More than 120,000 Gmail users temporarily lose e-mails, other data

[News_Editor]

More than 120,000 Gmail users temporarily lose e-mails, other data

2011-02-28 08:17:55 GMT+7 (ICT)

MENLO PARK, CALIFORNIA (BNO NEWS) -- More than 100,000 users of the webmail service Gmail have reportedly lost all their e-mails and parts of their settings after an unexplained fault on Sunday morning, Google said.

Scores of users on social networking websites and Gmail help forums reported that their e-mails, folders, themes and labels had all been deleted. Other features such as contacts and documents were not affected.

"This issue affects less than 0.08% of the Google Mail userbase. Google engineers are working to restore full access," Google said in an update on its Apps Status Dashboard. "Affected users may be temporarily unable to sign in while we repair their accounts."

According to a BBC News article in September 2009, Gmail has over 150 million users around the world. This would mean at least 120,000 users have been affected by the unexplained issue.

"My entire Gmail account had been re-set. No labels, no spam, no trash, no emails, nothing. NOTHING," Sasha Wilkins, better known as Liberty London Girl, wrote on her blog post. "A firm believer in the concept of cloud computing, it never occurred to me that my Gmail account could one day disappear."

A spokesperson for Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday evening.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2011-02-28

[Crushdepth]

The wonders of cloud computing. How long until we see a real disaster?

[Phil Conners]

"This issue affects less than 0.08% of the Google Mail userbase. Google engineers are working to restore full access," Google said in an update on its Apps Status Dashboard. "Affected users may be temporarily unable to sign in while we repair their accounts."

[dddave]

I did have problems with GMAIL Sunday, it took several tries to load GMAIL, then very slow opening of messages but nothing like the problems described in this article.

Makes me realize how over-confident I am. I haven't backed up my contact list or my saved messages, some of which are very important.

What is the best way to back up a Gmail account on a regular basis?

[devdrinker]

Quick quick, signup to one those $5 a month cPanel web hosting providers, and move all your email there. Much more secured, as you'll be on box with 500 other websites and 13 exposes services etc.. <-- the more the better.

Or even better DIY it all yourself, setup an Exchange box at your office, you know security and reliability better than those retards at Google.

(in case anyone doesnt get it. Im joking..)

[Phil Conners]

Quick quick, signup to one those $5 a month cPanel web hosting providers, and move all your email there. Much more secured, as you'll be on box with 500 other websites and 13 exposes services etc.. <-- the more the better.

Or even better DIY it all yourself, setup an Exchange box at your office, you know security and reliability better than those retards at Google.

(in case anyone doesnt get it. Im joking..)

+1

[MaiChai]

I did have problems with GMAIL Sunday, it took several tries to load GMAIL, then very slow opening of messages but nothing like the problems described in this article.

Makes me realize how over-confident I am. I haven't backed up my contact list or my saved messages, some of which are very important.

What is the best way to back up a Gmail account on a regular basis?

Use the imap interface and backup via that. Thunderbird email client can keep a local copy of imap mail; so this is an easy way to create a backup. Plenty of other ways using the imap interface.

[MaiChai]

Ok, just added my gmail account to Thunderbird and told it to keep a copy of all Gmail messages local. This feature was really designed to allow you to access your mail while not connected to the net, but it also serves as a good backup.

If you can set this up on more than one computer (I use Ubuntu now; given up on Win7; mind you I am a UNIX/Linux sysadmin by trade), then you then have two backups. Thus if you have a small netbook with Linux; install Thunderbird there and tell it to also keep copies locally. Then you have two sets of backups, plus the benefit of all your mail being online (eg if you use a mobile phone to read your mail as well).

Sorted!

[manarak]

Quick quick, signup to one those $5 a month cPanel web hosting providers, and move all your email there. Much more secured, as you'll be on box with 500 other websites and 13 exposes services etc.. <-- the more the better.

Or even better DIY it all yourself, setup an Exchange box at your office, you know security and reliability better than those retards at Google.

(in case anyone doesnt get it. Im joking..)

the 5$ a month don't cut it, but I feel much better running my own mailserver, and/or using the good old pop3 protocol and downloading all messages to my local NAS (backuped).

I consider the main problem with gmail mailboxes to be not reliability, but rather confidentiality, and confidentiality will further degrade with cloud computing and cloud applications.

It is the main reason why I do not use an android smartphone.

Why should one use internet to sync messages, appointments and contacts?

Cloud computing, android... ?

Just say no.

[bangkokcitylimits]

Here are several Gmail back up programs: http://en.softonic.com/s/gmail and following pages.

Haven't try anyone myself though.

[bangkokcitylimits]

(What's wrong with TV message editing function ?)

This Gmail back-up/restore software also listed on the previously mentioned website might be interesting, not free though: http://gmailkeeper.com/