When Facebook will not load, it is worth ruling out a few simple causes before assuming there is a wider outage affecting everyone rather than just your own device or connection.
Quick checks first
Confirm your internet connection works by loading another site or app entirely, restart the Facebook app fully rather than just switching away from it, and try switching between Wi-Fi and mobile data to see if the problem follows you across networks. A surprising number of “Facebook is down” moments turn out to be a local Wi-Fi hiccup or an app that simply needs a fresh restart.
Confirm a wider outage
If those checks do not help, search another platform for “Facebook down” or check a third-party outage tracker to see if others are reporting the same issue at the same time. Widespread outages tend to generate a quick, visible spike of reports across other platforms and news sites within minutes, since so many people notice at once, which makes them fairly easy to confirm.
What a real outage usually looks like
A genuine Facebook outage can affect the whole platform or just one part of it, sometimes the main feed loads fine while Messenger or Marketplace does not, since these are technically separate systems that can fail independently of each other. If only one specific feature is broken while everything else works normally, that is a useful clue that the issue is narrower than a full platform outage.
While you wait
There is little to do except wait, since the issue sits on Facebook’s servers rather than your device, and repeatedly logging in and out does not speed anything up. In rare cases, refreshing too aggressively can even trigger extra security checks once service returns, so a calmer approach, checking back every ten or fifteen minutes, tends to work out just as fast.
If it turns out to be your account, not Facebook
If other sites confirm Facebook is running normally but you personally cannot get in, the issue is more likely account-specific, a forgotten password, a security lock, or in rare cases a hacked account. See our guide on what to do if Facebook is hacked or our complete recovery guide if that seems to be the case.
Frequently asked questions
How long do Facebook outages usually last?
Most are resolved within minutes to a few hours. Longer outages are rare but do happen occasionally.
Why does only Messenger not work while the main app is fine?
Facebook’s different products sometimes have separate, independent outages, so one can be affected while others work normally.
Should I delete the app if it will not load?
No, reinstalling rarely fixes a server-side outage, a simple restart and a short wait is usually enough.