Slack is down — live updates on the outage

The messaging service Slack is currently down. Here's what we know

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Slack on a smartphone in front of a blue background
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The widely used messaging service Slack appears to be down as of around 9.30 a.m. ET, potentially leaving millions of people frantically working out how they communicate with their colleagues.

According to Down Detector, the problems started at 8.53 a.m. ET and are also affecting Github. 

Here's the latest on what we know about the outage as it happens.

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Slack System Status page

(Image credit: Slack)

Slack has posted a message on its own System Status page confirming that it is having problems in certain areas.

The service refers to it as an 'incident' and says:

"Slack is not loading for some users

We’re investigating the issue where Slack is not loading for some users. We’re looking into the cause and will provide more information as soon as it's available.

Feb 22, 2:25 PM GMT"

Down Detector

(Image credit: Down Detector)

Down Detector has also recorded the problems on Slack, with reports peaking at 9.20 a.m. ET, although they do appear to be easing slightly now.

And Slack's own Twitter account has also confirmed that some customers may be experiencing issues and that they're sorry for the disruption.

I should think so — I'll struggle to get through the working day without Tom's Guide's Watercooler channel.

The problem isn't an entirely straightforward one — because some aspects of the service do still appear to be working. The website loads without any issues in my browser and I can still see all messages that were posted before the problems began. However I'm unable to send messages — which is a bit of an issue for a messaging service. 

Ah, another update from Slack. The latest news is that… there'll be more news soon.

The update says: "We're still working towards a full resolution. We'll be back with another update soon. Thank you for your patience.

Feb 22, 2:44 PM GMT"

Not a lot to go on there, then.

Another service suffering an apparent outage right now, according to Down Detector, is github — but the issues there don't overlap neatly with those on Slack, so they seem unlikely to be connected.

Slack is currently trending at number two in the U.S. and (big surprise here) lots of people are complaining/joking about the outage.

"Slack is down which means work is cancelled" as posted by Twitter user @Phil_Lewis_ is a fairly common sentiment. No word on whether Phil's boss agrees.

Meanwhile, Twitter user @Alexiskleinman thinks a low-tech alternative is the solution. 

That's great, Alexis, but can a carrier pigeon send a vaguely amusing GIF?

The Slack page on Down Detector

(Image credit: Down Detector)

Quick check in on Down Detector in search of good news…

No, still down. But at least the number of reports is falling.

Slack has posted another update but I'm afraid there's no news. Essentially, it's the previous two updates combined into one. Not entirely sure what the point of posting it was, but I guess it shows they're still trying to fix things in the background.

"Slack is not loading for some users. We are continuing to investigate the cause and will provide more information as soon as it's available.

Feb 22, 3:23 PM GMT"

Getting reports from my colleagues that Slack is now back!

Indeed, messages from the Tom's Guide team appear to be posting now, though Slack hasn't yet updated its System Status. 

OK, before you get too excited Slack is definitely not back 100%. Some of my colleagues are able to post now (as am I), but some aren't. And some can't log in at all. It's all rather confused.

Slack System status message

(Image credit: Slack)

It's time for another no-news-is-bad-news update from Slack. Essentially, they're still trying to fix the problem.

"We’re still actively investigating this issue, but we don’t have any new information to share at this time. We’ll be back with another update in 30 minutes.

Feb 22, 3:54 PM GMT"

Slack's dashboard showing the outage on February 22, 2022

(Image credit: Slack)

This is interesting. Slack appears to have decided the problem is worse than it realised — it's changed its message from 'Incident' with a yellow triangle symbol beside it to a big red 'Outage' symbol with the message 'Slack is not loading for some users.'

Plus, where before its dashboard had green ticks by certain elements of the service it now has red outage symbols by them all.

Either things just got worse or they've finally got around to updating the page.

Some of my colleagues who hadn't previously been able to access Slack this morning are now able to log in. There's no update from Slack on either Twitter or its own Service Status page, but it could be encouraging news.

Finally, some good news courtesy of the official Slack Twitter account. Looks like we could be back in business…

Slack is back for most people now, it seems. The company's own Status page just posted this message:

"We're continuing to see improvements, but we still have some work to do. If you're still encountering any trouble, please reload Slack using Command + Shift + R (Mac) or Ctrl + Shift + R (Windows/Linux) or clear the app cache.

Feb 22, 6:44 PM GMT"

We'll fill you in on why it happened when we know more.