Facebook users names Twitter and others social media platforms on Friday to report that they were logged out of the big blue app for no explicit reason. Memes and the sentence “So Facebook” quickly surfaced during the incident, for which the company apologized on Saturday.
Apparently, the massive unsubscribing of an unknown number of people was due to a “configuration change,” the company announced on Twitter. It didn’t explain much further. Nevertheless, Engadget reported that it appeared that the people most affected by the incident were iPhone users using the app version of Facebook. The outlet stated that many users who used Facebook’s two-factor authentication via SMS had problems logging in.
According to Down detector, which provides real-time disruption information about digital services, thousands of people reported problems with Facebook on Friday. On Saturday, the reports had diminished drastically. At the time of publication, 87% of the most commonly reported problems related to login.
Many users who found themselves in this predicament using two-factor authentication were eventually able to log back in, but often had to wait a while before receiving a text message code. Some users had to upload images of their ID to regain access to their account, according to Engadget.
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Although Facebook confirmed it had remedied the incident on Saturday, some users still reported that they were unable to log in. In response, Facebook targeted users report the problem on Twitter to the help center for further assistance. Oddly enough, Facebook has specifically sent users on Twitter to one Help for the iPhone app page, which could support the theory that it was an iPhone problem.
“On January 22, a configuration change caused some people to be logged out of their Facebook accounts,” Facebook said. USA Today on Saturday. “We investigated the problem and solved it for everyone earlier in the day. We apologize for the inconvenience. ”
Gizmodo reached out to Facebook to ask if there were any further comments on the matter as some users are still having trouble logging into their accounts.
“We are aware that some people are having trouble logging in to their Facebook account again after last night. Individual login issues can vary, and we encourage anyone who may encounter a problem to visit our Help Center for advice on their specific situation, “a Facebook spokesperson said in an email with a link. to his iPhone app help center page.
Update 1/23/2021, 7:00 p.m. ET: This post has been updated with additional comments from Facebook.