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Good luck sliding into anyone's Twitter DMs right now
Facebook isn't the only internet behemoth suffering from serious downtime. As of mid-day on July 3rd, Twitter is experiencing "some issues" with direct message delivery and notifications. We've asked Twitter if it can clarify what happened, but you probably won't be sliding into anyone's DMs until the issue is resolved.
Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp are back up and running (updated)
Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp are experiencing outages this morning. Downdetector maps show the services are struggling around the globe, but the issues seem to be the worst on the East Coast and in Europe. According to The Independent, some WhatsApp users are unable to send photos, videos and voice messages, though text is still going through, and #instagram down is trending on Twitter.
eBay promises 'can't-miss' deals if Amazon crashes on Prime Day (again)
July is almost upon us. That means it's nearly time for Amazon's huge Prime Day sale, which it's expanding to two days this year. But, like Target, eBay isn't content to give its rival all the spotlight, and plans to be right there with its own deals. eBay is running its own Crash Sale on July 15th, aka the first half of Prime Day.
Target's registers suffered a nationwide outage
Target can't quite escape its technical woes, apparently. The retail giant's registers suffered a roughly two-hour nationwide outage in mid-day on June 15th, preventing customers from making purchases (including in self-checkout lines) right before Father's Day. The company has only described it as an "internal technology issue," but stressed that an early review indicated this wasn't the result of a data breach or other "security-related issue." Customer wasn't compromised "at any time," Target added.
Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp hit by second outage within a month
Just as the US was waking up to a lovely Sunday, Facebook was sadly tackling yet another massive outage -- its second one within a month. According to downdetector.com, soon after 6AM ET today, users across the world started experiencing issues with Facebook and its various platforms, including Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp. At the time of writing -- well over two hours later -- the services were still down, leaving users unable to load fresh content or message each other, nor could we check the service status on Facebook's developer site. Unlike last time, the company had yet to comment on the situation via Twitter.
Looks like iCloud is having problems (updated)
Apple is having a bad day. A litany of iCloud services are down or experiencing service disruptions, including sign-in, backup, reminders, Mail, Calendar and Find my iPhone features. On DownDetector, reports started spiking around 11AM ET, and the most common issues appear to be email connectivity and what the website deems "total blackout."
Facebook's massive outage was the result of a server configuration change
Facebook and Instagram were down for the better part of the day Wednesday, and now we know why. According to Facebook, the outage was the result of a server configuration change. The social networking giant said the issue has since been fixed and all of its products and services are accessible once again. "We're very sorry for the inconvenience and appreciate everyone's patience," the company said.
Xbox One 'black screen' issue prevented consoles from starting up (updated)
We hope you didn't take the day off for an extended Xbox game session. Microsoft has acknowledged widespread reports of Xbox One consoles suddenly failing. In many cases, the systems start up to a black screen that makes them unusable. There have also been issues with sign-ins, title updates and unresponsive Guides.
Some Nest services were down all afternoon
Many Nest users had problems connecting to their alarms, cameras, thermostats and doorbells on Tuesday afternoon, though it seems the problem has cleared up. Nest says everything is up and running again.
Holiday 'Fortnite' outage leaves players in limbo (updated)
We hope you didn't plan on spending your holiday week indulging in a Fortnite marathon. Epic Games has confirmed an outage preventing players from joining games, or even signing in. The developer hasn't been specific about the nature of the issue, but TechCrunch noted that it took multiple tries to log in, and that the queue was timing out. The company's status page pointed to a "partial outage" for game services as well as "degraded performance" for both signing in and matchmaking.
Network outages affect millions of mobile customers in the UK and Japan
Mobile phone customers in the UK and Japan were affected by a network outage today, one that impacted millions of users, the Financial Times reports. A number of SoftBank customers in Japan lost connectivity in the early afternoon, which was reportedly restored just after 6PM local time. However, O2's 4G network went down around 5AM local time in the UK and service has yet to be fully restored. The issue appears to have stemmed from a software problem on the part of Ericsson.
Nest services go down for the third time in three weeks
Tonight owners of Nest devices are reporting (as show on Down Detector, Twitter and Reddit) that access to their thermostats, cameras and other devices has been cut off by an outage. While that can happen occasionally, this is the third time in as many weeks that the system has had a widespread problem, following similar blackouts on November 27th and November 15th. So far the company's support accounts say only that they've received reports and are investigating -- we'll let you know if we hear any details on a reason behind the recent disconnects or word on when it will be back up. Update: Nest tells us the service is back up, and based on user reports, most had access again within 20 - 30 minutes of this latest outage. There's still no word on the cause, however this bird has been ruled out.
