Is Facebook Down? Users Report Notifications Not Loading, Other Errors

Getty Facebook was down.

Facebook might be down, or at least some of its services are. Users are reporting issues, particularly with notifications not showing up when they try to load them. Some people are also reporting issues with their newsfeed. Facebook’s developer platform notes the problem and says a fix was pushed about four hours after it was first noticed. Around 4 p.m. Eastern, Facebook’s platform had noted that issue as “resolved,” however some people are still noticing issues. Here’s what we know so far.

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Many People Are Reporting Issues with Notifications & Some Are Having Trouble With Their Newsfeed Too

As you can see from DownDetector.com, there’s been a spike of problems today.

DownDetector

Although many of the issues are outside the U.S., they are starting to crop up in the U.S. too, according to the live outage map on DownDetector.com.

DownDetector

By 12:30 p.m. Eastern, some issues were still being reported.

DownDetector

And the outage map showed the issues a little more widespread in the U.S.

DownDetector

The majority of the issues seem to be connected with notifications not loading, such as this screenshot from Heavy.

Facebook mobile

Some users have suggested going to this Facebook link if you can’t see them on the app, to see if you can see them there. This works for some people, but not everyone. Though frustrating, these issues do typically resolve in a short period of time, often within a few hours.

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Facebook Has Said People Should Report Issues Through Facebook’s Website, But Their Platform Status Says a Fix Was Sent Out for ‘Degraded Performance’

On Twitter, Facebook only responded to one related inquiry so far. This was in response to someone having a problem on January 24 with only seeing a white screen, which Facebook responded to today, January 25. Today, most of Facebook’s responses have been regarding people thinking their accounts were hacked.

Facebook

Facebook’s Twitter account wrote: “Thank you for letting us know what you’re experiencing, Rob. If something isn’t working on Facebook, you can report it to us here: http://bit.ly/37qJbWp. -KY” 
Essentially, Facebook was pointing people to this Help page to report issues. To report an issue, log into Facebook on a computer, select the question mark on the top-right corner of a Facebook page and select “Report a Problem.”
But a look at their platform status on the Facebook Developers Platform reveals a little more. The page read “Degraded Performance” for more than seven hours until around 4 p.m. Eastern.

Facebook

A fix was pushed three hours ago, according to the most recent update on that page. “We are currently experiencing degraded performance across the entire platform, resulting in increased request response time. Our team is aware of the issue and is working on a solution.” 
The page also noted four hours ago: “We have identified the root cause and a fix has been released. We will update this status after verifying everything is back to normal.” The issue was still marked as a “current issue” as of 3:24 p.m. Eastern.
By 4 p.m. Eastern, it was marked as “resolved” and the platform is now marked “healthy.” It took about 7 1/2 hours before the issue was marked as resolved on Facebook’s platform.

But even now that it’s resolved, some people are still noting some problems. It might take awhile for the fix to reach all users.

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Although Issues Are Being Mostly Reported on Mobile Devices, Some People Are Experiencing Them on Desktop Too

Issues are being reported with mobile devices whether Android or iPhone and it seems especially prevalent with the app. Some users are reporting their apps are working again, but others are still having problems. Both old and new notifications aren’t loading, although many are still getting push notifications.

Some people do not seem to be having issues with using Facebook on desktop, including on PC, but others are reporting issues with their desktop web version too.
On Down Detector, commenters are saying that notifications are out in areas including Ohio, Las Vegas, northern California, New York, Berlin, North Carolina, and more. Others are saying it’s affecting their news feed showing only a few stories too.
Reports have been coming in for at least an hour with people noticing issues.

But new users are still noticing the issues, which do not appear to be fully resolved.

Some people say that they get a notification but when they go to Facebook, it’s not there and they are not seeing any current posts.

And now memes and jokes are being shared about the situation too.

One of the last times there was a major issue with Facebook was on Thanksgiving Day when both Facebook and Instagram were briefly down. There was another issue in September when it was completely down for about 90 minutes.  Another issue was reported in August. A larger issue was reported in July, when photos and albums weren’t loading. This was part of a string of intermittent Facebook problems at the time, including in June. Today’s issue appears to be an isolated incident. Facebook has not yet said anything official about what happened.
This is a developing story.

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