Are your Google Drive uploads stuck at the “starting upload” message? If so, then you’re not alone, and based on what other users are saying, the issue with Google Drive isn’t blocking uploads entirely. There’s also an easy workaround which seems to work for most users.
Google Drive uploads stuck at “starting upload”
The folks at PiunikaWeb spotted the issue with Google Drive uploads getting stuck on a number of online forums, including Twitter, Reddit and Google’s own help forum. It appears to be quite widespread, based on the number of comments appearing on each platform. Those who describe the issue say whenever they try to upload a file to Drive, the loading bar shows the message “starting upload” but then never goes beyond that point.
Initially, it sounded like Drive just wasn’t allowing uploads at all, but many users who have been affected by the issue said if they leave the loading bar alone, the upload does finally finish even though the bar never shows any progress. However, it takes much longer to upload files than it normally does.
Both Windows and Mac users of the Chrome browser have been affected by the issue. However, many said they’re able to upload the same file to Google Drive using Firefox or Safari instead of Chrome.
Easy workarounds
If you don’t want to use another browser, there are some other things you can try to get around the issue causing Google Drive uploads to be stuck. A few users found that after they disabled some extensions, they were able to upload to Drive just like usual.
However, the one workaround which seems to work for the vast majority of users is simply uploading videos using Chrome’s Incognito mode. This mode can be accessed by clicking the three vertical dots in the top-right corner of the browser and then selecting “New incognito window.” You can also open Chrome and then hold CTRL + SHIFT + N, which automatically switches the browser to Incognito mode.
