How To Fix the Gmail Notifier Unavailable Bug

Posted on August 24, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

[UPDATE 7/3/15: Google has killed the notifier function as part of its attempts to drive us all towards Chrome.]

I've been using Gmail notifier for some time. It's not that I particularly want to know when I get gmail, since I have that forward to my main account anyway. No, the great thing about gmail notifier is that I can set it to make Gmail the default email program for “mailto” links on web pages.

But a while ago I started getting error messages from the notifier; I didn't mind not having the unread mail count, but there's something about error messages at boot up that makes me grumpy.

An error has occurred.
Cannot connect to your mailbox.
Service temporarily unavailable.

Except it seemed permanent.

So I was happy to find out that the problem was because I forced gmail to use https, and that there's info on a patch,

If you've tried the new https setting and are using the Gmail Notifier, you've probably noticed a conflict between them by now. Good news for Windows users – we have a small download available that will set the Notifier to use https. Here's the instructions:

1. Download http://www.google.com/mail/help/downloads/notifier_https.zip http://www.google.com/mail/help/downloads/notifier_https.zip
2. Open up the folder.
3. Double-click on the file called notifier_https.reg to install it.
4. Click 'yes' when you're asked to confirm if you want to add the information to the registry.
5. Restart the Notifier.

And you're done! The Notifier will now work with Gmail set to always use https. If you decide you don't want to use that setting anymore, you'll need to install the other file in the zip folder – notifier_https_undo.reg – to reset Notifier.

And it works!

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36 Responses to How To Fix the Gmail Notifier Unavailable Bug

  2. Christian says:
    March 29, 2011 at 4:57 pm

    GREAT! THX!

  3. Paulo says:
    April 6, 2011 at 7:31 am

    Works like a charm! Obrigado

  4. caner says:
    April 8, 2011 at 4:45 pm

    Thank you very much
    this is exactly what i have looking for

  5. Maad says:
    May 25, 2011 at 10:19 am

    Thanks much guys….. this is what I was looking for since long time.
    Cheers!

  6. Jebbel says:
    July 26, 2011 at 7:45 am

    Awesome! Thanks!!

  7. r!p33z from Poland says:
    September 2, 2011 at 6:43 pm

    Thanks a lot. It works!

  8. Edouard says:
    October 14, 2011 at 4:06 am

    I applied the fix. Many thanks. And I get now the enveloppe icon instead of the horribly looking previsous exclamation mark.
    HOWEVER, afet ticking the box “link to’ under “options” in the Gmail Notifier, I still cannot access gmail from a send to command in windows 7.
    Any further help will be most appreciated !

  9. Yaron says:
    November 3, 2011 at 9:09 am

    THANK YOU!

  10. JK says:
    November 13, 2011 at 10:02 pm

    PERFECT. thank YOU

  11. Will says:
    November 20, 2011 at 12:23 pm

    Superb! You found the secret of the universe. . .

  12. Sam says:
    November 28, 2011 at 12:56 pm

    Thank you again!

  13. Jani says:
    January 12, 2012 at 2:29 pm

    And you can always change Gmail settings and disable “Don’t always use HTTPS” setting

  14. Susana says:
    January 23, 2012 at 6:23 am

    Thank you so much! x

  15. Moonchile says:
    April 1, 2012 at 12:14 am

    Wow, what a relief. I´m really greatfull. After years of frustration, it works.
    Thank You SO Much from DENMARK

  16. John Christy says:
    May 15, 2012 at 7:41 pm

    Thank you!!! What a relief. Why on earth doesn’t Google incorporate this patch?

  17. bobthemagicman says:
    July 14, 2012 at 4:49 pm

    Hey thanks for posting this. I just used it and it worked great!

  18. Dezorian says:
    July 22, 2012 at 6:19 am

    Thanks!

  20. Camilo says:
    November 11, 2012 at 2:03 pm

    Thank you bro, it worked perfect..how did you know that?

  21. Pastore Guz says:
    November 16, 2012 at 4:17 am

    thank you – it worked! keep up the good work

  22. mike says:
    November 19, 2012 at 1:28 pm

    Thanks! My one big problem now I need to figure out is how to get the notifier to only notify me on my very very important messages(ex: from email address notify)..?

    My workaround I ended up doing was creating an extra gmail account and using the filter/forwarding setting which I guess works just fine, but would really love to see an advanced version of this notifier application!

  23. Jerry says:
    January 17, 2013 at 12:51 pm

    Thanks!

  24. Jason says:
    February 16, 2013 at 11:50 pm

    Thank You!

    You saved my sanity, I need my Email immediately and having to check Gmail manually in the browser has been driving me crazy for the last three days.

  25. Hans says:
    April 3, 2013 at 11:07 am

    Thanks for posting this! Not sure why I needed this extra bit but happy you posted it.

  26. Penny says:
    April 21, 2013 at 9:00 pm

    Thank you soooooo much! I’ve been working on this all day, and finally ran across this fix. You are a genius!!!!

  27. dm says:
    May 24, 2013 at 10:03 pm

    Thanks, man, worked like a charm!

  28. Goobersita says:
    May 28, 2013 at 6:21 pm

    Thank you soooo much!!

  29. Elvio says:
    July 24, 2013 at 6:23 am

    Many Thanks!!!

  30. Chuck says:
    August 18, 2013 at 10:27 am

    I had the problem on 2 computers, fixed worked fine on the first but just popped up a notepad window with this:

    Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\Gmail\Flags]
    “url”=”https://mail.google.com/mail/”

  31. Bbbbbb says:
    September 17, 2013 at 9:30 am

    Thanks!!!

  32. Oskar says:
    October 18, 2013 at 6:27 am

    Fala ti brate, svaka ti se dala.

  33. Weasel says:
    November 21, 2013 at 10:46 pm

    Life saver. Worked like a charm. Thanks!!

  34. Michael says:
    November 25, 2013 at 1:43 pm

    Hey Thanks that worked for me after I restarted my computer. Happy Days!!!

  35. Muhammad Shoaib says:
    December 7, 2013 at 1:41 am

    I’ve been trying to solve this problem for months but because of you it has been solved
    Thank You!

Comments are closed.