gmail not responding
September 16, 2023 8:53 AM Subscribe
Yesterday everything was fine. Today, I can't login to gmail on Chrome.
The details. Windows10 on PC. I have all the updates on Windows. I have updated Chrome. When I go to gmail and enter my email address, it won't go any further. Normally it would then ask for my password. Instead it just remains on the login screen with my username entered. I have turned off all adblockers, antivirus etc to see if that helped, I clear cookies, cache, restart the browser, but still nothing. Everything was working yesterday.
Interestingly I can access gmail on Firefox, just not Chrome. Any ideas?
The details. Windows10 on PC. I have all the updates on Windows. I have updated Chrome. When I go to gmail and enter my email address, it won't go any further. Normally it would then ask for my password. Instead it just remains on the login screen with my username entered. I have turned off all adblockers, antivirus etc to see if that helped, I clear cookies, cache, restart the browser, but still nothing. Everything was working yesterday.
Interestingly I can access gmail on Firefox, just not Chrome. Any ideas?
Response by poster: Yes it did. Do I need to use incognito from now on or does that indicate something that can fix the problem?
posted by jtexman1 at 9:37 AM on September 16
posted by jtexman1 at 9:37 AM on September 16
Yes it did. Do I need to use incognito from now on or does that indicate something that can fix the problem?
So, Incognito Mode basically launches your browser with the following conditions:
Chrome doesn't save your browsing history, cookies and site data, or information entered in forms.
I don't think that's an exhaustive list of what Chrome does - I think Icognito Chrome also blocks extensions and other 3rd party browser controls.
So, I take the fact that it works in an Incognito window to mean that there's something wrong - not with Chrome itself - but with some aspect of your Chrome profile - something related to your cookies, cache, extensions, etc, etc - all of which I know you said you disabled, but, I mean, the proof is kind of in the experiment.
The other thing you could try is going up to the upper-right hand corner in Chrome and clicking on your profile picture and creating a new user profile and seeing if it works then. That's a similar test to an Icognito window - if you create a new Chrome user profile and everything works, then it confirms there's something gunked up with your user profile.
From there, you have options.
You could:
1. Go to your old Chrome profile, export your bookmarks, go to the new Chrome profile, import your bookmarks and then just use that new profile going forward.
2. Debug what specifically is in your old Chrome profile that is fucking up the works. That's more complicated, and I haven't done that kind of work in a few years, so I'll let someone else comment, but I would suggest Googling things like "Chrome user profile reset" or "Troubleshoot Chrome profile"
posted by kbanas at 10:50 AM on September 16 [2 favorites]
So, Incognito Mode basically launches your browser with the following conditions:
Chrome doesn't save your browsing history, cookies and site data, or information entered in forms.
I don't think that's an exhaustive list of what Chrome does - I think Icognito Chrome also blocks extensions and other 3rd party browser controls.
So, I take the fact that it works in an Incognito window to mean that there's something wrong - not with Chrome itself - but with some aspect of your Chrome profile - something related to your cookies, cache, extensions, etc, etc - all of which I know you said you disabled, but, I mean, the proof is kind of in the experiment.
The other thing you could try is going up to the upper-right hand corner in Chrome and clicking on your profile picture and creating a new user profile and seeing if it works then. That's a similar test to an Icognito window - if you create a new Chrome user profile and everything works, then it confirms there's something gunked up with your user profile.
From there, you have options.
You could:
1. Go to your old Chrome profile, export your bookmarks, go to the new Chrome profile, import your bookmarks and then just use that new profile going forward.
2. Debug what specifically is in your old Chrome profile that is fucking up the works. That's more complicated, and I haven't done that kind of work in a few years, so I'll let someone else comment, but I would suggest Googling things like "Chrome user profile reset" or "Troubleshoot Chrome profile"
posted by kbanas at 10:50 AM on September 16 [2 favorites]
Can you log in to gmail on another browser?
Yep, in the question the poster says it works fine in Firefox.
posted by kbanas at 11:43 AM on September 16 [2 favorites]
Yep, in the question the poster says it works fine in Firefox.
posted by kbanas at 11:43 AM on September 16 [2 favorites]
First thing I'd check if it's only working in Incognito mode would be if you have any extensions installed that might be getting in the way. (Upper-right three-dots-icon menu > extensions > manage extensions, after which you can try deactivating extensions until the problem goes away.)
Next, if that didn't help, I'd try deleting relevant cookies/site-data, but it looks like you've done that already.
Or I bet kbanas' suggestion to make a new user profile would do the trick, but then you'd be losing all your settings for other sites as well (though if you've deleted all your site data already while troubleshooting, this might not be a problem for you!).
posted by nobody at 12:03 PM on September 16 [1 favorite]
Next, if that didn't help, I'd try deleting relevant cookies/site-data, but it looks like you've done that already.
Or I bet kbanas' suggestion to make a new user profile would do the trick, but then you'd be losing all your settings for other sites as well (though if you've deleted all your site data already while troubleshooting, this might not be a problem for you!).
posted by nobody at 12:03 PM on September 16 [1 favorite]
I recommend opening the chrome://extensions/ page, then working through all your installed extensions by clicking the Details button on each one and checking whether its "Allow in incognito" switch is turned on.
This could save you a bit of time if you have a lot of extensions installed, because only those that are currently not allowed in incognito are candidates for being the one causing the trouble.
posted by flabdablet at 9:17 AM on September 17
This could save you a bit of time if you have a lot of extensions installed, because only those that are currently not allowed in incognito are candidates for being the one causing the trouble.
posted by flabdablet at 9:17 AM on September 17
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posted by kbanas at 9:30 AM on September 16