cross-posted from [email protected]
It happens every once in a while when a story on your Google Discover news feed will mysteriously take you to Google’s 404 (Not Found) page—despite the story being very much live at the time.
BleepingComputer has been observing this behavior over the past few weeks at random on Android devices, and we are able to identify the cause of the problem.
Here’s how you can still read your favorite stories, and even workaround the bug that has occasionally bothered some users in the past.
My fix is actively avoid Google news and discover as most of the articles are ragebait or clickbait
I’m still trying to make it work for me, because I like the idea in theory. But no matter what I give likes to, I mostly get garbage in my recommendations. And the rare article that’s interesting is usually paywalled.
Problem
The problem arises when multiple Google accounts are signed onto a device.
Whenever, multiple Google (think Gmail) accounts are logged in on a device, the URLs for Google services get “rewritten” with an account identifier.
Similarly, the URLs for these news stories, in some cases, get rewritten with an account identifier:
Fix:
A workaround we have identified is, for Google News/Discover stories that show a 404 page, users can simply return to their news feed screen.
You can then tap on the three-dots next to a story, on the bottom right corner, and select “About this source & topic.”
This will now show you the story as an organic search result on Google Search that can proceed to normally.
