Why Is Facebook Not Working & How To Fix It
What on Earth happened to Facebook? We all can’t live without this social media platform. Well, maybe we can, but we don’t want to.
The recent massive outage experienced by all Facebook sites in late 2021 ( more info here) made us think about how fragile the online world is.
Lots of companies and users were waiting for news that said the outages had been solved. Little did we know that we would be unable to use Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp for almost half of Monday.
That’s why it’s important to comprehend what happened and what we can do if the Facebook site goes offline again. So, is Facebook not working? Worry not - read further to get info about:
- What happened to all Facebook’s social networks;
- Official statement of the company on Monday, October 4, 2021;
- What to do if Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp experience outages again.
What Happened to all Facebook Powered Services?
No, it wasn’t you who was experiencing networking issues - your Internet was totally fine.
In fact, opening other websites in your browser, such as Twitter, was a walk in the park.
So, what happened to the biggest social platform of them all? Is your data compromised? Was there an attack on Facebook data centers?!
Mike Schroepfer, Chief Technology Officer of the company, posted the following message on his Twitter page:
*Sincere* apologies to everyone impacted by outages of Facebook powered services right now. We are experiencing networking issues and teams are working as fast as possible to debug and restore as fast as possible
— Mike Schroepfer (@schrep) October 4, 2021
So, “de-bug”? How many hours was it going to take for the services to restore? The answer is more than 5 hours.
The Worst Outage Since 2008
The major outage on Facebook took place back in 2008, where 80 million users couldn’t access the site for more than a day.
The thing is that Facebook doesn’t have 80 million users anymore - the company has more than 3 billion all over the world.
Other Facebook Apps, Such as Facebook Messenger, Also Failed
We are not talking just about Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp - other apps related to this enormous business also experienced outage issues.
When users tried to access Whatsapp, Instagram, and Facebook Messenger, these platforms appeared offline for hours.
There are news reports of Facebook staff that were locked out of their own systems for hours on Monday!
But what happened? Explained in short:
A server configuration change affected the network traffic in Facebook data centers. Whenever wrong configuration changes happen, the DNS (Domain Name System, which is like a phone book for the Internet), fails to communicate a proper address. The result? Downtime.
What to Do if Facebook’s Services Are Not Working
So, what is the right thing to do if this happens again?
If you have an online business and use Instagram, WhatsApp, and other platforms, then the outage was a headache for you.
Fortunately, the good news is that we can hope for Facebook, Whatsapp, and Instagram to work fine in the months to come.
Fix 1: Check if Facebook is Down
First, check if there’s a general outage on Facebook. You can do this in Downdetector, which is a really reliable site.
If there’s a problem, then you need to wait for the company to fix the network and DNS issues.
If there isn’t any DNS-related outage, continue with the following fixes.
Fix 2: Check if There’s a Problem With Your Facebook Account
Maybe your account has been limited for whatever reason it is.
If this happens to you, you will receive an email indicating what the problem is. Sometimes, we break Facebook rules without even knowing we did.
Therefore, check if there’s an issue with your profile before finally proceeding with the following fix.
Fix 3: Check the Facebook Mobile App
Perhaps the problem is your mobile device. Try to log out and then log back in. If that doesn’t work, then clear the app’s cache.
If, by any chance, this doesn’t work, then uninstall and install the Facebook app once again.
This should solve all the problems. Otherwise, the problem goes beyond your control, and you don’t have anything else to do other than wait for a while.
So, have you experienced Facebook issues lately besides the massive problem on October 4? If so, feel free to share your experience.
For more posts related to Facebook, feel free to check GrowFollowing. We teach you how to Poke Someone on Facebook and more!
Facebook Not Working FAQ
How Long Was Facebook Down For in 2021?
The official report shows that Facebook was down for around six hours. This is an unprecedented record for the company since it became the most prominent social platform worldwide.
Karen is a senior technical writer and copywriter at Hypegrowth. Her area of expertize are social media apps and new media.