Google is investigating a problem with its e-mail service following complaints from some Gmail users that all their messages, attachments, and Google Chat logs have disappeared. The company began investigating the issue at 3:09PM and issued a warning via its App Status Dashboard. The search giant has been hard at work all day in an attempt to restore the lost data.
"Google Mail service has already been restored for some users, and we expect a resolution for all users in the near future," the website reads. "Please note this time frame is an estimate and may change. This issue affects less than 0.08% of the Google Mail userbase. Google engineers are working to restore full access. Affected users may be temporarily unable to sign in while we repair their accounts."
Google says a bug is responsible for completely resetting accounts. In fact, users logging in today would receive a welcome message as if they had just created their account.
Google says the problem affects less than 0.08 percent of its Google mail user base. Given that Gmail has over 170 million users, it should be safe to assume the issue affects over 100,000 accounts.