Brief Google outage knocks out Gmail, YouTube

Google users in the U.S., Europe, India and other parts of the world were briefly unable to access their Gmail accounts, watch YouTube videos or access their online documents during an outage Monday.

Tens of thousands of complaints popped up around 7 a.m. ET along the East Coast of the U.S. The vast majority of those people, about 90%, could not log in, according to the site Downdetector.

The inability to sign in prevented users accessing other platforms through Google, including mobile video games.

The disruption was an early jolt on the East Coast for parents who were waking children up for school Monday. Millions of students are relying on Google for online instruction during the pandemic, including platforms such as Google Docs.

The problem appeared to clear up just before 8 a.m.

“The problem with Gmail should be resolved for the vast majority of affected users,” Google’s parent company, Alphabet, said at 7:52 a.m. ET. “We will continue to work towards restoring service for the remaining affected users.”

Downdetector, which tracks website outages, reported that the problem affected users across the world, but appeared especially widespread in the northeastern U.S., Britain and other parts of Europe. Japan, Malaysia and India also appear to have been affected.