Facebook Experiencing Serious Downtime Issues

Want to browse Facebook to see what your friends are doing or to catch up on to harvest your farms on FarmVille? Good luck! Over the past 24 hours I’ve been receiving numerous emails from users reporting that many features on Facebook have been unavailable. I’ve also been experiencing problems. This morning I tried to load my friend requests page and it just failed. On the AllFacebook page I tried viewing comments and likes of one of the posts and an AJAX error popped up.

Facebook doesn’t appear to be the only site having issues however. Twitter has been down for the past 15 minutes and users are going crazy! One anonymous blogger told us “I can’t retweet my own articles so how the hell am I going to get readers to my site?” Woe is me my dear friend! Talk about problems going on in the world: Facebook can’t be accessed by a large portion of its users. The site is known for having great uptime but more recently as the site has surged past 250 million users, the company is facing new issues.

While I’m sure Facebook will quickly figure out a way to resolve the issues, many users have been complaining that the site has been slow for a long time now. Nobody ever said managing a site with 250 million users was easy! Are you experiencing issues with Facebook as well or are things running smoothly for you? Is now the time for users to run to Friendfeed without looking back?

Update
The reason for the downtime was a DDoS attack which affected both Twitter and Facebook today. Everything appears to be back to normal.

-No Network Screenshot-

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73 Comments »

  1. This has been happening to me all morning. Thanks for the info.

    Comment by Lauralel — August 6, 2009 @ 6:24 am

  2. I just tried to Facebook and Tweet this, but I can't! Ahhgh! The world is ending!

    Comment by Jerry — August 6, 2009 @ 6:33 am

  3. No luck here in Alberta. When I can connect I get the error above. Our FB connect application is also down.

    Comment by Strixy — August 6, 2009 @ 6:37 am

  4. I'm a bit frustrated by FB issues today, but my goodness…it's kinda sad to hear about major "freaking out" over Twitter/Facebook being down for a bit. This isn't a national tragedy…we lived without this stuff for years. We've become victims of our own supposed efficiency.

    Comment by Beth Beutler — August 6, 2009 @ 6:39 am

  5. twitter and facebook both down at the same time .. something fishy….

    Comment by me — August 6, 2009 @ 6:42 am

  6. Yeah, the notification system is messed up with me since yesterday. It tells me I have 1 more notification than I actually have. Even if I just checked the notifications and I refresh, it tells me I have 1 new notification (one I already checked).

    Comment by Facebook User — August 6, 2009 @ 6:42 am

  7. outage has been restored here in Central Florida.

    Comment by John Hilla — August 6, 2009 @ 6:45 am

  8. Having problems this morning with creating a group, it will not take, and status comments posting and removing) are all skrewy. J

    Comment by J.Summers — August 6, 2009 @ 6:47 am

  9. not to mention that facebook apps are behaving erratically too… Try searching for something on the iTunes "Search and Share" box.. and the page will be reloaded… same with the search on BestBuy's page… sucks…

    Comment by Paulo Delgado — August 6, 2009 @ 6:50 am

  10. Facebook has been in and out, up and down randomly since yesterday

    Comment by Gerry O'Hagan — August 6, 2009 @ 6:56 am

  11. Major issues here. Sending a message to a friend keeps giving me a transport error. Trying to share a link on Facebook is not working at all. The notifications "button" on the bottom right is also not working. It shows a number of notifications, but when I click on it, it just clears out the number but does not show me anything. Then if I click on it again, it usually shows the notifications.

    Ugh!

    Comment by Robert Kurzweil — August 6, 2009 @ 7:10 am

  12. Hi! Im from Denmark…i have the same problem. when i go to login the error message apears afterwards.

    Comment by Sandra — August 6, 2009 @ 7:16 am

  13. Very frustrating… Any insight as to when it will be back up &/or what the issues are?

    Comment by Laurie — August 6, 2009 @ 7:20 am

  14. Well… at least this confirms that it is not my computer or internet system that is messed up… With the amount of people signing on to FREE FB I'm sure the system gets pretty overloaded… I certainly enjoy FB because I stay connected to family and friends very easily, but I can live without it… I think!!!

    Comment by Jack — August 6, 2009 @ 7:21 am

  15. well at least i'm not the only one having issues today…

    Comment by Not Alone — August 6, 2009 @ 7:28 am

  16. Same thing, but since mid July, man ! I get this DNS failure as well as the icon you screen capped above.

    Comment by TSP — August 6, 2009 @ 7:33 am

  17. I too am having connection issues with Facebook. However, I have to compliment the company for responding so quickly to try and restore service to their users. It was reported that Twitter is dealing with a DDOS attack this morning.

    See article here: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/twitter_face...

    If FB is having the same issue, then the fact that we can log in is a miracle.

