Google Docs has been glitching for several users. As it turns out, a combination of Google Chrome, Docs, and popular ad-blocking extensions, is causing problems within the online document editing platforms from the search giant.
A change in the way popular ad blockers work is apparently causing Google Docs to glitch. The search giant has acknowledged the issue. The company has advised to temporarily turn off any content blockers to mitigate the issue.
Google online document editors hit with weird text formatting glitches:
Several Docs and Slides users have been experiencing issues with weird text formatting. Some have even claimed they are unable to edit any documents.
There have been several reports and complaints on social media, including Reddit. The majority of problems or glitches seem to be affecting Docs and Slides. There’s no confirmation whether the entire Google Workspace services are facing problems.
Hi there. Thanks for reporting. Google is aware of the issue and is looking into a fix. In the meantime, we recommend to disable any ad blocking chrome extension. We appreciate your patience.
— Google Docs (@googledocs) April 15, 2021
In the “mildest” cases, text reportedly starts to wrap itself beneath other elements on the page in a way that obscures it. In more extreme cases, the text gets overlaid on top of itself.
Some users claim they were unable to edit any document. The problems with Google Docs formatting aren’t uniformly distributed. Simply put, there’s no definite pattern.
https://twitter.com/RemyBurger/status/1382407985146732544
The issues with Google Docs have been causing problems for the past couple of days. Now, Google Drive Product Manager Remy Burger has claimed that popular Ad Blockers could be at fault. However, not everyone running an ad blocker is having trouble.
Google Docs glitching due to popular ad blockers?
Remy Burger has claimed that recent changes some adblockers have implemented are causing Docs to glitch. His solution is quite simple as well: Disable all content blockers on Drive, Docs, Slides, and other Google products to try and fix the problems.
https://twitter.com/kyjones25/status/1382344409488916480
Burger has claimed the problem is due to changes in AdBlock’s and EasyList’s blocklists. These are “lists” that several popular adblockers, if not all, refer to for blocking ads.
What this means is that Google can’t or won’t do anything to fix the issue. In other words, adblockers have caused the problems and hence they should remedy the same.
AdBlock has issued a statement saying it will resolve the problem shortly. The popular adblocking extension has indicated that the authors of the blocklist are working to address the problems. It is not clear how long will the creators of the blocklist take to rectify problems.
@ricardojrsousa Thanks for flagging this! It looks like there’s an issue with one of the primary filter lists in AdBlock, but the filter list authors are working on a fix as we speak. Appreciate the report!
— AdBlock (@getadblock) April 14, 2021
As a temporary solution, Docs and ad blocking extension users should go into the filter settings and whitelist or ‘allow’ drive.google.com. Some users reported that allowing docs.google.com works as well.
As a precaution, add as many ‘Drive’ URLs, such as slides.google.com in order to resolve this problem until a permanent fix arrives. However, as a long-term measure, please consider disabling adblockers entirely.
The majority of websites (or the internet in general) rely on advertising for revenue and keep the content free for readers. Moreover, several websites keep ads to the minimum, and ensure they are not intrusive.