Google Drive, Docs, and Sheets outage hits thousands across US

A significant outage impacting Google Drive, Docs, and Sheets began to unfold shortly after noon EST on Wednesday, November 12, as reported by Downdetector. By 1 p.m., over 2,800 users had flagged issues with Google Drive alone, while many others experienced difficulties with Google search, Sheets, and Docs. Google acknowledged the situation, indicating that it was actively looking into the access issues affecting these services. The Google Workspace status dashboard confirmed that there was no immediate workaround for those impacted. As of 1 p.m. ET, nearly 3,000 users reported problems, with around half encountering server connection errors. A substantial number faced challenges in accessing their personal files. Users took to social media and forums to express their frustrations. Comments included, "I’ve tried reloading Google Docs and Drive multiple times, but nothing works," and, "Google Docs and Sheets are still down; I can’t access or download any files from my personal drive." Others noted intermittent connectivity, stating, "It worked for a while but then went down again," and, "I can't open any of my Google Docs. It keeps saying 'Error making file offline.' It works on my laptop but not my phone." Google later provided an official update, confirming the ongoing issues starting at 9:00 PST on November 12. Their engineering team is actively investigating the matter, with assurances that more information would be shared by 11:45 PST. In a subsequent update at 9:18 PM UTC, Google reiterated their commitment to resolving the access issues affecting multiple Workspace products. Some users also reported encountering SSL errors, with messages indicating problems with secure connections. In the meantime, Google recommended a few temporary solutions for those affected, such as rebooting their routers or attempting to access services via mobile devices as alternatives.