Google went down after traffic was routed through China and Russia
Google's services went down for an hour yesterday after its IP addresses were routed way from normal paths to Nigeria, China and Russia. Google told Ars Technica it doubted the leak was malicious, despite the fact that government-owned China Telecom was recently caught routing Western carrier traffic through mainland China. Some of Google's most sensitive data, including its corporate WAN infrastructure and VPN, were reportedly redirected.
Outage pulls the plug on YouTube, YouTube TV and YouTube Music
For about the last half hour, YouTube has been mostly unusable and inaccessible. According to the company's Twitter account, "We're working on resolving this and will let you know once fixed." There's no word on what is causing the error, but we've seen it from all locations and across every device we've tried. YouTube, YouTube TV and YouTube Music are all impacted, and while pages have begun loading again, actually trying to watch a video is still throwing up the error message shown above. Update (10:45 PM ET): YouTube and associated services appear to be working again, although we haven't received any official word from the team yet. Update 2 (11 PM ET): YouTube confirmed the issue is resolved, although there's no word on what caused the outage.
Arlo outage knocks security cameras offline (updated)
Arlo security camera owners haven't had the most reliable coverage this weekend. The Netgear-linked brand has confirmed a service outage that knocked many cameras offline starting in the late afternoon on August 4th. Customers faced "intermittent login errors" that either prevented them from signing in or wouldn't let them watch motion detection recordings. Others couldn't watch live streams or connect in the first place.
MoviePass stops offering tickets for big movies amid outages
MoviePass' financial and technical problems keep getting worse. According to a Business Insider source, company chief Mitch Lowe not only told staffers that the service wouldn't offer tickets for the next two major movie releases this summer (Christopher Robin and The Meg), but hinted that this would be the policy for other movies in the near future. Some viewers couldn't order tickets for Mission: Impossible - Fallout this past weekend, for that matter. A spokesperson wouldn't directly comment on the report, but did point to an open letter from Lowe that said "certain movies may not always be available in every theater."
MoviePass money woes caused a service outage last night
MoviePass customers experienced a service outage last night and it turns out it's because the company ran out of money. Business Insider reports that MoviePass' parent company, Helios and Matheson Analytics, wasn't able to make necessary payments due to a lack of funds, so it borrowed $5 million. "The $5.0 million cash proceeds received from the Demand Note will be used by the Company to pay the Company's merchant and fulfillment processors," Helios and Matheson Analytics said in an SEC filing. "If the Company is unable to make required payments to its merchant and fulfillment processors, the merchant and fulfillment processors may cease processing payments for MoviePass, Inc. ('MoviePass'), which would cause a MoviePass service interruption. Such a service interruption occurred on July 26, 2018."
YouTube TV apologizes for World Cup downtime with a free week
In the middle of Wednesday's World Cup semifinal match between England and Croatia, YouTube's live TV service suffered an unfortunately-timed outage (not unlike ones we've seen from Sling or Hulu). Naturally, it enraged YouTube TV subscribers who had picked up the service specifically to catch live broadcasts like that game, and now it's offering an apology in the form of a credit. In an email that went out to customers, YouTube TV promised a free week, which for customers on its standard $40 per month plan should amount to $10 off. It also noted that DVR'd recordings of the full match should be available in the Library -- if you can stand to watch that one again.
MoviePass was down and out on a summer Friday night
For the past couple of hours MoviePass was experiencing an outage on a Friday night in the summer. It also happens to be the hottest day so far this year in many parts of the country and would otherwise be a perfect time to hit air-conditioned theaters. That's not a good look for a service that just introduced "surge" prices for popular films days after filing with the SEC to sell off up to $1.2 billion in equity and debt securities to raise funds. MoviePass' Twitter account is recommending people wait before going to the theater, but if you absolutely have to go and can't log in, then buy a ticket and the company will reimburse you. Seriously.
Nationwide Comcast outage is here to ruin your Friday
We hope you weren't planning to start your pre-Independence Day weekend with a streaming video marathon... you might have to put it on hold. Comcast has confirmed a nationwide outage affecting internet access, TV and voice. While it wasn't specific about which areas were affected, the worst-hit regions appeared to involve the Atlanta area, large portions of Florida and parts of the northeast (including Boston and Philadelphia). San Francisco and Seattle are also running into trouble.
