The dreaded “Gmail logout loop” and a painless workaround

I have a couple Gmail accounts; one is essentially my go-to e-mail for both business and personal correspondence while the other is used for any purchases, newsletters or “you need to create an account before you read this!” As such I am constantly logging in and out of both accounts to switch into one or the other. Lately, I’ve been running into what people call the “Gmail logout loop.” Some people claim they have also seen this on log-in, but thankfully I haven’t run into both problems (… yet). You’ll see an endless string of “waiting for www.mail.google.com,” “connecting to www.mail.google.com,” “transferring data from www.mail.google.com.” ad nauseum.

Simply closing the browser doesn’t work. In some cases deleting cookies doesn’t work. Whatever the problem ACUALLY is, but browser illiterate self found a simple, painless workaround until Gmail figures out what the problem is.

1.) Navigate to www.google.com
2.) Move cursor to top of page (this should cause the on-site toolbar to appear.
3.) Click “log out”
4.) Click “log in.” Enter login info.
5.) Click Gmail.

Voila. So far the pesky loop only happens with the www.mail.google.com connection, not www.google.com. Feel free to enlighten me as to why that is. Seriously.