UPDATE TWO – FRIDAY 16TH APRIL: Google Down reports are on the rise again after an outage earlier this week.
Down Detector today (Friday April 16) saw large spikes in reported issues with a number of leading Google services – from Google Search to Gmail to Google Drive.
Other popular offers from Mountain View such as Google Classroom, YouTube and Google Calendar are also allegedly affected.
However, from the issues reported on Twitter, it appears that the latest Google teething problems are mostly affecting US users.
At the time of writing, downdetector.com has recorded a high of over 2,500 reports from google down.
UPDATE – MONDAY APRIL 12th: Google just informed Google Drive, Google Docs, and Google Classroom users of a widespread outage that is affecting thousands today.
The Google Drive problem has prevented many users from creating new documents and is affecting a number of popular services – Google Docs, Google Slides, and Google Sheets.
The Google Workspace Status Dashboard confirmed the problem at around 2:30 pm UK time today and classified the problem as an “interruption in service”.
However, in the latest update, Google updated the Google Drive issues to a complete “service outage”.
Google added: “Our team is still investigating this issue. We will provide an update with further information on this issue by April 12th, 2021 at 5:00 pm. Thank you for your patience. Affected users can access Google Drive, see but error messages, high latency and / or other unexpected behavior. “
ORIGINAL: There is a big problem with Google Drive and Google Docs for thousands of Google fans in the UK, Europe and the US.
The independent failure monitor Down Detector has seen a surge in reports on Google Drive, Google, and Google Classroom that are not currently working. These reports get rife on social media and Down Detector is stamping thousands of users moaning about the issues every minute.
At the time of writing, Down Detector alone has registered more than 5,000 reports of Google Drive issues – with the vast majority of reported issues related to app issues.
Google has confirmed that it is aware of the issues and is preparing a solution. However, if you can’t wait for the patch to roll out globally, there is a workaround to help you use Google Docs. This is common in the meantime.
Twitter has been inundated with complaints from Google Drive and Google Docs users who have been affected by today’s issues with the Google service. With millions of people still staying home to work and study, and relying on online tools like Google Drive and Google Docs to collaborate with colleagues, timing is especially bad.
One disappointed Google user tweeted, “Come on, Google Docs. I have work to do, brother,” while another wrote, “Google Drive won’t let me open new documents, I’m afraid”.
One added: “@GoogleForEdu Having problems with the Google Classroom today? I can’t post assignments with Google Docs or slides attached (and I own those documents). Please let me know.”
“We will provide more information shortly. Affected users can access Google Drive, but see error messages, high latency and / or other unexpected behavior. Affected users cannot create new documents.”
While the official Google Workspace Twitter account also replied to a Google Docs user who is experiencing service issues today. To one affected user, @GoogleWorkspace Twitter replied: “Please be assured that our support team is already familiar with and is investigating this issue.
“Please keep an eye on the status dashboard for further updates.”
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