Stay Connected: Alternatives for Suspected FB Downtime

Do you think that Facebook is down? While it might be unavailable for everyone, there’s also a chance that something on your end is to blame for the problem.

We’ll help you get to the bottom of this. Let’s look at how to find out if Facebook is down and how to know when it’s working again if so.

Is Facebook Down? Here’s How to Find Out

First, let’s cover how to figure out if Facebook is down for everyone, or if it’s just a problem for you.

1. Try Opening Other Websites

When you can’t load one website, your first troubleshooting step should always be to open a few other sites. This lets you figure out whether the problem is isolated to one site or more widespread.

Attempt to open a few other sites that are unrelated to Facebook—don’t try to open WhatsApp or Instagram, for example. If you try a handful of other pages and all of them work, then Facebook may indeed be having a problem.

However, if no other websites load, the problem is probably on your end. Try getting online using another device that’s connected to your current Wi-Fi network, like your phone.

If it works, you’ve isolated the issue to only your computer. Try another browser to make sure that it’s not an issue with your current one, and restart your computer to clear up any temporary issues.

In case you can’t open any websites on your network, seehow to troubleshoot your home internet connection for help.

2. Check an Outage Detector Website

Once you’ve confirmed that your network connection is working properly, you should next check to see if other people have reported a problem accessing Facebook. There are plenty of websites to do this, such asDowndetector .

On this page, search for “Facebook” using the bar at the top of the page, or click its name from the list below to openDowndetector’s Facebook hub . This includes a graph of how many people have reported issues accessing Facebook in the last 24 hours. ClickI have a problem with Facebook to report your own issue.

If you see a spike in issues recently, chances are good that Facebook is down for everyone. Further down the page, you’ll find a map of where people reported Facebook issues from, comments, and whether the issues are with the website, app, or server connections.

For a second opinion, you can also checkDown for Everyone or Just Me , which is accessible via the shorter URLdownfor.io . Here, enter a URL and the site will check if it’s down globally. This makes it easy to see if Facebook is down everywhere or there’s just a problem in your area (or on your network).

3. See What People Say on Twitter

While Downdetector and similar sites are a reliable source for Facebook (and other) outages, it’s a good idea to supplement what you find there with other data. Twitter is one of the best places to find up-to-the-minute information about pretty much anything, including website outages.

Head toTwitter’s search page and run a search for “Facebook down” or “Facebook outage.” If Facebook is having an issue, you’ll likely see loads of tweets complaining about it. You can also look atFacebook’s official Twitter profile , which should post updates in the case of extended outages.

If you’ve seen strong evidence that Facebook is down from both outage detectors and Twitter, chances are that Facebook is indeed down for everyone and not just you.

How to Find Out When Facebook Comes Back Online

Now that you know Facebook isn’t working, there’s unfortunately nothing you can do to fix it. You’ll need to wait until Facebook fixes the issue, but there are a few ways to stay updated on Facebook’s status.

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1. Refresh Facebook a Few Times

For minor outages, you might only need to refresh the Facebook page a few times to get it back. HitF5 ,Ctrl + R , or theRefresh button in your browser every minute or so. You can also useCtrl + Shift + R to refresh while ignoring your browser cache, which you should try a few times.

If Facebook’s outage only lasts a few minutes, you should be able to access it before long. But if it’s not back after 15 minutes or so, it’s probably going to be unavailable for longer, so you shouldn’t waste your time refreshing manually.

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2. Keep an Eye on Twitter

Earlier, you looked at Twitter to figure out if Facebook was having problems. But that’s not the extent of Twitter’s usefulness; you can also use it to keep up on the status of longer Facebook outages.

Keeping a Twitter search page open with “Facebook down” or similar is an easy way to stay current on what’s going on. Refresh it every so often to see what people are saying; you should know pretty quickly whether Facebook has come back.

3. Watch News Sites

If you can’t or don’t want to use Twitter, you can also stay updated on Facebook’s outage status by checking news sites. Any website that covers tech news should have an article up about an extended Facebook outage, and they will update it as events proceed.

Keeping an article open in a separate tab and checking over that every once in a while is more efficient than refreshing Facebook over and over.

Get Alerts When Facebook Goes Down in the Future

If you’re a heavy Facebook user and want to know quickly next time it goes down, you can use a free service likeDownNotifier.com . Just enter**<www.facebook.com>** into its URL bar, along with your email address for notification, and chooseWhen the site is offline .

You’ll get an email when Facebook goes down, clueing you into the issue before you even check the site yourself.

When Facebook Is Down, This Is What You Do

As we’ve looked at, it’s easy to know whether Facebook is truly down and know when it comes back online. Most Facebook outages don’t last long, but in some cases they can last for hours.

In this case, don’t despair; there’s plenty you can do online to kill time, even without Facebook. It could even be an excuse to go outside and get away from your devices for a while.