Google services are failing

[WiseOne]

Is this just me or have others been having issues? Some services like hangouts never worked properly. But lately....

I've been using Googe calendar for years as have a bunch of other people I know, but it started misbehaving a few months ago. Events entered would disappear, and the calendar tab on my browser would suddenly freeze and I wouldn't be able to add or modify events even after restarting the browser. This happened to others too, resulting in people not showing up for meetings and other such issues. I finally gave up and switched to Apple iCal. No problems since.

Gmail has been losing emails lately. I'd get one, then search for it later and it is nowhere to be found. Again, not just me...happening to others too. I've also seen several examples in the past few days of an email not showing up on the inbox (using the web access), but turning up easily when searched.

Today it was google voice, with total failure of the website (not displaying any calls/messages). I use my google voice number as a "public" phone # that I give out to entities (e.g. credit card companies) that are likely to sell it to telemarketers, but sometimes the voicemails are important (like today). Based on what the caller told me, they've left voicemails for me before that I never got.

Maybe this is all kind of standard for free internet services, but it just seems that Google's services are becoming noticeably unreliable. I've made rather liberal use of them, and some would be very difficult to change e.g. the personal email. Hope this is just a temporary blip and not a permanent trend.

[Mountaineer]

Is this just me or have others been having issues? Some services like hangouts never worked properly. But lately....

I've been using Googe calendar for years as have a bunch of other people I know, but it started misbehaving a few months ago. Events entered would disappear, and the calendar tab on my browser would suddenly freeze and I wouldn't be able to add or modify events even after restarting the browser. This happened to others too, resulting in people not showing up for meetings and other such issues. I finally gave up and switched to Apple iCal. No problems since.

Gmail has been losing emails lately. I'd get one, then search for it later and it is nowhere to be found. Again, not just me...happening to others too. I've also seen several examples in the past few days of an email not showing up on the inbox (using the web access), but turning up easily when searched.

Today it was google voice, with total failure of the website (not displaying any calls/messages). I use my google voice number as a "public" phone # that I give out to entities (e.g. credit card companies) that are likely to sell it to telemarketers, but sometimes the voicemails are important (like today). Based on what the caller told me, they've left voicemails for me before that I never got.

Maybe this is all kind of standard for free internet services, but it just seems that Google's services are becoming noticeably unreliable. I've made rather liberal use of them, and some would be very difficult to change e.g. the personal email. Hope this is just a temporary blip and not a permanent trend.

Perhaps you need to change your avatar!

"Nobel Prize-winning scientist Marie Curie died as a result of the vast amounts of radiation she was exposed to during her groundbreaking work. But her body wasn't the only thing to absorb the emissions. Her clothes and belongings—including her furniture, cookbooks, and laboratory notes—were also saturated with the deadly radium particles. That's why, even though Curie died around 85 years ago, her possessions are still radioactive, according to The Christian Science Monitor.

And since radium has a half-life of 1,601 years, they're likely to stay that way for a while. Currently, Curie's laboratory notebooks are being safely stored in lead-lined boxes at France's Bibliotheque National in Paris. Anyone who wants to see them has to first to sign a liability waiver and then agree to wear protective gear."

[vnatale]

Is this just me or have others been having issues? Some services like hangouts never worked properly. But lately....

I've been using Googe calendar for years as have a bunch of other people I know, but it started misbehaving a few months ago. Events entered would disappear, and the calendar tab on my browser would suddenly freeze and I wouldn't be able to add or modify events even after restarting the browser. This happened to others too, resulting in people not showing up for meetings and other such issues. I finally gave up and switched to Apple iCal. No problems since.

Gmail has been losing emails lately. I'd get one, then search for it later and it is nowhere to be found. Again, not just me...happening to others too. I've also seen several examples in the past few days of an email not showing up on the inbox (using the web access), but turning up easily when searched.

Today it was google voice, with total failure of the website (not displaying any calls/messages). I use my google voice number as a "public" phone # that I give out to entities (e.g. credit card companies) that are likely to sell it to telemarketers, but sometimes the voicemails are important (like today). Based on what the caller told me, they've left voicemails for me before that I never got.

