-Blocks with BearVPNWhen corporate firewalls or national geo-blocks prevent Gmail from loading, BearVPN encrypts your traffic to instantly bypass these restrictions. It also secures your connection on public Wi-Fi, keeping sensitive corporate communications and attachments safe from local interception.
Frequently asked questions
Check the Google Workspace Status Dashboard or real-time report platforms like Downdetector. A sudden surge in user reports combined with a status change on Google's official page confirms a widespread infrastructure outage.
This usually indicates a failure to connect to Google's SMTP servers. It can be caused by a global Google routing delay, a lack of available storage space in your Google One account, or an unstable local internet connection preventing the upload.
No. These are standard HTTP server errors indicating that Google's backend servers are currently overwhelmed or temporarily unreachable. Your account data and emails are perfectly safe; the service just needs time to recover.
Yes, in specific scenarios. Some ISPs or public Wi-Fi networks block the specific ports required for IMAP (Port 993) and SMTP (Port 465/587). Using BearVPN to tunnel your connection bypasses these local restrictions, allowing your mail client to sync properly.
Google hosts Gmail text data and attachments on separate server clusters (often tied to Google Drive). It is relatively common for the core email interface to remain online while the specific servers handling file uploads and downloads experience a partial outage.
