Whatsapp, Facebook, Instagram hit by glitch; users unable to upload media files

WhatsApp, the most popular messaging service, seems to be having an issue. The Facebook-owned messaging service seems to be down for a number of users. While most users are able to send across text messages, the problem seems to be associated with downloading images. When you click to download images, WhatsApp returns an error saying "The download was unable to complete. Please try again later."

The problem is not associated only with WhatsApp. Instagram, another popular app owned by Facebook, is also facing issues.

On Instagram, images do not seem to load in the feed but explore section seems to be working fine. The issue is reported by users of Android as well as iOS applications. On Down Detector, there are over 1,200 reports of WhatsApp down at the time of writing.

The reports have started peaking around 8PM IST today. Similarly there are 550 reports of Instagram being down on Down Detector. It seems WhatsApp, Instagram and its parent service Facebook are having issues at the same time. These popular apps are down just a day after a critical DDOS attack on Cloudflare took down a number of popular services. The attack took down Down Detector, the service used to check running status of various mainstream platforms.

Facebook, in particular, has had multiple server issues in the past few months alone. Facebook has migrated both WhatsApp and Instagram to its own network since takeover. However, it seems like Facebook's servers are just not effective or reliant for these platforms. We have reached out to Facebook for an official comment. Let us know if you are having trouble with WhatsApp, Instagram or any other service.

Commenting on the issue, Facebook said, "We're aware that some people are having trouble uploading or sending images, videos and other files on our apps. We're sorry for the trouble and are working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible."