The 9 weirdest things that happened during Amazon's huge AWS outage

If you have a smartphone or are familiar with the internet, you may have noticed that things weren't quite right yesterday – a huge AWS outage took out the hundreds of services that rely on its cloud computing backbone, and suddenly the digital world felt like it was made of jelly.

The impacts were serious and global, affecting over 1,000 businesses according to Downdetector. But what were some of the stranger glitches and unexpected consequences from the biggest Amazon Web Services outage we've seen for years?

To help give us all a little light relief from error messages and DNS-related nightmares, we've rounded up some of the weirder consequences (big and frivolous) from the biggest IT meltdown since Crowdstrike crashed the world's business computers in 2024...

1. Slack users were trapped never-ending Huddles

One of our favorite phrases from the AWS outage was Slack's 'Trouble with huddles', which sounds like album by The National but instead described an IT incident that hit the messaging platform's audio feature.

As spotted by The Verge, a Slack status update during the AWS blackout said that "we're currently investigating an issue where some users remain stuck in a huddle after attempting to leave".

Being stuck in a huddle usually wouldn't be considered an unpleasant experience, but it's slightly more serious in the context of Slack – given that it means being trapped in an audio call with a work colleague that you can't leave.

Unfortunately, the problem still isn't fully fixed, with Slack saying today that it continues to "work toward cleaning up any huddles that are in a bad state". The AWS outage at least showed that IT language can sometimes be unintentionally poetic.

2. The Premier League lost its virtual referees

Even the Premier League soccer wasn't safe from the AWS outage. There was no old-school floodlight failure or ticket fiasco, but the problems did take out the Semi-Automated Offside Technology during Monday night's match between West Ham and Brentford.

Unfortunately, as Sky Sports noted above, that meant officials had to get their much-maligned rulers out again to see if Brentford's second goal was offside or not. The human assistants decided it was offside, which predictably caused online outrage.

The Semi-Automated Offside Technology is run by a company called Genius Sports, which recently migrated its infrastructure to a typically safe pair of hands called Amazon Web Services. Unfortunately, this week AWS scored the equivalent of a huge own goal.

3. Amazon.com turned into a gallery of dogs

An outage that hits the Amazon.com homepage is a rarity, but now we know what to expect when it does go down – lots of dog photos.

At the peak of the AWS outage, Amazon's own homepage was among the casualties, which left many unable to see their order histories – and thousands were also confronted with the error screen above.

Now, we're not usually fans of twee error pages, but we did enjoy this one – Amazon's page served up a number of different dog photos, all of which belong to Amazon workers.

An impressive 15,000 dogs are registered to work at Amazon offices and you can meet more of them away from annoying error pages at the Meet the dogs of Amazon page.

4. Starbucks fans were burnt by the experience

You'd think the coffee world would be relatively safe from DNS faults, but no – the AWS outage even touched the fragile, Monday morning lives of Starbucks fans who found their mobile app was out for the count.

In perhaps the finest example of a First World Problem so far, this meant Starbucks customers had to go into their local branch and order their coffee in-person, just like old times.

Fortunately, the Starbucks outage only lasted a couple of hours, a comparatively light sentence compared to the several hours of meme deprivation experienced by Snapchat users.

Others found solace in a collective AWS experience shared in coffee shops, with some on Threads describing the forming of an "empathy circle" for those affected. This was, after all, an internet outage that was best shared with others.

5. Wordle and Duolingo fans threatened to riot

If we didn't already know the internet takes its word games seriously, the AWS outage confirmed that it's a life-or-death experience for many.

Panic set in for Wordle fans who seemingly lost their daily streak due to the problems. The New York Times hosts the puzzle game, and it was hit quite badly during the outage, leaving many wondering if they'd be able to log back in before the midnight cut-off time for that day's puzzle.

Fortunately for many, Wordle has now seemingly restored the streaks lost due to the AWS outage, which was probably wise given Halloween would struggle to match a sight as terrifying as a horde of furious Wordle fans brandishing pitchforks.

That said, one other group rivaled Wordle fans for sheer fury during the AWS outage. Some Duolingo fans threatened to "riot" if their streak was lost, but the language-learning app moved quickly to reassure them, confirming in a X post that "your streaks will be saved". Phew.

Our only question now is who would you want on your side during a zombie apocalypse, Duolingo or Wordle fans?

6. Airline passengers lost check-in info and seat reservations

In an echo of the airport carnage we saw during the Great Crowdstrike Meltdown of 2024, yesterday's AWS outage also created a huge amount of confusion for airline passengers.

As CNBC reported, some Delta and United passengers saw reservations and seat assignments go missing, while also finding that they couldn't check in for flights.

With United's systems struggling with the AWS outage, long queues and nightmare check-ins were reported in airports across the US.

Fortunately, big delays were avoided, but it again left many scratching their heads about why such critical systems are still so fragile and over-dependent on a handful of tech companies.

7. Even school exams were delayed

For some, the AWS outage was actually good news. Many students and teachers in the US use Canvas, an online teaching aid that hosts lessons, assignments and course information.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your situation), Canvas was badly hit by the AWS outage, going down for over 12 hours. Some students saw this as a godsend, writing on Reddit that "my midterms are inaccessible" and that they were having a "great day".

Comment from r/AskReddit

For others, the experience was more stressful, blocking them from studying for the exams they were hoping to get off their backs, without the promise of extra time from teachers.

Canvas is now back online, though the platform's maker Instructure did earlier warn that "some users may be experiencing slowness or timeout errors". All of which is a timely reminder for those of us who remember essays and exams being a pen-and-paper experience that school is a bit different now.

8. Bank transfers disappeared into the ether

Some of the more serious impacts of the AWS outage were on banks and mobile payment apps like Venmo.

On Venmo, many had trouble sending and receiving payments, which caused untold stress for many who were, for example, trying to pay for a wedding.

Many banks in the UK, like Lloyds and the Bank of Scotland, were also taken out, and the BBC even reported a case of a person who was missing £50 after transferring money to her partner.

The bank said it was trying to resolve the issue "as quickly as they can", worryingly. But with other platforms like Coinbase (the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the US) and the trading app Robinhood also struck by the AWS curse, it was again another reminder that the price of today's financial convenience is a serious jolt of panic when things go wrong.

9. People discovered they actually love "internet snow days"

The AWS outage was, for many, a hugely frustrating experience that also cost businesses around $75 million a hour, according to research by Tenscope.

But for the many who didn't have crucial tasks that relied on Amazon's cloud backbone, it was a reminder that, actually, life can be better with a bit less internet – and that maybe we don't need to build our lives quite as religiously around our favorite apps and services.

As some noted on a Reddit thread about how the AWS outage was affecting them, some noted that "internet snow days are fun", that their "phone reception got a lot better" as networks were able to breathe under the reduced strain, and that they felt like "some kind of 19th-century peasant" without modern luxuries like video doorbells.

Of course, the 21st century world quickly came crashing in again as AWS returned back to full health, but the outage was a timely reminder that our modern internet can be undone by some very old-school mistakes.

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