Google G-Suite services down for four hours worldwide

Google's G Suite productivity services suffered a four-hour worldwide outage on Thursday afternoon.

The problems began at about 3.30pm and initially impacted only Gmail and Google Drive.

However, it soon became apparent that the problems were deeper than first thought, as other services including Docs, Slides, Sites, Groups, Chat, Meet, Keep and Voice progressively joined the casualty list.

Google characterised the problem as “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, [and] voicemail issues”.

It did not say what the root cause was, but said at 7.40pm - some four hours after the outages started - that resolution was beginning to occur “for some users”.

“We expect a resolution for all users in the near future,” it said, though it added the time frame was “an estimate and may change.”