- Gmail’s spam filtering experienced an issue on January 24, flooding inboxes with spam emails and warnings.
- Users were experiencing misclassified emails, additional spam warnings, and delays.
- The problem has been fixed, but we still don’t know what caused it.
Google engineers had a busy weekend as they looked to fix an issue with the way Gmail messages were filtered and sorted after inboxes went crazy on Saturday, January 24.
Users reported receiving primary, social, and update emails in their primary inboxes, and some spam messages even appeared as legitimate emails.
Many even reported delays in receiving some emails, causing issues with email-based two-factor authentication (2FA) codes.
Gmail spam filtering issue now fixed, Google confirms
“Gmail users may see banners indicating missing spam checks,” a Google Workspace status update said.
The company identified that the problem began at 5:02 a.m. PT.
“Some Gmail users experienced misclassification of emails in their inbox, additional spam warnings, and delays in receiving email,” a separate update in the same thread details.
“We advise users to be more diligent to avoid missing spam checks,” the company warned users at the height of the incident.
The Gmail issue correlates with an increase in Gmail-related complaints on Downdetector, with one user neatly summing up their experience: “A sudden influx of promotional emails arriving in my primary. All labeled as potential spam.”
Although the issue was marked as fixed as of 9:55 p.m. PT, Google has not yet confirmed the technical root cause, and instead promised to deliver an analysis of the incident after completing its investigation.
Although the undisclosed cause appears to have been rectified, Google continues to warn users that they may continue to receive misclassified emails, delays, and erroneous spam warnings for some time.
Google’s board concluded that its spam filtering tool should only be considered an aid. “We encourage users to follow standard best practices when interacting with messages from unknown senders,” a company spokesperson told Engadget.
On a similar note, Google removed Gmailify from its offerings earlier this month, removing the ability for third-party inboxes like Outlook to get Gmail spam filtering tools outside of the native Gmail experience.
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