Maybe this is all kind of standard for free internet services, but it just seems that Google's services are becoming noticeably unreliable. I've made rather liberal use of them, and some would be very difficult to change e.g. the personal email. Hope this is just a temporary blip and not a permanent trend.

Thank you for reaffirming my decision to retain my ancient Eudora email program so that all my emails are always under my control and never subject to loss as you describe above!

Vinny

[Tortoise]

Is this just me or have others been having issues? Some services like hangouts never worked properly. But lately....

I've been using Googe calendar for years as have a bunch of other people I know, but it started misbehaving a few months ago.
[...]
Gmail has been losing emails lately.
[...]
Today it was google voice, with total failure of the website (not displaying any calls/messages).

A few months ago is when most Google employees started working from home due to Cooties-19, so maybe they've been doing too much Netflix and not enough work?

For what it's worth, I haven't had any issues with Gmail. In 10 years of use, I don't recall Gmail ever inexplicably losing even one of my emails or failing to put it in my inbox if that's where I wanted it to go.

Emails that show up in search but aren't in your inbox typically have had their "Inbox" label removed (e.g., by manually clicking the Archive button or by having a filter apply a rule to automatically archive the message). So maybe try opening your Gmail settings and double-check your filters to see if one of them is automatically archiving certain emails using a rule that you forgot about?

[WiseOne]

Nope the emails aren't archived. They are still in inbox but just don't show up on the list. And I can definitely affirm that emails have been getting completely lost..and like I said I'm not the only one who has had the problem. Either you are lucky or you haven't missed any lost emails.

The problems started before the lockdown so doubt that has much to do with it. Google must know that if they stop being reliable that will damage them beyond repair...so I'm a bit mystified.

Love the "Cooties-19" - I think that's my new favorite name for it!!!!

[dualstow]

I have had some gmail emails vanish. Others are there, but i can’t get to them by searching even if i put in the right search words. i have to know the date or take the long slog to go through as many as I have time for.

[WiseOne]

Rather bold article from WSJ today:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/quit-chrom ... _lead_pos8

This is the year, people. It’s the year I challenge you to pack up your bookmarks and wave bye-bye to Google’s browser, and pick one that cares more about performance and personal data.

The article claims that Chrome flunks out not only on privacy but also battery & RAM usage. The comments are the most interesting part. There were a lot of votes for Brave - has anyone tried it? And, many report that Google's search has been taken over by "wokeness" so you may have trouble finding info on non-canonical topics if you're using Google search. Most have switched to DuckDuckGo. I had noticed that Google search has gotten much worse lately, not sure if it's political tweaking or just plain technical failure. I know I had to stop using it on my iPhone because it caused the browser to hang almost every time.

I would probably be using Safari except that there are way too many websites that it can't handle. That's been true for years and per some of the comments it still is the case. So if you go Safari you still need a backup browser.

[Mountaineer]

Rather bold article from WSJ today:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/quit-chrom ... _lead_pos8

This is the year, people. It’s the year I challenge you to pack up your bookmarks and wave bye-bye to Google’s browser, and pick one that cares more about performance and personal data.

The article claims that Chrome flunks out not only on privacy but also battery & RAM usage. The comments are the most interesting part. There were a lot of votes for Brave - has anyone tried it? And, many report that Google's search has been taken over by "wokeness" so you may have trouble finding info on non-canonical topics if you're using Google search. Most have switched to DuckDuckGo. I had noticed that Google search has gotten much worse lately, not sure if it's political tweaking or just plain technical failure. I know I had to stop using it on my iPhone because it caused the browser to hang almost every time.

I would probably be using Safari except that there are way too many websites that it can't handle. That's been true for years and per some of the comments it still is the case. So if you go Safari you still need a backup browser.

Safari for me with DuckDuckGo as main search engine on Macbook and iPhone. Safari wirks on 95+% of websites. Firefox is my backup. I have tried Brave and Firefox Focus but prefer the two I mentioned.

[dualstow]

Rather bold article from WSJ today:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/quit-chrom ... _lead_pos8

This is the year, people. It’s the year I challenge you to pack up your bookmarks and wave bye-bye to Google’s browser, and pick one that cares more about performance and personal data.

