Starbucks mobile orders down due to global tech outage

Amid a global technology outage that has forced the delay and cancellation of flights and many medical appointments, Starbucks’ order online system was down Friday morning, though it was not immediately clear if the outage was the cause.

In the Starbucks app, the order ahead feature for all locations is listed as “not available.” A spokesman for the company confirmed Starbucks was experiencing a “temporary outage” of its mobile order features due to a “widespread third-party systems outage.”

“We continue to welcome and serve customers in the vast majority of our stores and drive-thrus and are doing everything we can to bring all systems online as quickly as possible,” the spokesperson said. “We apologize for any inconvenience.”

The website DownDetector, which tracks user-reported disruptions to internet services, listed 197 reports of outages at Starbucks at 9:30 a.m.

Customers took to X to voice their frustrations with having to order in-person.

“Airplanes? Whatever. Banks? Who cares. Starbucks mobile orders are down? This is an international disaster,” wrote Jason Schreier, a reporter at Bloomberg. “I had to wait in line like a peasant.”

Sherrod DeGrippo added, “I am now personally affected by this because I had to order my Starbucks latte verbally and stand in a line. Am I entitled to compensation?”

“Starbucks was free today. Thanks Microsoft!” wrote Kyle Connor.

The technology outage impacting Microsoft 365 services and apps has also forced the cancellation of dozens of flights in and out of New England airports. Mass General Brigham, which operates 14 hospitals in Massachusetts and one in New Hampshire, canceled all “non-urgent” procedures Friday due to the outage.

Signage at MBTA stations was briefly affected by the outage but the issue had been resolved by 9:50 a.m., according to a post on X. The Registry of Motor Vehicles also reported disruptions on Friday morning, saying vehicle inspections and online payments were unavailable. The registry also canceled all service center and AAA appointments until 12 p.m. Friday.

The widespread outages were caused by a faulty software update, which disrupted companies and services around the world and highlighted their dependence on just a handful of providers.

The trouble with the update issued by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike and affecting computers running Microsoft Windows was not a security incident or cyberattack, according to CrowdStrike, which said a fix was on the way.

But hours later, the disruptions continued — and escalated.

Long lines formed at airports in the U.S., Europe and Asia as airlines lost access to check-in and booking services at a time when many travelers are heading away on summer vacations. Hospitals and doctor’s offices had problems with their appointment systems, and cancelled surgeries.

“This is a very, very uncomfortable illustration of the fragility of the world’s core internet infrastructure,” said Ciaran Martin, a professor at Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government and former Head of Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre.

Cyber expert James Bore said real harm would be caused by the outage because systems people have come to rely on at critical times are not going to be available. Hospitals, for example, will struggle to sort out appointments and those who need care may not get it — and it will lead to deaths, he said.

“All of these systems are running the same software,” Bore said. “We’ve made all of these tools so widespread that when things inevitably go wrong — and they will, as we’ve seen — they go wrong at a huge scale.”

Microsoft posted on social media platform X that the company was “working on rerouting the impacted traffic to alternate systems to alleviate impact” and that they were “observing a positive trend in service availability.”

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.