Slack went down again - here's what happened

Reports of issues on the rise

The Slack issues appeared to start in the UK just before 10am GMT on March 9, 2022 - with issue reports quickly spiking on Downdetector.

Users reporting various issues on social media

Slack is down for many users, with reports appearing on social media platforms. If you're experiencing issues with Slack, let us know via Twitter.

Upload error

Some users are seeing this error message when they try and upload images to Slack.

Not down for everyone

Here at TechRadar we use Slack and the service is currently working for us in as far as we're able to send messages to each other.

Some of us have had some issues uploading images, but after a few tries they did go through.

An update from Slack - and it's not a good one.

"We're receiving reports around trouble with uploading files and other features," the company said. "We are truly sorry for this inconvenience and we will keep you posted with further details."

The status dashboard has also been updated to show potential issues concerns sending messages and uploading files on Slack.

Despite Slack confirming there is an issue, the number of user reports remains low, with less than 100 live reports on DownDetector.

This could mean the issue is recovering, or that it's too minor to be spotted by many users - we'll stay alert and keep you updated.

Slack has updated its status dashboard to show a whole host of extra issues across the board, with the ability to make calls or search in the app among the new additions.

"Some users are still experiencing intermittent issues with file uploads, search, emojis, calls/huddles, channel renames, unfurling, and Workflow Builder," the company says. "We're continuing to investigate and working on a fix. We appreciate your patience and will let you know as soon as we have a new update to share."

An apology to customers

Slack has also now taken to Twitter to apologize to customers for the inconvenience and reassure those affected that a fix is in the works.

There's still little detail on exactly what is wrong - but the number of reports on DownDetector has lessened somewhat, falling below 100 for the first time.

"No additional news to share just yet, but we’re focused on getting things back to normal as quickly as we can. We apologize for the continued trouble," the Slack page helpfully adds.

With the east coast of the US set to log in for work in just over an hour though, this may all change...

Slack has revealed a little more on the exact services and tools affected by the outage - and it could be bad news if you've got a lot of work to do today...

"We’re continuing to investigate the issue with calls, huddles, email processing, file uploads, emoji reactions retention, new DM groups retention in sidebar, Search, Workflow builder, Workflow pop out windows, Channel creation, API errors, webhooks and Slack Connect invites," the company notes. 

"We're actively looking into this, and we'll report back as more information becomes available."

Whatever the cause of this outage is, it appears to have stumped Slack good and proper.

"We’re still actively investigating this issue, but we don’t have any new information to share at this time," the company's latest update says. "Thanks for sticking with us as we continue to work towards a fix."

After being promised an update within 30 minutes, there's still no news from Slack.

Outage reports are beginning to rise in the US however as users wake up and log in for the day, so let's see if that spurs on any action from the company.

The update is here, and....once again, it doesn't say much.

"We’re still investigating the issue affecting some of our features (calls, huddles, email processing, file uploads, emoji reactions retention, new DM groups retention in sidebar, Search, Workflow builder, Channel creation, API errors, webhooks, invites and admin actions)," Slack says. 

"Thanks for sticking with us as we continue to work on a fix."

What on earth is going on?

Progress at last! Slack says it has nailed down the cause of the incident, and is working hard to deliver a fix.

With the west coast of the US set to begin logging on for work any time soon, this could be a crucial development.

"We have identified the issue affecting some of our features (calls, huddles, email processing, file uploads, emoji reactions retention, new DM groups retention in sidebar, Search, Workflow builder, Channel creation, API errors, webhooks, Slack Connect invites, workspace invites and admin actions)," Slack said. 

"Our team is currently working on a fix. We will share more information in 30 minutes."

More good news!

"While we have identified the issue causing disruption, our team is continuing to work on a solution," Slack says. "We’ll share another update when we have more detailed information. We appreciate your patience with us."

It looks like we could be reaching the end of the crisis - user reports on DownDetector are falling on both sides of the Atlantic, now all we're waiting for is the official confirmation from Slack.

For what it's worth, we're largely able to use Slack fully here at TechRadar HQ - the only affected service appears to be emoji responses to messages....

There's still no final confirmation from Slack that the issue has been solved, but reports on DownDetector have plummeted, so it could well be that today's problems are nearly at an end.

We'll continue to monitor for any changes, but thanks for sticking with us through all the excitement!