    *NOTE* I have NO idea what issue FB is actually dealing with so be mindful of what information you pass along to others.

    Comment by Raina Durand — August 6, 2009 @ 7:34 am

  18. damn!i jst bought a new laptop, and i keep complaining to my hubby that something is wrong with my new laptop becoz i can't access to my facebook even inbox and its application..i am glad that its the server of facebook……hope they wil fix it ASAP! becoz many stayed home peepz using this website….

    Comment by jocelyn franz — August 6, 2009 @ 7:35 am

  19. when is it gonna get fixed……my hatchlings are gonna starve!!!!!!!!

    Comment by Kimberley — August 6, 2009 @ 7:36 am

  20. Thanks for this information — I was worried that something was wrong with my computer!

    Comment by Wlendle — August 6, 2009 @ 7:38 am

  21. It just came on Cnn that twitter has been down because of a denial of service attack…not sure if facebook is having the same issues.

    Comment by Miss — August 6, 2009 @ 7:48 am

  22. Twitter was hit………..but whats with the timeouts on facebook?????

    Comment by SIr — August 6, 2009 @ 7:56 am

  23. aaaah!!! yes i've been dealing with this all morning. i knew it wasn't just me. its really annoying but theres really nothing we can do about it :(

    Comment by isaac — August 6, 2009 @ 8:22 am

  24. agh, it's completely down now

    Comment by Chen Ye — August 6, 2009 @ 8:26 am

  25. Wondering if this has anything to do with the Twitter attack. If anything, could have spiked usage

    Comment by Celso — August 6, 2009 @ 8:32 am

  26. Does Facebook not have a status page like sites like LiveJournal have when they're having problems? (http://status.livejournal.org/) Or a way to contact support staff directly without going through forums or help pages?

    This is frustrating.

    Comment by Lots of Us — August 6, 2009 @ 8:34 am

  27. I've been blocked from using the Search function for over use "ignoring an earlier warning". I have not even been on Facebook for the last few days, and have not received any earlier warning. I am not a heavy search user. Hoping it's a glitch.

    Comment by Janet — August 6, 2009 @ 8:48 am

  28. Looks like the majority of issues are solved. Some issues remain with FB connect.

    Comment by Strixy — August 6, 2009 @ 9:23 am

  29. I'm having these issues too. It's been extremely slow or just down all day.

    Sounds like they need another server…..

    Comment by Serena — August 6, 2009 @ 9:40 am

  30. Just found this news report:

    Aug 6th, 2009 | NEW YORK — A hacker attack Thursday shut down the fast-growing messaging service Twitter, and Facebook also said it was looking into possible site problems.

    Twitter said in its status blog Thursday that it was "defending against a denial-of-service attack," in which hackers command scores of computers to a single site at the same time, preventing legitimate traffic from getting through.

    For Twitter users, the outage meant no tweeting about lunch plans, the weather or the fact that Twitter is down.

    The Twitter outage began at about 9 a.m. EDT, said Ken Godskind, chief strategy officer at Web performance monitoring company AlertSite.

    The site still had lingering access problems midday, though both Twitter and Facebook seemed to be functioning at least intermittently, giving cubicle-bound social media addicts a collective sigh of relief.

    Allison Koski, a public-relations manager in Manhattan, said she felt "completely lost" without Twitter.

    "I had to Google search Twitter to find out what was going on, when normally my Twitter feed gives me all the breaking news I need," Koski said.

    Incidentally, Facebook also seemed to be experiencing problems. Company spokeswoman Brandee Barker said the company was looking into it and would have an update "as soon as possible."

    Technology business analyst Shelly Palmer told AP Radio that denial-of-service attacks are a reality of the information age.

    "People tend to want to take sites that are very public and go after them," said Palmer, managing director of Advanced Media Ventures Group. "In fact you'd be surprised how many sites for major companies are really attacked on a daily basis. This is a crime, it's a real crime and it should be treated that way."

    Earlier this week, Gawker Media, which owns the eponymous media commentary blog and other sites, was also attacked. In a blog post, Gawker said Tuesday it was attacked by "dastardly hackers," leading to server problems that caused network-wide outages Sunday and Monday. It was not immediately clear whether those attacks were related to Twitter's.

    Comment by Serena — August 6, 2009 @ 9:46 am

  31. Cleaning cache and a hard refresh(ctrl+F5)might help to log in.

    Comment by Randi — August 6, 2009 @ 10:00 am

  32. I also found this posted by a developer of facebook:

    (2009-05-31 03:39:05)

    To all users of this app ‘’Civ wars’’ http://apps.facebook.com/civwars/towns.php be warned that you must remove all your accounts and installs from this application because its owned by a dangerous fraudster and hacker who recently broke into my server and fished my personal details.

    You will continue using this application at your own risk.Be warned !

