For the past month or so I have been having trouble with Gmail, where it is either slow to load (20-30 seconds) or more often doesn't load at all. Instead the application times out and I get the "Connection interrupted" box, and the invitation to try again. I have learned not to bother trying again. If it fails once, it will not work. Maybe an hour later I will try it and it will load normally.

The failure seems (not sure of this) to happen more often right after powering up the computer. However, I was just in my Gmail 10 minutes ago, and now cannot get back in. I go to Gmail, the URL at the bottom left of the screen says "Connected to www.google.com..."; the blue progress bar at the bottom right of the screen quickly goes halfway, then stops until the "Connection interrupted" box appears. If I naively click on the "Retry" button, the progress bar clears and then just stays empty.

It is not a problem with connect speed at my end. When Gmail doesn't start, I can go to the empeg bbs and it comes up almost instantly (< 1 second) and the Google home page (my default internet start page) always comes right up. Only the Gmail app fails to run.

I imagine that if other people were having this kind of trouble I'd have heard about it. Right?

Windows Vista, SP2, Firefox 3.6.8.

tanstaafl.

Just a quick question, does this happen in other browsers as well? Have you tried Chrome? Safari? ...Opera?

Funny -- I had just finished testing it in Internet Exporer 8, and came back here to edit my previous post to say that it does work in IE, but not in Firefox. Except sometimes it does work in FireFox, although not right now.

I have cleared Firefox's browser cache, history, and cookies, and still Gmail won't open.

tanstaafl.

What extensions do you have in Firefox? I don't know if that's the problem, but it's usually the placed I would start when I had problems with Firefox when I used it (I use Chrome now).

A good test would be to launch Firefox in safe mode. If you go to Start > Programs > Mozilla Firefox, there should be a shortcut in there for "Mozilla Firefox (Safe Mode)." Don't check anything in the dialog that comes up, or it will make permanent changes. But once the browser launches you should be browsing without any add-ons and stuff.

I just called my tech support help line (ok, I googled "gmail won't open in Firefox") and found that you are not alone in this complaint.

Seems that access is best via https:// instead of http://
Give it a go?

That works, but not definitively because (for the moment anyway) Gmail was opening the "normal" way as well.

If the https:// works without problem for a few days, I'll consider the problem alleviated. In a few weeks I'll consider it solved.

Thanks...

tanstaafl.

Just three, plus a fourth that is "...not compatible with Firefox 3.6.8"

tanstaafl.

I wonder if it's really a cookie issue and by using the slightly different web address you're effectively using a different cookie.
Hmm... you did say you wiped out google cookies, yes?

edit: ah, you didn't say anything of the sort! I've confused you with respondents in the help thread I linked. Not enough coffee this morning, I guess.
edit edit: ah, definitely a coffee issue. I didn't link any help thread! D'oh!

Actually... yes, I did.



So far, though, the http --> https thing seems to be working. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Apparently it is possible to delete just selected cookies in FireFox. I was unable to see how to do that, my only options seemed to be delete by date (Last Hour, Last Two Hours, Last Four Hours, Today, and Everything) and I could choose to delete cookies, history, cache, etc., or again Everything. How should I have gone about deleting only the Google cookies? I now have a fair bit of cookie re-entering (passwords, library card number, addresses, phone number, etc.) to go through. Fortunately all of the useful data I had stored in cookies is easily at hand.

tanstaafl.

I'm gonna blame my poor reading comprehension on the lack of coffee.

I thought I saw something about being able to delete only the cookies you wanted to...
ah, yup-
Tools/Options/Privacy/remove individual cookies