Is NotebookLM Down?

NotebookLM issues typically fall into three buckets: upload failures, AI response failures, and Audio Overview failures:

• Document upload stuck or failing — PDF uploads are processed by Google Drive backend. If upload progress spins indefinitely, try: (1) reduce file size under 200MB, (2) ensure PDF isn't password-protected, (3) try uploading a plain-text or Google Doc source instead.
• AI responses not generating ("Let me think..." forever) — NotebookLM uses Gemini models on the backend. If Gemini is degraded (check Google Workspace Status), queries hang. Hard-refresh the tab (Ctrl+Shift+R / Cmd+Shift+R) first — stuck state is common.
• Audio Overview fails or produces empty audio — Audio Overviews are a separate processing pipeline. They can fail independently of chat. If the generation bar stalls: close the tab, reopen, and trigger again. Generation takes 2-10 minutes; the first failure is often recoverable by retrying.
• Notebook not syncing across devices — NotebookLM notebooks sync via Google Drive. Sync issues often resolve by waiting 30-60 seconds, or by checking if Google Drive is independently degraded.
• Google Workspace account restrictions — If your Google account is on a managed Workspace (school or employer), admins may have restricted NotebookLM access. Sign in with a personal Google account to rule this out.
• Source limit reached — NotebookLM limits sources per notebook (50 sources as of 2026). Exceeding this causes upload failures with an error about notebook capacity.