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Google Docs Outage Outrages Twitter, Google Responds

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Today, many Google Docs users reported problems accessing their accounts, with many taking to Twitter to lambast the company for the outage. Google responded to the issues, releasing a statement in which it confirmed the troubles numerous users have been experiencing.

“We're aware of a problem with Google Docs affecting a significant subset of users. The affected users are unable to access Google Docs,” stated the company’s service status webpage. “We will provide an update by 11/15/17, 5:30 PM detailing when we expect to resolve the problem. Please note that this resolution time is an estimate and may change.”

There’s no word yet on the exact number of users that are experiencing issues (anecdotally, some members of the Tom's Hardware team were and some weren't), but Google’s admission that the problem is affecting “a significant subset of users” means that these aren’t isolated incidents.

Google updated its post at 3:55pm CT, assuring users the matter is well on its way to being resolved:

“Google Docs 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.”

We’ve reached out to Google for further comment, and will update this article as more is known about the service outage.

8 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Giroro 15 November 2017 22:41
    Yep, this is exactly the reason you should run local licenses of productivity software instead of vague subscriptions to "cloud services".

    It's risky to put yourself in a position where another company could accidentally (or deliberately) shut down your business.
    Reply
  • CRITICALThinker 15 November 2017 22:48
    Yep, docs definitely had some minor issues for me, but my procrastination was a bigger problem in the scheme of things.
    Reply
  • Simon Anderson 16 November 2017 05:57
    mm I would guess the odds of your local software being unavailable for a short amount are greater (power cut, local file server issues etc). Or if that's not true, at least the chance of catastrophic failure is probably greater locally.
    Reply
  • spdragoo 16 November 2017 13:21
    It all depends. It's true that locally-sourced applications & locally-stored data could potentially be unavailable from long-term outages or hardware issues...but cloud-based services don't prevent that. Your office has no power? Guess what: your router & other hardware for connecting to the Internet (not to mention the PCs) are all offline. Hard to connect to a cloud provider without Internet or a device.

    And then, of course, there's the issue where your location has power & Internet, but maybe the cloud-storage data center is offline because they're having a local power outage. Or worse, if a natural disaster (or a man-made disaster) happens & takes out the data center, you'd better hope & pray that the provider has another data center available, or you're pretty far up the creek.
    Reply
  • Non-Euclidean 16 November 2017 14:58
    I would guess the odds of your local software being unavailable for a short amount are greater (power cut, local file server issues etc).

    __________________

    I would guess you dont really think about this at all do you. Tell me again how that scenario works where you have a local power failure and magically can access the cloud?

    The cloud is where you put data if you dont care what happens to it.
    Reply
  • extremepcs1 16 November 2017 20:42
    I prefer to keep my data local, but back up to the cloud.
    Reply
  • john.c.fenton 16 November 2017 20:42
    Google Docs is inaccessible once in xx number of years and suddenly the "local only" crowd is blitzing the forums and ripping anyone who doesn't agree with them. Calm down folks, you all work too hard anyway. Maybe an outage vacation will let you have a break!
    Reply
  • alextheblue 17 November 2017 01:00
    Google responds:

    "Hey, quit your whining or we'll start deleting more documents for 'content'."

    Realistically, they should offer full Docs offline with the option to mirror files online, rather than cloud-only. Like Office 365.
    Reply