UPDATE: The issue was resolved around 8:40am PT. This article has been updated to reflect this.
Meta's servers weren't working correctly earlier today, and the issue temporarily rendered all internet-connected Quest headsets unusable.
Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and the Quest platform were inaccessible from roughly 7:30am PT. Trying to access them resulted in a login error.
Though the outage is now over, all affected users will have to log into their headset again.
All of our Quest 3 and Quest 2 headsets, which were connected to Wi-Fi and on standby, showed a 'Something went wrong' screen preventing the main system interface from appearing, meaning no apps could be launched. UploadVR heard from dozens of other people who experienced the same issue.
Quest headsets don't require an always-online connection, and still continue to offer basic functionality such as playing singleplayer games, even on a network where Meta's servers are inaccessible. So what on earth happened here?
Given the fact that Facebook, Instagram, and Threads logged everyone out, it seems that either Meta's server issued a signout command to all apps and devices or a client-side security check thought the login token is no longer secure. Regardless of the cause, Quest headsets signed their users out. Ironically, headsets that weren't connected to the internet at the time were unaffected.
This isn't the first time VR users woke up to find their headset unusable due to a software issue. Back in 2018 every Oculus Rift stopped working due to an expired certificate. That problem took Meta (then Facebook) more than 12 hours to fix, while this issue was resolved in just over one hour.
