Hallvord R. M. Steen

Calling users who have problems loading GMail in standard mode..

Tuesday, May 31, 2011 4:47:14 AM

Several users are reporting temporary problems loading GMail. The typical symptom is that it hangs before the "loading" progress bar reaches 100%, and the user needs to switch to plain HTML mode or re-load multiple times to see their inbox.

Now, the annoying thing about this problem is that it keeps happening to users but I have never been able to reproduce it myself. We really need to get to the bottom of this, and it seems we really need some help to get there!

As-is, I don't have any real clue to what the problem is. My best guess is that some request doesn't complete or some event isn't sent. Hence, I've prepared a user script - gmail-log.js - that logs XHR requests and important events to the error console when you load GMail.

So, if you are a reasonable computer-literate end user who is currently experiencing this ghostly GMail loading problem, here's how you can help:

Save that script to your computer
Make Opera load it as User JavaScript (remember to enable User JavaScript on HTTPS in opera:config)
Open the Error Console and clear any existing content
Load GMail (confirm that you want to run User JS on HTTPS when the dialog appears). If you see the problem, then..
Copy the error console contents (Ctrl-A, Ctrl-C) and send me by PM or E-mail.
Disable the user script again (it will slow GMail down a little bit, so no point in keeping it active)
Please leave a comment on this blog saying that you've done so. With some luck, 5-10 people submitting logs would give us some interesting clues..

If you're not sure how to do some of that, I suggest you wait a few days and see if enough people contribute

Note: while this script does not intend to capture any personal information, I can not guarantee that the log won't contain session IDs or E-mail data. I suggest you don't post it in public.

Thanks a lot in advance to anyone who can shed some light on this!

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Comments

theoddbod # Tuesday, May 31, 2011 6:38:44 AM

That's a problem I used to have, but I've not seen it for about two months now. But I'll remember this post, in case it returns

Uncle MickMickeyjoe-Irl # Tuesday, May 31, 2011 8:17:30 AM

Similar story here, for me the problems stopped with the release of Opera 11(it's been working for a while anyway). But if my log would be of any use let me know.

BS-Harou # Tuesday, May 31, 2011 10:48:13 AM

I personally don't have problem with loading GMail standard mode, but I've created extension from your UserJS

http://files.myopera.com/BS-Harou/files/Gmail%20Log.oex

I had to put "window." before some global objects like location, XMLHttpRequest or opera.addEventListener so I hope I haven't forget to put it somewhere else, but it seems that it works exactly the same as the UserJS

Phaniphanikumarseelam # Tuesday, May 31, 2011 1:14:11 PM

Like others I haven't faced this issue lately, but I seem to remember that I used to face this issue mostly at work ( behind a Proxy ). Also I had the same issue with Orkut (still do ).

Charles SchlossChas4 # Tuesday, May 31, 2011 2:05:10 PM

Sent it in already

Szőts Ákosszotsaki2 # Tuesday, May 31, 2011 2:59:21 PM

Sent you in PM.

Anonymous # Thursday, June 2, 2011 6:14:07 AM

Messerjocke writes: I've got it. Deleting the 'override' settings of mail.google.com (and not re-create it) makes the Standard view work. Seems that creating page-specific settings for google isn't healthy. Took me a while to find out since a new fresh profile didn't have that problem.

Anonymous # Thursday, June 2, 2011 6:19:08 AM

Messerjocke writes: Update: It seems that google mail hates you when you try to fake another browser. I had "mask as Firefox" all the time and it didn't work. Being plain Opera does the trick

Charles SchlossChas4 # Thursday, June 2, 2011 2:57:09 PM

No I think its some corrupted file in the Opera preferences, I got it to work in the current stable, deleted things in the Opera preferences folder (well move to a folder on the desktop, to test) while Opera was off, and then let Opera make new preference files

Szőts Ákosszotsaki2 # Friday, June 3, 2011 12:47:55 PM

For me with the very same Opera I can access to 2 GMail accounts but not to the third.

It's all the same when I try in private mode or not.

Anonymous # Friday, June 10, 2011 5:45:48 AM

Anonymous writes: my id is not displayed propely

Charles SchlossChas4 # Friday, June 10, 2011 7:37:06 AM

some times it does not load on the first try so one or more refreshes and it works

Anonymous # Wednesday, June 15, 2011 6:30:20 AM

Anonymous writes: Guys, the real problem with Googlemail+IMAP and Opera comes up when you wrote a few hundred messages - they stop being sent to the "Sent" folder after mail #170 for example. That's why you occasional users don't see anything wrong with it and why professional users of all kinds should stay the hell away from Opera at all - it's going belly up anywhere you kick it a little bit. :(