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How To Tell If Google Calendar Is Down

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I have bad news for pretty much everybody: On June 18, it became clear that Google Calendar was down for many users, at least in the New York region. If you're a regular user of Google's productivity tools, you're probably wondering exactly how to tell if Google Calendar is down — besides, you know, just trying to log on and being greeted by an error message (womp, womp). Luckily, though, it's actually pretty easy to confirm whether Google Calendar is experiencing widespread disruptions, or whether it's a problem that might be due to your own personal computer or internet connection.

It isn't clear what's causing the issue yet. Bustle has reached out to Google for comment, and we will update this post when we hear back. On Google's G Suite status dashboard, which provides status updates for all of the G Suite apps you know and love, Google Calendar service is currently affected as of 10:22 AM ET. "We're investigating reports of an issue with Google Calendar. We will provide more information shortly. The affected users are unable to access Google Calendar," a notice on the page states.

At least you (probably) aren't going to be the only person in your office late to a meeting because you can't access your calendar. And hey, while you're waiting for Calendar to come back, you could always start that paper planner you've been thinking about just in case something like this happens again, right?

Screenshot via Google Calendar

But back to the matter at hand: How can you tell if Google Calendar is down? The good news is that you have a few options. Apart from Google's own G Suite status dashboard, my personal go-to is the website Is It Down Right Now? Their database is pretty extensive — you can check different websites across the 'net for service interruptions, which can help you figure out if you really need to reboot your router or not. Is It Down Right Now? also features a comments section, which can be handy if you're curious about what could be up with the site you're currently investigating. Right now, comments from users indicate that people are loading 404 pages all across the globe, from Utah, to Texas, to Italy. I can also confirm that from my laptop in New York, New York, my calendar will only load a notice that says, "Uh oh! There was a problem loading Calendar. Please try again in a few minutes."

The Apps Status Dashboard allows you to check the performance status of all of Google's apps and services, which thankfully includes Google Calendar and Hangouts. Currently, Hangouts is marked by a green circle, meaning "no issues." Calendar, on the other hand, is marked by orange, meaning "service disruption." It can take a bit of time for updates to the Apps Status Dashboard to appear, so it's probably a good idea to frequently check back, especially if you're experiencing issues.

As of now, it looks like all we can do is wait! Fortunately, since Hangouts, Groups, and Chat seem to be okay, you can go ahead and ping your coworkers to see if, indeed, you had a meeting now. Good luck keeping busy, everybody!

This post was originally published on June 30, 2016. It was updated on June 18, 2019.

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