What causes the infinite redirect loop when I login to Gmail? How do I fix it?

Question

Of course I can't reproduce it now! However, about 20% of the time when I try to login to my Gmail account (because my wife is logged into hers), it gets stuck in an infinite redirect loop. I always end up surfing around to different Google sites for a while, and then eventually it fixes itself.

Anyone know how to fix this? What causes it?

Answer 1

A couple things to try:

• Clear your cookies (if a duration is allowed, I'd try "everything")
• Clear your cache (if a duration is allowed, I'd try "everything")
• Make sure your system time is correct.
• If none of that works, try logging in with labs disabled: http://mail.google.com/mail/?labs=0

Answer 2

I found that it was the Smart Labels feature available in Labs that caused the infinite redirect loop. After using http://mail.google.com/mail/?labs=0 to get into my mail, I disabled that lab feature. After that, I could access email again normally. It's a shame this answer (specifically to use the labs=0 URL) isn't listed anywhere in the Google Apps help site.

Answer 3

I started experiencing the infinite loop upon login after I added https://mail.google.com to my list of trusted sites in IE11 (Tools → Internet Options → Security → Trusted Sites → Sites → Add)

Once I removed https://mail.google.com from my trusted sites list, the issue cleared up.

Answer 4

Seems like clearing the cookies should help it, however that would be annoying to do every time you want to login to your Gmail account.

I would therefore suggest that you either ask your wife to use the private browsing/incognito mode of your browser, or that you create a separate browser profile for each of you (with Chrome, you can use ChromeDeck: http://lifehacker.com/5549178/chromedeck-creates-and-manages-multiple-chrome-profiles).

Alternatively, if you are happy to use a desktop client, such as Thunderbird, that should also solve your issues, albeit indirectly.

Answer 5

I had to enable third-party cookies to make mine work. After cleaning everything out and logging in, the cookies I had were: google-analytics.com googleusercontent.com gstatic.com youtube.com

So, that's what google registers you with upon log in.

Answer 6

I have the same problem: on desktop, switching between profiles works fine but on mobile either I always get to the first account page or get infinite redirects between two accounts.

The workaround that works for me: Switch on "PC version" option in settings (but then you get desktop view of your inbox, of course).

Answer 7

I fixed it by disabling the Hola extension in chrome.

Answer 8

I have the same problem on my Android phone when I log into 9 Gmail accounts. The last Gmail account X that I added always routes me to the first Gmail account Y. After reading this thread, I cleared all my cookies and then re-logged into X first. It worked! I then added most of the other Gmail accounts and all worked fine, but maybe it is because I now log into 7 Gmail accounts instead of 9. I didn't have the initial problem when I logged into 8 Gmail accounts, so maybe 8 is the maximum number of Gmail accounts you can log in on Android phones.