Is Facebook down? 3 sources to validate your Account Status

Are you facing issues accessing your Facebook account or specific features of it? In this article, we’ll discuss about some of the sources on how you can validate if your Facebook account is down. We’ll be discussing about steps that you take in order to report any of your Facebook related issues.

How to check the status of your Facebook account?

There are 3 easy ways to check if your Facebook account is down and if that is the case with other users as well –

1. Check Status in FB’s Internal Platform Status
2. Use third-party ‘Status Checker’ tools
3. Check Twitter for Trending Hashtags

1. Check Status in FB’s Internal Platform Status

Facebook itself hosts a page where it displays its platform status. Facebook’s Platform Status page can be accessed here – https://developers.facebook.com/status/dashboard/

This platform provides you with the Overall Platform performance along with 4 different metrics. And towards the end, it provides you with the historical data of all the errors that have occurred over the past 90 days.

a. Overall Performance –

The first data point being displayed is the overall health of the FB platform. If there are any ongoing issues with the platform, you can find the status here to be not healthy. Else, it would be mentioned ‘Facebook Platform is Healthy’ along with a timestamp.

b. Average API Response Time –

This refers to the amount of time the server takes, on average, to return the user requests. It is normally impacted by factors like network bandwidth, the number of users, type of requests, and average think time.

FB provides you with a line chart of the average API response time for the past 24 hours so that you can infer if there are any fluctuations.

c. Average API Error Rate –

This metric gives you a comparison of the average error rates that have been occurring in the platform in the past 24 hours. Any fluctuations, up or down, can be inferred accordingly.

d. Average Platform Webhook Delay Time –

Webhook’s are normally APIs that help interconnect different systems together. By using the use of a Webhook API, messages are sent across different platforms.

Here again FB provides you with a line chart of a comparison with its performance in the past 24 hours.

e. History (past 90 days) –

In this section, FB provides you with the Historical data of your account’s performance for the past 90 days, segregated into 3 sections –

• Healthy – No issues had occurred during that period.
• Issue – There was some issue experienced with the platform, but was not a major issue
• Downtime – A major issue had incurred which stopped the platform from functioning.

f. Issue History –

In this final section, FB provides you with 3 major information –

• What was the issue?
• When did it occur?
• What are its current stats?

Also, clicking on the issue will give you more detailed information on the bug that had incurred.

2. Use third-party ‘Status Checker’ tools

There are plenty of third-party tools that integrate well with Facebook and reports whenever there is an issue. Some of those third-party tools are mentioned below –

a. Downdetector –

A very handy tool to get detailed information on any issues in Facebook. This tool provides you with 4 major data points –

• Facebook Problems in the last 24 hours – A trend plot of how the platform has been functioning in the past 1 day.
• Live Outrage Map – Provides information on the areas that are impacted by the issue, if any.
• Most Report Problems – Provides information on the kind of issue that user’s have been experiencing, categorized into Log In, Newsfeed, and total blackout.
• Resolved Issues – Information on the issues that have been resolved along with details on past issues.

b. Down for Everyone or Just Me –

This is more of a generic site that gives you the overall information if Facebook is down just for you or everyone is experiencing the same. Now, it just provides you with a one-liner saying ‘It’s just you’ or ‘Down for everyone’. Also, this tool can be used to check any site’s status and not just Facebook.

Similar to this, there are few other tools that provide you the overall information like Down Right Now, Is it Down Right Now, or Outrage Report.

3. Check Twitter for Trending Hashtags

Whenever there is an issue with the major platforms, users tend to reach out to Social Media to report the same (Twitter is one of the most opted services to reach out to companies). You could directly search for ‘#facebookdown’ to see any trending tweets related to an issue with FB.

What to check when Facebook is down?

There are several things that you can try out once you find that your account is down.

1. Initially, check if you’re accessing the correct URL (www.facebook.com). If you’re using an app, make sure you’re making use of the official apps available in Android / iOS.
2. Try clearing the browser cache
3. Try clearing your browser cookies
4. Check for any active malware within your system

If none of the above works, try restarting your device.

How do I report a Facebook related issue?

1. Something isn’t working on Facebook
2. Groups can’t be found
3. Difference in number of Facebook Group members
4. Report an Abusive Facebook group

a. Something isn’t working on Facebook

If some feature within your Facebook account isn’t working as it is supposed to, you can report the same by the following steps –

• Login to your Facebook account on a computer
• Click the ‘drop-down arrow’ in the top right section of your page

• Navigate through ‘Help & Support’ -> ‘Report a Problem’ and follow the on-screen instructions to report the problem.

b. Groups can’t be found

If you’re not able to find your groups in Facebook’s search results, it could be because of the following issues:

• The group you are looking for is hidden from search
• You might have accidentally misspelled your group’s name during search
• Your group might have been removed for going against Facebook’s Community Standards
• You might have been removed or blocked from the group

c. Difference in number of Facebook Group members

If you see the total members in a group different from what the actual number is, it could be owing to the fact that some people in the group have now inactive accounts or have deactivated their accounts.

d. Report an Abusive Facebook group

If you find a particular not following the Community Standards as set by Facebook, you can report the same by the following steps –

• Login to your Facebook account
• Navigate to the group which you want to report
• Click on the ‘3 dots’ below the Cover photo of the group and select ‘Report Group’.

• Provide the reason as to what’s the issue with the group, click ‘Next’, and ‘Done’.

References –

https://www.facebook.com/help/iphone-app/1075368719167893

https://www.lifewire.com/is-facebook-down-right-now-or-is-it-just-you-2617985