Is Gmail down?

Gmail is one of the most popular email services, and offers a great experience whether you’re on a PC, smartphone or tablet. But if you’re having trouble sending or receiving emails, then there could be an issue with the Google servers. Here’s a few quick ways to check if Gmail is down.

Check the G Suite Status Dashboard

Google has a web page that reports the current status of its various apps and services. While the name suggests that it’s only for the paid business-level offerings, Google states that the information on the page is also applicable to the consumer-level products.

If you want to check on Gmail, Google Drive, Docs, Calendar or any of the other apps, visit the G Suite Status Dashboard and look for any coloured dots in the column that matches today’s date.

If it’s empty, then there are no known issues, but if there’s an orange dot then there is some service disruption, while a pink dot denotes that the service is down. To get more details, click on the dot and you’ll get a report of the issue’s current standing.

Use a third-party website to see if Gmail is down

Alongside the G Suite Status Dashboard, there are a number of third-party sites which constantly check on the status of services and sites right across the entirety of the web.

They are all free and provide an excellent way to double check whether a service is having problems or not. Some of our favourites include Down Detector, Is It Down Right Now and Is The Service Down.

To use the status checkers, visit its site and use the search box to find Gmail. Usually, you’ll see an instant report of the current status, plus graphs and data showing any issues that have been reported in the past 24-hours or longer.

The sites also allow you to report an issue so that others will know that Gmail is struggling.

Is the problem local to you?

Should you find that Gmail doesn’t work and you can’t connect to G Suite Status Dashboard or any of the third-party sites, then this could indicate that they problem is your local network rather than the sites themselves.

Try rebooting your router and giving it a good five minutes or so to get back up and running, then check again. If the problem persists, try turning off the Wi-Fi on your smartphone and trying to connect via your mobile data service.

If Gmail suddenly starts working, then it looks like you might have an issue with your Wi-Fi network instead.

To help you find the issue, take a look at how to fix BT broadband connection, how to speed up Wi-Fi and six ways to extend your Wi-Fi range.