If you can’t connect to Google Hangouts, or use it to chat with other people, it’s not always easy to tell if it’s Google that’s not working properly or if you are having a problem with your own internet connection. But with a few easy checks, you can figure out if Google Hangouts is down, or if it’s you.
How to Tell if Google Hangouts is Down
In some ways, finding out that Google Hangouts is down is better news, because that means you don’t need to troubleshoot potential problems with your own internet connection. Unfortunately, if Hangouts is offline or experiencing problems, you have no alternative but to wait for it to come back online (or you could convince the other attendees to try an alternative web conferencing tool like Zoom). Here’s how to check to see if Google Hangouts is not working: If you have trouble connecting to any of these sites, or no one else has identified any issues with Google Hangouts, it’s likely that Google Hangouts is working normally and the problem is with your own internet connection.
What to Do If Google Hangouts is Not Working for You
If you checked to see if Google Hangouts is down and appears to be working for everyone but you, here are some things you can do to troubleshoot the problem and try to get up and running again:
Other Google Hangout Connection Errors
You might see some other error messages or encounter other issues trying to connect to Hangouts. If the site is down (and broken) in a very major way, you might see errors like 500 Internal Server Error, 403 Forbidden, and 404 Not Found. Aside from those, you might encounter these issues:
Hangouts repeatedly reports it is trying to reconnect. This is usually a sign of an intermittent internet connection at your end. You could try to reboot your router, move the computer closer to the Wi-Fi router, or contact your ISP for support. You can’t use Google Hangouts in your Firefox browser. You’ll want to use a different browser because Google no longer supports voice and video calls in Firefox. Hangouts can’t connect and reports an Error 212, or 213, or 214. This is a pretty rare issue that’s related to a corrupted setting in your installation of GSuite. If you’re a GSuite user and see this error, talk to the person who administers your GSuite to delete your Gsuite Organization Unit, create a new group, and assign you to the new group.
