Unable to sign in Hangouts: How to fix
Hangouts login problems do not take place often, the work of this service is stable. However, some problems can take place. Here we are going to describe the reasons of the most common failures and the ways to fix them.
Sign in problems caused by the account management in Google Hangouts
Being one of the Google's products, Hangouts is tied to one general Gmail account.
If you have any problems when you try to login to this messenger, the first things to check will be the username and password for that account (they are case sensitive, and if you changed these details in Gmail, they are changed for every other product of Google).
Also, if you sign in to Hangouts on one location, it won't automatically synchronize your login with other computers or mobile devices. You will need to check if the trouble with signing in is repeated everywhere.
When it takes place with the mobile app on the smartphone or tablet – try to login to the web version (you can either go to the Gmail account on your desktop PC and open the 'apps' menu from there, or to go directly to the official page).
If the login problems persist in the web version too, it means that the Google account is not working itself.
Check if your account is not blocked. The thing is, Google can block access to its resources when users try to sign in from a new device and from a different IP address. You might meet such a complication if you are abroad and for some reason have to use someone else's smartphone or tablet – Google considers such actions to be the hacking attempts and protects your data, even if this causes problems for you.
Login to your Google account in the browser. You will see the notification if your access is disabled and the explanation why. Then you will be able to restore it yourself or contact the support team with the request to do this for you.
Besides, Google and its resources are banned in some countries like China. There the Hangouts login problems can be resolved by using VPN to bypass the ban. If you are going abroad, check if you might meet such difficulties in that region before leaving and make sure to take steps to avoid them.
This is how to act if your Gmail account is blocked and you can't use it at all. However, you might be able to login to Hangouts in the browser but might have your login not working for the account in the mobile app on the smartphone.
Check the following possible causes of the problems:
- Make sure that you use the correct Google account when you login to Hangouts on the smartphone or tablet. Every Gmail account serves as the separate Hangouts login, and one can sign in with a different account on each device. Besides, you can also keep several accounts simultaneously in one mobile application and switch between them without signing out of the app. It can be convenient for running several chats under different users, but it can also cause problems. For example, you may change password for the account and login with the new credentials in the browser – but the mobile app version would still have your old data and thus would produce the error.
So, try to switch to a different user and see if you are accepted.
If you have just one user ID for this messenger, then try to sign out and then sign in anew with the correct details:
- Open the side menu and choose Settings:
- In the new window tap your account to get to the advanced options. Scroll the window down and tap Sign out:
- There can be problems with the Internet connection too. It happens often with the low-powered smartphones that they are unable to provide stable connection even with the Wi-Fi coverage available or with the own mobile 3G Internet enabled. Such devices will show the 'connected' status, but they won't support it, and you won't be able to use Hangouts. The app itself can work even on old smartphones, but it requires proper Internet connection.
Technical problems with the Google Hangouts login
Make sure that the following domains are allowed by your network (this is applied to all devices):
clients4.google.com
You might need to contact your network administrator to clarify this.
In most cases users may be unable to sign in Hangouts on mobile devices because of some failure during the updating process. The best way to fix this is to uninstall the application and to download it again from Google Play or AppStore to install anew.
Reinstalling the app will also fix errors of the older apps versions. Developers of this messenger track the problems and issue updates to fix them, however, if users do not receive such updates, the sign in failure and other troubles may remain. It is always better to have the latest version of the app.
Sometimes users receive 'server error' message when they try to login to Hangouts. Such problems can be resolved on the server's side only, and you may just wait until they are fixed. Or, as Google uses its own network of datacenters, you may sign out of Hangouts and try to sign in again – the next connection session can be picked up by a different server which does not have any problems at the moment.
If the errors with signing in to your account in Hangouts persist, and nothing of the above methods can help, then you should report the problem at the Help forum to get an expert advice on the definite failure.