How to Check If Your Gmail Is Working

When your Gmail isn't working properly or at all, determine if it's down for everybody or just you. Check the Google Status Dashboard page to find out if Google is aware of Gmail service disruptions — login failures, missing data, or certain functions not working — and check for an estimate of how long the outage will last. If Google doesn't know about the problem, alert the company about the outage.

Check the Google Status Dashboard

If you have trouble with your Gmail account, the service may be disrupted or down completely. However, it could be just you. Before you take any other action, check the current status of Gmail.

Person checking Gmail status on a computer — Lifewire / Miguel Co

Go to the Google Status Dashboard web page.
Go to the listing for Gmail and look at the Current status column. A green button next to Gmail indicates there are no known issues, an orange button indicates a service disruption, and a red button indicates a service outage.
Go to the current date for Gmail to read comments. Usually, when the button is red or orange, there's an indication of what is going on or when it might be fixed.

If the button is green, you are the only one having a problem and should contact Gmail support for help. If the button is orange or red, Google knows about it, and there's nothing to do until Google resolves the problem.

Subscribe to the Google Status Dashboard RSS feed in an RSS feed reader to receive up-to-date status reports.

Go to the Gmail Help Center

Before you contact Google for help, look at the Gmail Help Center to see solutions to frequently occurring problems with Gmail.

Select Fix a problem and choose the category that matches the trouble you are having. Categories include:

Missing Gmail messages
Unwanted or suspicious emails
Loading & display
Account
Can't sign in to Google account
Sync & import
Rejected messages

You may find a solution at the Help Center. If not, contact Google.

How to Report an Issue to Google

If you encounter a problem that's not on the Gmail Help Center list, report it to Google.

In Gmail, select Settings.
Select Send Feedback.
In the Send feedback window, describe your issue.
Include a screenshot of the problem, if you have one.

Use the provided tools to hide and highlight things in your screenshot.
Select Send.
A technician will respond and assist you with the problem.