14 DAY TRIAL // While it may not be getting as much attention as at first, Gmail's disastrous failure that affected tens of thousands of users now stretches into its third day or fourth day, depending on which time zone you use, and many users still don't have access to their accounts or emails.
However, the problem should be getting fixed very soon, as Google says it has successfully recovered all of the data from the backup tapes and is now restoring it in its data centers.
"Data for the remaining 0.012% of affected users has been successfully restored from tapes and is now being processed. We plan to begin moving data into mailboxes in 2 hours, and in the hours that follow users will regain access to their data. Accounts with more mail will take more time," the App status page for Gmail read.
However, this update is now 14 hours old and the latest provided by Google still warns that some users have more waiting to do. Gmail's latest update is from about six hours ago when the situation was still unresolved for some.
"Google Mail service has already been restored for some users, and we expect a resolution for all users in the near future. Please note this time frame is an estimate and may change," it says.
The issue was first reported Saturday, on the 27th of February. Tens of thousands of users logged in to find their accounts wiped clean, without any of the sent, received or saved emails.
Rather, they got a welcome message and the default emails from Google when creating a new account. With many users having years-worth of email stored and few having copies or backups, it wasn't a pretty sight.
Google later explained that a software update to its storage infrastructure resulted in data loss across all of its data centers for a small minority of users. While a very small percentage of users was affected, this still adds up to tens of thousands of people.
Luckily, all of the data was also backed up on tapes. Recovering it took time though, to be expected given the volume of data needing to be restored from the tapes.
Google has finished recovering it, some users have gradually gotten access to their accounts and data over time, but it is still not finished restoring the Gmaill accounts of all affected.
Still, the ordeal should be almost over, though four days might as well be an eternity given the expectations we have today, expectations Google played a big role in creating.