Some of our students are having their Google account on their phone "disabled" anybody else?

[Jaan]

Hey all.

 

We've got a sudden surge of reports that our students' Google accounts are appearing as "Disabled" on their  phones. (Android and iphones)

I've tested it with a demo account, and confirmed it on my personal phone.

 

In Android, the student account is clearly marked "disabled." Tapping on this disabled account gives the error: "...service unavailable... you tried to access a service that isn't available for your account."

 

upon clicking 'learn more' I get "Can't access this service, this service is unavailable for Google workspace for education users who are under 18 and children under 13 (or the age of consent in your country)."

 

What makes this odd is The account is active in the Google Admin Console and the student can successfully log into and use Gmail via the web browser on the same phone.

 

I've confirmed all student Organizational Units (OUs) have the correct age ranges. However gmail isn't age restricted anyway as i understand it.

 

It seems to be a sudden, app-level restriction/misinterpretation of the account's status or age setting. Has anyone else encountered this strange discrepancy recently?

 

Same issue on iphones.

 

I've opened a support request with Google also.

 

Cheers

Edited October 24, 2025 by Jaan

[paulkerton]

First thing I'd check is Google Play. Make sure Google Play is on for them in the first instance, and then also check to see if you need to reaffirm the consent in the additional Google services screen.

[Jaan]

All already allowed and confirmed. 

[icechris]

I've had something similar happening with a student level account I have set up on Chrome on my Mac. My adult account works fine but everytime I reboot the Mac the pupil profile vanish from Chrome and has to be signed in and synced again. Never used to happen so there must have been something changed by Google recently.

[Jaan]

Yeah there has they have enforced age restrictions on some apps..... but Gmail (in this instance) isn't affected by that change.

[jshearer]

Just offering my experience.

 

We are experiencing (mostly) the same issue.  So far three students, all Androids.  One detail/difference is that in the account list on the phone it says 'Deactivated', not 'Disabled'.  Otherwise we are seeing the exact same scenario.

 

Using the other ideas posted, I looked into the Additional Google Services.  The major Google apps are not there, but there were six other apps that needed consent.  (Feedburner, Google Alerts, Google Arts and Culture, Looker Studio, Managed Google Play, Material Gallery).  I have provided consent for these additional services and am waiting to hear back from the students to see if the issue has resolved.

 

I'm glad to hear we are not the only ones seeing this!  Yes, I have a ticket open w/ Google...

 

[Jaan]

what's odd, is that it seems gmail does work!.... i think the "disabled" next to the account should ideally read "some services disabled" to stop confusion.

[Jaan]

Update:

 

This was a known issue by Google which has since been resolved.

 

 

 

--------

 

Case Subject: Student account appears disabled on their Phones

Case Comment :

After reviewing the information you provided, we believe that you may have been affected by an issue that has already been resolved. Please review the details below to confirm that we've correctly identified your issue - A subset of customers in EDU domains are experiencing issues accessing Gmail mobile applications:

Affected Product(s):
Admin Console

Status:
Fully Resolved

Description:
A subset of customers in EDU domains are experiencing issues accessing Gmail mobile applications.

How to diagnose:
Affected customers may have experienced issues accessing Gmail mobile applications. Gmail web access is unaffected.

Workaround:
Customers can access Gmail from the web browser.

Current update: 
At 2025-10-26 02:21 UTC (21 hours ago):
The issue with the GMail is resolved for all the users on Saturday, 2025-10-25 12:05 PDT

As per our preliminary analysis, the issue was caused due to a recent code change introduced to OneGoogle for Android and iOS apps. Our engineering team mitigated the issue by rolling back these problematic changes.

We apologize to all who are affected by the disruption. We thank you for your patience while we worked on resolving the issue.

Previous updates:
At 2025-10-25 02:54 UTC (1 day ago):
We are experiencing an issue with Gmail beginning on Friday, 2025-10-24 10:45 PDT.

Our engineering team has identified the root cause and implemented mitigation measures. And, currently we are monitoring the status of mitigation.

We will provide an update by Monday, 2025-10-27 11:00 PDT with current details.

We apologize to all who are affected by the disruption.
----
At 2025-10-25 00:18 UTC (2 days ago):
We are experiencing an issue with Gmail beginning on Friday, 2025-10-24 10:45 PDT.

Our engineering team continues to investigate the issue.

We will provide an update by Friday, 2025-10-24 20:30 PDT with current details.
----
At 2025-10-24 22:56 UTC (2 days ago):
We are experiencing an issue with Gmail beginning at Friday, 2025-10-24 10:45 PDT.

Our engineering team continues to investigate the issue.

We will provide an update by Friday, 2025-10-24 17:30 PDT with current details.
----
At 2025-10-24 20:51 UTC (2 days ago):
We are experiencing an issue with Gmail beginning at Friday, 2025-10-24 10:45 PDT.

Our engineering team continues to investigate the issue.

We will provide an update by Friday, 2025-10-24 16:00 PDT with current details.
Please review your case and take any actions as requested. If you have any questions or require immediate assistance, please reply to this email to contact Google Workspace Support.

Thanks for choosing Google Workspace.
—The Google Team

[Gheedn]

On 24/10/2025 at 14:01, Jaan said:

Hey all.

 

We've got a sudden surge of reports that our students' Google accounts are appearing as "Disabled" on their  phones. (Android and iphones)

I've tested it with a demo account, and confirmed it on my personal phone.

 

In Android, the student account is clearly marked "disabled." Tapping on this disabled account gives the error: "...service unavailable... you tried to access a service that isn't available for your account."

 

upon clicking 'learn more' I get "Can't access this service, this service is unavailable for Google workspace for education users who are under 18 and children under 13 (or the age of consent in your country)."

 

What makes this odd is The account is active in the Google Admin Console and the student can successfully log into and use Gmail via the web browser on the same phone.

 

I've confirmed all student Organizational Units (OUs) have the correct age ranges. However gmail isn't age restricted anyway as i understand it.

 

It seems to be a sudden, app-level restriction/misinterpretation of the account's status or age setting. Has anyone else encountered this strange discrepancy recently?

 

Same issue on iphones.

 

I've opened a support request with Google also.

 

Cheers  Hey everyone — quick take: I just tried deploying Redwerk’s digital transformation services https://redwerk.com/services/digital-transformation/ to streamline our org’s phone-based access for Google accounts, and ironically we’re seeing the same “disabled” message on student Android and iPhones. Has anyone else paired a large-scale digital transformation effort with a sudden device-based lockout like this? Feels like a tech win in theory, but a confusing UX in practice.

agree.

It definitely feels like a recent backend change by Google—possibly tied to new enforcement around age-based service restrictions for Workspace for Education accounts. Since everything still works in the browser, I doubt it’s an admin setting issue. It’s more likely an app-level misclassification. Hopefully Google support clarifies soon; this seems widespread, not just an isolated case.