If you checked Gmail over the weekend and saw your inbox suddenly overflowing with promotional email, you weren’t imagining things. Millions of users worldwide ran into the same issue, but thankfully it has now been fixed.
Gmail features a sorting system that automatically moves fluff like newsletters, promos, and non-urgent updates into separate tabs, keeping your Primary inbox clean and focused on what matters. On Saturday morning, this system stopped working as expected. Instead of organizing emails, Gmail dumped all incoming emails into the main inbox, and some users even saw warnings that certain emails had not been scanned for spam.
The issue caused other side effects as well. Several users reported delays in receiving emails, which resulted in many not receiving two-factor authentication codes on time, temporarily locking them out of services that rely on email for verification. Google was quick to acknowledge the issue on its Workspace status dashboard, saying “We are aware that some Gmail users are experiencing misclassification of emails in their inbox and additional spam warnings.”
Gmail’s inbox chaos is now under control
Google patched the bug within a few hours and shared an update via X. However, it has yet to reveal further details. The latest update on its Workspace status dashboard notes that it plans to “publish an analysis of this incident” once the internal investigation is complete.
For most users, Gmail is now back to normal, and inboxes are behaving as expected, with incoming emails being categorized into the correct tabs. Google’s investigation should provide more clarity on how the issue happened and what measures it will take to prevent similar problems in the future.