Gmail users are having difficulty accessing their full email and chat history, due to the disappearance of the "view entire message" feature.
Since Oct. 3, several Gmail users have noticed clipped email messages and lost Gchat conversation histories, according to the email program's forums. Information sent using these Google Apps, for personal or business use, has vanished. Though users have sought assistance through Google's support and technical channels for over a week, the company has yet to fix the problem.
"There used to be "View Entire Message" function that opens another window and displays the entire message," wrote Gmail user Tamayo, on Google Product Forums on Oct. 3. "Until yesterday. Today, messages are just clipped in the middle, there was no "View Entire Message" sign, and the whole message will not be displayed no matter what -- I tried to print it, forward it, tried to change my settings -- all in vail [sic]."
Google declined an interview, but in an email statement to The Huffington Post Canada, communications associate Andrea Freund wrote, "We are aware of this particular issue and are working on a fix for affected users."
"While we work on that fix, we've posted a temporary workaround for users on our Gmail known issues page," added Freund.
The fix, which is under the "Composing and Reading Mail" topic, indicates "The 'View entire message' link at the bottom of very long messages does not appear as usual."
The company suggests its users access long messages and conversations by switching to basic HTML view, but many who followed suit did not experience an improvement in service.
"It has now been an entire week since I started observing this bug," wrote Russell Silva, on Google Product Forums on Wednesday. "An entire week of not being able to read my e-mails. ... This is the worst experience I have ever had using a Google product."
Google has experienced several email outages this year, as recently as May 29. However, the company, known for its quick responses to service disruptions, has yet to resolve this information accessibility problem, or outline when it plans to do so.
Have you had trouble accessing your full Gmail or Gchat history? Has this hindered your productivity, or your business' performance ability? Has Google's suggestion of a basic HTML fix helped you solve the problem? Let us know in the comments.
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