The article claims that Chrome flunks out not only on privacy but also battery & RAM usage. The comments are the most interesting part. There were a lot of votes for Brave - has anyone tried it? And, many report that Google's search has been taken over by "wokeness" so you may have trouble finding info on non-canonical topics if you're using Google search. Most have switched to DuckDuckGo. I had noticed that Google search has gotten much worse lately, not sure if it's political tweaking or just plain technical failure. I know I had to stop using it on my iPhone because it caused the browser to hang almost every time.

I would probably be using Safari except that there are way too many websites that it can't handle. That's been true for years and per some of the comments it still is the case. So if you go Safari you still need a backup browser.

Great, great article, WiseOne. Didn't know about the wokeness, though I've probably heard murmurs.

• I lazily use different browsers for different accounts so that I don't have to logout-login. i.e. Different gmail accounts, my Amazon vs shared, etc.
• I use Firefox for secure email (not gmail) and brokerage houses.
• Safari is in the mix, just because I'm on a Mac.
• I use Chrome for virtually everything else- most of my own non-financial logins. Google docs and spreadsheets.
• I've got 16GB of RAM, so maybe it's time to try Edge. :-)

[WiseOne]

Thanks for the comments!

It'll be Firefox for me. Safari is fatally flawed on its extension support. There are two that I use constantly: Lastpass (password manager) and save to Zotero (reference manager/bibliography generator). Those are deal breakers. And note, neither of these works with Brave.

[Mountaineer]

Thanks for the comments!

It'll be Firefox for me. Safari is fatally flawed on its extension support. There are two that I use constantly: Lastpass (password manager) and save to Zotero (reference manager/bibliography generator). Those are deal breakers. And note, neither of these works with Brave.

FWIW. I am a former Lastpass and Roboform user. 1Password for last several years (works great on Mac, iPhone, and a very old PC); never have looked back as 1Password is so much better. I have not heard of Zotero.

[WiseOne]

What did you like about 1password compared to Lastpass, Mountaineer? Curious.

Lastpass works fine for me. The only peeve I had is that it doesn't always fill login screens so you end up having to do it manually. (Of course now there's a second peeve: incompatibility with Safari.)

[vnatale]

Several years ago I noticed that every single web browser seems to be big-time memory hogs. So, much that I decided my minimum RAM for any computer has to be at least 16GB so as to not have the browsers affect the performance of all else I was doing.

When Edge, first came out, I liked it. However, soon after it would take forever to go places. So I basically started using Edge on a regular basis for only here and one other forum and Chrome for all else.

After a fairly recent upgrade Edge seems to have finally taken care of the prior problems. But, out of habit, I'm still using Chrome for all other.

I used KeyPass for all my passwords. Don't trust any web based product to be holding my passwords.

And, finally, since 2013 Bing has replaced Google as my search engine. About the only times I use Google products these days is when I'm using remote computer or doing a Book search.

Vinny

[Xan]

They recently tore out the guts of Edge and replaced them with the guts of Chrome. That might explain why the sudden change in performance.

[I Shrugged]

I use Brave on a PC. It’s good, except when it’s not.

[Mountaineer]

What did you like about 1password compared to Lastpass, Mountaineer? Curious.

Lastpass works fine for me. The only peeve I had is that it doesn't always fill login screens so you end up having to do it manually. (Of course now there's a second peeve: incompatibility with Safari.)

WiseOne, it is probably just personal preference at this point as I've been using 1Password for years and am not familar with Lastpass in its latest iterations. If I remember correctly, I made the switch after hearing that Lastpass had been hacked. From everything I've read, I have come to the conclusion that 1Password security is top notch. I think just the fact of using a password manager and really good passwords (1Password pwd generator is very easy to use and customize) is the most important thing for security. I also keep a lot of information in the various 1Password databases besides login info. I also like the 1Password Watchtower feature that flags data breaches. Having said all that, I'd say if you like Lastpass, keep it.

Here are a couple of articles among many that you might have interest in.

https://www.howtogeek.com/240255/passwo ... 1password/

https://privacycanada.net/1password-review/

... Mountaineer

[WiseOne]

Lastpass now has all those features, and I would suspect that any password manager can be hacked.

I routinely use it to auto generate nonsense/strong, unique passwords. Ironically, websites (e.g. hospital/medical, also Apple and Treasury Direct) that force you to remember and type in passwords end up being LESS secure.

