If you're having trouble viewing a file in Google Drive, here's how you can try to fix the issue.
1. Wait and try opening your files again later
- Wait a few moments: if you see a ‘Temporary Error (502)’ message when you try to open files in Drive, it means that your documents are temporarily unavailable. This issue is usually temporary, so wait a moment and then try to open them again.
- Check the Google Workspace Status Dashboard: If there's a known outage for Drive or Google servers, it will appear the Google Workspace Status Dashboard as a red dot next to the product. Click the dot for details about what’s wrong.
2. Try basic troubleshooting
Step 1: Check your Internet connection
If you see a 'Trying to connect' error message, or if your documents are very slow to load in Drive for the web, check your Internet connection. A weak connection is a common cause of many connection errors.
Try to connect to another network to see if your files load correctly.
Try to connect to another network to see if your files load correctly.
You can use offline mode while your connection is weak or unavailable. Read more about offline mode and how to set it up.
Step 2: Check your browser version
- Check the system requirements and supported browsers to make sure that you're using a supported browser and operating system.
Drive can be used with the two most recent versions of all major browsers.
- Make sure that cookies and JavaScript® are turned on for your browser.
- We recommend using Chrome for Drive. But you can try opening Drive in another browser, such as Mozilla® Firefox®, Microsoft® Internet Explorer® or Apple® Safari®.
Step 3: Clear your browser cache
Clear your browser cache and cookies and then try to load your Drive files again.
Step 4: Reduce the size of your file
You can put large files in Drive, but if you exceed the size limits, they might not load properly. If your file is too big or close to the limit, divide the information into more than one file.
Step 5: Turn offline access on and off
If your current Internet connection is poor, set up offline access. With offline access, you can view and edit your documents even without the Internet. When you have Internet access again, your documents will sync the latest changes.
If you turned on offline access and you're still having trouble opening files, try turning it off and on again to resolve the issue. Go to Settings and next to Offline, untick or tick the Sync to edit offline box to turn it on or off.
3. Try more advanced troubleshooting
Step 6: Check your virus scanning software
Virus scanning software and adblockers on your local system can sometimes interfere with Drive files, such as Google Docs, Sheets and Slides. Make sure that this software is not blocking Google Workspace.
Step 7: Check your firewall and proxy settings (advanced)
Step 8: Check enhanced tracking protection on Firefox
Customised firewall and proxy settings can sometimes block access to Drive. Check that your firewall and proxy settings are configured to allow a connection to Drive.
Firefox's enhanced tracking protection on computer browsers can cause files to display improperly. To fix this issue, turn off enhanced tracking protection.
- Follow the steps listed under 'What to do if a site seems broken'.
- After you've got the site working again, you can continue to report the site.
These steps didn't fix my issue
- Report a bug or send your user feedback directly from Drive.
Fix other Google Drive problems
- Learn how to fix problems syncing to your computer.
- Learn more about errors with video in Google Drive.
