Google to restore all Gmail accounts after bug

Google said Monday it expected to restore all Gmail accounts after a bug in a storage software update wiped out the email messages of a small number of users of the free Internet service.

"The good news is that email was never lost and we've restored access for many of those affected," Google engineering vice president Ben Treynor said in a blog post.

"Though it may take longer than we originally expected, we're making good progress and things should be back to normal for everyone soon."

Google said it expected to fully restore the Gmail accounts of users who saw their emails deleted from their inboxes over the weekend.

"To protect your information from these unusual bugs, we also back it up to tape," Treynor explained. "Since the tapes are offline, they're protected."

However, because the back-up messages are stored on tape, it takes longer to get them back into people's Gmail accounts, he added.

Google has meanwhile stopped installing the troublesome storage software update and reverted to the previous version, Treynor said.

Google said that 0.02 percent of the users of the free Web-based email service had been affected by the problem, fewer than previously reported.

Google does not release official figures for the total number of Gmail users but they are estimated to number around 200 million.

Gmail disruptions, while rare, are seen by some industry analysts as a setback to the Mountain View, California-based Google's efforts to promote email and other Web-based services to businesses.