Gmail chat problem

July 6, 2008 3:39 PM

What is wrong with my Gmail chat?

For the last couple of days, I have been unable to use Gmail chat. If someone sends me a message I receive it, but if I reply, all they see is that "ootsocsid is typing..." and my message does not show up in their chat box. My messages do end up in the saved chat log for both of us though.

I've had the same problem chatting with multiple people. The problem occurs in both Firefox 3.0 and IE 7.0 (and reinstalling Firefox 3.0 did not help). Turning off my Firewall and virus software also did not help. Neither did installing Microsoft Vista Service Pack 1. Strangest of all, if I log into another Gmail account on the same computer and in the same browser, the problem goes away and Gmail chat works fine for that other account.

posted by ootsocsid to computers & internet (9 comments total)

This has happened to me once, so far as I've noticed. No clue why, but at least you're not crazy?
posted by unknowncommand at 6:04 PM on July 6, 2008

I'm not entirely sure why it happens, but I've experienced random periods of bugginess with Gmail chat. So, sadly, no answers but another person chiming in to say you're not alone.
posted by katemcd at 6:43 PM on July 6, 2008

Have you tried the official Gtalk client from Google? If you still have problems there, at least we've ruled something out...not sure exactly what it is though...
posted by Geppp at 6:56 PM on July 6, 2008

I have tried Gtalk and it does work. The Gmail chat client has also magically started working for me in the last hour. I guess this is why it's all still beta.
posted by ootsocsid at 7:48 PM on July 6, 2008

Do you by any chance have the CookiePie extension installed in Firefox? For whatever reason, it made my gmail really buggy, especially gmail chat. I know it works for other people, but it just wouldn't play nice on my computer. My GTalk client continued to work without any problem - your mentioning that made me think it might be a possible contributor to your troubles. There are reports of similar gmail problems in the CookiePie thread over on Lifehacker. I have no clue how it would cause IE problems, but just wanted to suggest it as a place to start.
posted by donnagirl at 8:58 PM on July 6, 2008

No CookiePie.
posted by ootsocsid at 4:47 AM on July 7, 2008

This JUST started happening to me too. A few months back, there was a problems for certain people with GCal. It was a bunch of us located all over the world. It was fixed w/in a few days.

I'm a big Gmail/Gcal fan, but man alive. When exactly will the bugs get ironed out? Gmail's been in beta for frickin' ever...
posted by nushustu at 1:39 PM on July 8, 2008

Do you think, realistically, that all the bugs can ever been ironed out? It's a web service, after all, and with the variety of browsers and kabillions of ways you can customize and configure those browsers, it's unlikely that any setup, ever, will seem "not buggy" for everyone at once. Yeah, my gmail reacted like crap to CookiePie, but I think that's my fault for installing a brand new, untested extension, not gmail's.
posted by donnagirl at 10:07 AM on July 10, 2008

Yeah, but at some point, you have to say "hey, this is good. We're not going to call it a beta any more."

I don't expect it will ever work perfectly for 100% of the time, but it's a bit of a cop-out to say "well, you can't expect it to work perfectly because it's in beta." It's been available to the public for over four years now.

Plus, there's a big difference between "gmail working:you install something new:gmail not working" and "gmail working:gmail not working".
posted by nushustu at 1:21 PM on July 11, 2008