    Comment by Serena — August 6, 2009 @ 10:01 am

  33. I'm in Missouri and still experiencing problems. I was able to sign in for a few minutes and then it was gone. It's frustrating. I keep in touch with friends and family that live in other states with FaceBook.

    Comment by edseevers — August 6, 2009 @ 10:19 am

  34. Serious problems…………..my crops will be lost…….

    Comment by Betand Brill Sculli — August 6, 2009 @ 10:35 am

  35. ^^ LOL! ^^ I hear ya Betand!

    Comment by Ang — August 6, 2009 @ 10:40 am

  36. I started noticing issues last night- my notifications wouldn’t load. Now I can’t send messages to members of my groups, check pages, requests, etc. It’s a real pain since I actually use Facebook to network with groups of people and keep everyone on the same page.

    Comment by Bummed out User — August 6, 2009 @ 10:48 am

  37. remember…ITS FREE

    Comment by phil — August 6, 2009 @ 11:02 am

  38. I can’t access my inbox.

    Comment by Pat — August 6, 2009 @ 11:03 am

  39. For the past 24 hours or so, I've noticed I have no access to Facebook pages. I run several pages and when accessing them now, I see messages they don't exist. Huh?

    Comment by Ari Herzog — August 6, 2009 @ 11:04 am

  40. I have been trying to connect to facebook all morning…very frustrating, where is it?????????

    Comment by kathy lefort — August 6, 2009 @ 11:04 am

  41. Would this involve "pages" as well? I have a "page" for my mortgage team and it's not working. When I click the link, it says Page can not be displayed. All my other "favorite" pages are working except for mine?!?

    Comment by Tiffany — August 6, 2009 @ 11:40 am

  42. My FB isn't working right and I thought it was my computer until I found this website. Hopefully it will be back up later. Thanks to everyone for the post.

    Comment by Susie — August 6, 2009 @ 1:16 pm

  43. My home page is blank. I can view my profile, wall, photos, etc. but my homepage is a blank screen. Please help.

    Comment by Tammy Hill — August 9, 2009 @ 5:52 pm

  44. facebook was working fine a little while back, but since half n hour this is the message im getting

    'Service Unavailable – DNS failure

    The server is temporarily unable to service your request. Please try again later.

    Reference #11.bcec0f50.1250700271.593d4a2

    no facebook page is loading??

    what could be the problem? :s

    Comment by Rahat — August 19, 2009 @ 8:47 am

  45. I too have been having issues with not connecting to their server all day … Anyone know what's up with them today? Works fine on my mobile device, but not on desktop …

    Comment by jeremy — August 19, 2009 @ 1:01 pm

  46. I have been having a similar problem. This morning when I tried to log on, it just took forever and then popped up the "Internet Explorer cannot display website". I downloaded FireFox to see if that would help; no dice.

    Anywho, I haven't been able to sign on all day. I called a couple people to see if they were having the same problem and they were not.

    Any help would be much appreciated.

    Comment by Ryan — August 19, 2009 @ 2:58 pm

  47. I am unable to login right now…

    Comment by Exceptional — August 21, 2009 @ 10:15 am

  48. I haven’t been able to do anything on FB. I can log in but can only view the home page currently on the screen, no older posts and I cannot change screens, applications or even comment on anything… it’s been like this for weeks… getting really annoying!

    Hope someone is going to sort it out soon before I give up on using it at all.

    Comment by Chanine — August 24, 2009 @ 10:18 am

  49. Cant use instant chat and wont send messages.

    Comment by Michelle — August 24, 2009 @ 1:12 pm

  50. I am having the same issue! Can't log in. Anyone knows why?

    Comment by Gra — August 28, 2009 @ 2:21 am

  51. Down in Singapore all day

    Comment by Joe Traveler — August 30, 2009 @ 6:15 am

  52. I cannot get into FB…I just get a 'cannot connect to the webpage' error when I try to log in…am I the only one?

    Comment by Melissa — August 30, 2009 @ 9:04 pm

  53. More information

    This problem can be caused by a variety of issues, including:

    •Internet connectivity has been lost.

    •The website is temporarily unavailable.

    •The Domain Name Server (DNS) is not reachable.

    •The Domain Name Server (DNS) does not have a listing for the website's domain.

    •There might be a typing error in the address.

    •If this is an HTTPS (secure) address, click Tools, click Internet Options, click Advanced, and check to be sure the SSL and TLS protocols are enabled under the security section.

    AAARGH…

    Comment by Melissa — August 30, 2009 @ 9:05 pm

  54. OK- this is really starting to piss me off… I can get to farmville- only because I have it on my desktop- NOTHING ELSE!!! What is going on here?