[dualstow]

How about a human password manager. No, really: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-new-ho ... 1573237540

[Tortoise]

I've been using LastPass for a little while now and love it. Password managers seem like the simplest and most secure way to simultaneously (1) use a different password for every site and (2) deal with the fact that every site has its own annoyingly specific format requirements for allowable passwords.

My only complaint about LastPass aside from the one that WiseOne already mentioned (failure to auto-fill login info on some web sites) is the fact that when a site prompts me to change my password, LastPass seems to handle the update in a slightly buggy way. It asks me not just once, but twice if I want to update my LastPass entry for the site: Once immediately after I enter the new password, and again on the next screen. If I select "Yes" on the first prompt, the update works correctly. But if I select "Yes" on the second prompt (regardless of whether I already selected "Yes" on the first prompt), the wrong updated password is saved and I have to recover/reset my password for that site. Took me a while to figure that one out.

[WiseOne]

Yes, Lastpass has been getting better. It's absolutely preferable to keeping written lists of passwords, or using the same password across multiple sites. I sure hope they never crash or wipe my account though....it would be a disaster.

Speaking of wiping...I discovered something very disturbing about Firefox. A message popped up at the bottom of the screen saying "It's been a while since you refreshed Firefox. Do it now?" Innocently, I said yes - I thought that meant "restart". Turns out it meant "completely reset Firefox, wipe all saved addresses, bookmarks and passwords, and delete all extensions" - with no warning whatsoever. I had to go through the whole setup process again. If I were using their password manager...oh how painful that would have been. I would seriously like to get my hands on the person who thought that one up.

By the way...how much do you trust those human password keepers? I sincerely doubt they rely only on memory. Those passwords are written down somewhere. And given the hundred or so passwords I have to deal with, it's not exactly a scaleable service.

[foglifter]

What did you like about 1password compared to Lastpass, Mountaineer? Curious.

Lastpass works fine for me. The only peeve I had is that it doesn't always fill login screens so you end up having to do it manually. (Of course now there's a second peeve: incompatibility with Safari.)

WiseOne, it is probably just personal preference at this point as I've been using 1Password for years and am not familar with Lastpass in its latest iterations. If I remember correctly, I made the switch after hearing that Lastpass had been hacked. From everything I've read, I have come to the conclusion that 1Password security is top notch. I think just the fact of using a password manager and really good passwords (1Password pwd generator is very easy to use and customize) is the most important thing for security. I also keep a lot of information in the various 1Password databases besides login info. I also like the 1Password Watchtower feature that flags data breaches. Having said all that, I'd say if you like Lastpass, keep it.

Here are a couple of articles among many that you might have interest in.

https://www.howtogeek.com/240255/passwo ... 1password/

https://privacycanada.net/1password-review/

... Mountaineer

+1 for 1Password. I use it for more than passwords: it's a great tool to store all kinds of security notes, warranty information, serial numbers, subscription information for various services etc. I also like the Dropbox integration feature.

[dualstow]

...

By the way...how much do you trust those human password keepers? I sincerely doubt they rely only on memory. Those passwords are written down somewhere. And given the hundred or so passwords I have to deal with, it's not exactly a scaleable service.

Considering one is named Mr Croque-Monsieur avec Salade Verte, not much

[dualstow]

Thanks for the comments!

It'll be Firefox for me. Safari is fatally flawed on its extension support.
...

Just a reminder- from the WSJ article that you posted, WiseOne:

Then there’s Safari’s lagging extension support. Good news: In the next release of Safari coming this fall in MacOS Big Sur, Apple made it easier for developers to port Chrome extensions over.

[WiseOne]

Thanks for the comments!

It'll be Firefox for me. Safari is fatally flawed on its extension support.
...

Just a reminder- from the WSJ article that you posted, WiseOne:

Then there’s Safari’s lagging extension support. Good news: In the next release of Safari coming this fall in MacOS Big Sur, Apple made it easier for developers to port Chrome extensions over.

Yes I know...unfortunately it sounds like the new Safari will only be available if you are running Catalina or the new OS. Also developers will need at least 6 months to a year (maybe longer) to release their new Safari extensions. It'll be an option for the future, maybe.

[Xan]

I wouldn't be surprised if existing Chrome extensions worked on Safari.