Gmail, Google Docs, Google Drive restored after suffering massive worldwide outage; Google apologizes for inconvenience

System reliability is a top priority at Google, the company said.

New Delhi: Several Google services like Gmail, Google Drive, Google Docs and Google Meet were restored after suffering one of the longest worldwide outages on Thursday.

The tech giant has apologised for the inconvenience, adding that system reliability is a top priority at Google.

As per the timeline of the Google Apps status page, the following activity was seen

At 2:08 PM, the page said, "We are continuing to investigate this issue. We will provide an update by 8/20/20, 3:08 PM detailing when we expect to resolve the problem."

Gmail sending issues, Meet recording issues, Creating files issues in Drive, CSV user upload issues in Admin Console, Posting message issues in Google Chat, Sites adding new pages issues, Keep issues, Voice mail issues.

At 3:10 PM, it wrote, "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."

At 4:40 PM, the page said, "The problem with Gmail should be resolved. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience and continued support. System reliability is a top priority at Google. We are making continuous improvements to make our systems better."

Check out the screengrab of G Suite status dashboard

At around mid-morning (India timing) Gmail suffered massive outage worldwide with some users complaining that they can’t send any attachments or documents while a few others reported that they have not been able to log in at all.

Popular outage tracking portal Down Detector reported that user reports indicate Google is having problems since 1:16 AM EDT. Down Detector reported there was an outage with Google servers.Google responded to users, saying they were working on a fix to resolve the issue. Down Detector said nearly 62 per cent of the users reported problems with Gmail, being unable to send or receive emails.

Gmail in its status page confirmed the disruption. It wrote, "We're investigating reports of an issue with Gmail. We will provide more information shortly".

Meanwhile, microblogging site Twitter has been flooded with queries as the users are unable to work on Gmail.

GMAIL IS DOWN. I can't decide if this is wonderfully liberating or wildly stressful — Rebekah Scanlan (@rebekahscanlan) August 20, 2020

Users across the globe unable to access #Gmail since morning and Downdetector confirms the situation. Hopefully, it'll be back soon #gmaildown pic.twitter.com/DjlwLh6YFx — S Aadeetya (@aadee_ram) August 20, 2020

Is #gmail down for anyone? Unable to send an email. Keep getting a network error. (But network is fine!) — Bilal Jaffery (@BilalJaffery) August 20, 2020

Gmail is down apparently, you're not alone. — Erwan Heussaff (@erwanheussaff) August 20, 2020

User reports indicate Gmail is having problems since 12:36 AM EDT. https://t.co/EsWw2oLYjH RT if you're also having problems #Gmaildown — Downdetector (@downdetector) August 20, 2020

This is the second time in two months that Gmail has suffered such massive outage. In July this year, Google users had a harrowing time in India as Gmail services went down for hours.

Users in India and in some other countries went to social media platforms complaining they were unable to access Gmail and other Google services.