    Comment by Nanette Murphy — September 4, 2009 @ 7:17 pm

  55. Facebook's IM CHAT is not working and also cant send friends messages and it is running very slow!

    Comment by Rhonda Seel-Faulkner — September 21, 2009 @ 8:28 pm

  56. Incredibly slow today …….. actually that's an understatement as I can't seem to be able to get in anywhere. The Sweets Factory in Yoville is probably on fire now, and the fire has possibly been started by a Castle Age dragon able to get away. The one consolation I have, is that according to a recent quiz I am like a literary character.

    Yours Sincerely

    Frodo Baggins

    (Please excuse me whilst I go and shave my feet)

    …..

    Comment by Simone — September 29, 2009 @ 5:29 am

  57. I can’t get facebook to even open. I can open any other page, but facebook produces a “Safari can’t connect to the server”. Could this be a selective issue with Safari?

    Comment by Tammy — October 12, 2009 @ 9:35 pm

  58. This Sucks! Why does it have to be so slow on my day off.

    Comment by Michele Ellis - Niem — November 19, 2009 @ 2:58 pm

  59. Facebook is slow today (November 29, 2009). Is anyone having the same problems? The page takes quite some time to load, and the apps takes so slow to load.

    Comment by Ares — November 28, 2009 @ 3:13 pm

  60. Why does it want to refresh or say you are out of synch every minute or so? VERY frustrating!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Comment by Linda Robinson — December 5, 2009 @ 12:31 pm

  61. Still happening- every 5 seconds or so!About ready to sell the farm!

    Comment by Linda Robinson — December 5, 2009 @ 12:53 pm

  62. I can not play farmville why?.this needs to be fix or i will stop playing this..

    Comment by Jerry Brown — December 7, 2009 @ 7:08 pm

  63. I can'y get on to play my games. and the site is very slow and stalls. when will it be fixed

    Comment by shannon — December 16, 2009 @ 5:06 am

  64. "Publish this story to your Facebook Wall and your friends' home pages?" When this box pops up on facebook it does not totally open and I do not know what to do or where to go for help. What can I do?

    Comment by Sharon Acoose — March 23, 2010 @ 4:52 am

  65. All morning, when i click on a link in the news feed all i get is you can't get a reward on your own. Or this is for your friends only. What is the deal with facebook? They really need to consider working out alot of issue before asking someone to pay for this site.

    Comment by Regina — March 31, 2010 @ 5:15 am

  66. I don't get any of the Farmville bouns on my home page. They just don't show up. I have to go to the persons wall to see what bouns there are. I don't get any showing on my home page. Why??? All my other friends see the farmville bouns on their home page. I see fishworld stuff and I see other bouns from other games. I just don't see Farmville.

    Comment by Peggy — March 31, 2010 @ 10:01 pm

  67. let me just say one thing THEY WHAT YOU TO PAY TO HAVE FACE BOOK!!!! hehehe yeah OK i would not pay for a site that more than half of the time something is not working properly…. i have 5 different thing wrong with the site as of right now.. (had i been paying for it) then of course i would never pay for it. but say i was i would be quite pi**ed that its don't work more than half of the time….. i just waiting, because it will happen, fb will eventually be like my space old news, if they don't get things working up to par….. to fb creators there is always something newer and better around the next corner if you want to keep it fix it……

    Comment by jennifer — May 1, 2010 @ 5:20 am

  68. Fishworld is particularly horrible and it has been going on for some time. Stuff done does not get saved, points are missing and the developers simply do not respond to my e-mails. I spent two hours changing things in 11 tanks, came back an hour later and found nothing had been saved. They alwasy have some excuse why I can't log on. Anyone know how to contact Facebook directly with a complaint?

    Comment by Chuck — June 11, 2010 @ 3:58 pm

  69. Service Unavailable – DNS failure

    The server is temporarily unable to service your request. Please try again later.
    Reference #11.5513434d.1285272046.e6a90

    This comes here in southern Germany. #@$%@# FB !!

    Comment by Mike Uri — September 23, 2010 @ 4:02 pm

  70. Usually when FB is having problems and you can't access your apps such as Farmville they will suspend withering of crops. I have seen this on several occasions when they were experiencing glitches. Sigh! Which is more the norm more often than not.

    Comment by Jaharra Cafarella — September 23, 2010 @ 4:14 pm

  71. Same thing here! No facebook! My poor farm and hatchlings. Read article that most issues were resolved. If they were resolved then why so many still without facebook? :(

    Comment by Jessy — September 23, 2010 @ 5:12 pm

  72. of all nights fb has to be down when im home and i was on fb not in my cave watching the evil box!!! grrrr so irritating and frustrating!

    Comment by moodybtch — October 6, 2010 @ 12:46 am

  73. Yeah!
    that's what i thought…
    i can't live without facebook!!!!!!!!!!!
    groOOOOOooosss!

    Comment by jocel — January 15, 2011 @ 10:30 pm

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