Zoom Crashes As Thousands Go Back To School

Zoom, the popular and most-used video conferencing platform during the pandemic, has been down most of Monday morning for thousands of users across the globe, including the East Coast. It just so happens that the system crash occurred as thousands of educators and students are starting virtual school using the platform. 

According to Down Detector, users have reported several issues when logging in, connecting to the server, and just generally accessing the platform. The crash was first reported around 7:40 AM ET and was resolved by 10:20 AM ET.

The Zoom status page confirmed that there had been an issue with their system and had identified it. The first update read, “We have received reports of users being unable to visit the Zoom website (zoom.us) and unable to start and join Zoom Meetings and Webinars. We are currently investigating and will provide updates as we have them.” 

Four hours later, Zoom announced that they had been able to identify the issue but were still trying to troubleshoot other platform glitches such as “users are also unable to sign up for paid accounts, upgrade, or manage their service on the Zoom website.” And after an hour, they announced that Zoom was back and ready to use without any problems. 

Zoom has become one of the most popular video conferencing platforms this year following the COVID-19 pandemic. As businesses and schools rely mostly on the internet and the use of video calls for communication, this platform has skyrocketed in sales, recognition, and subscribers. Still being fairly new to the video conferencing industry, the crash might have been a result of Zoom users pushing the platform beyond its limits. 

Thousands of schools across the United States and the United Kingdom use Zoom as their virtual classroom, although it’s not the only option out there as there is a lot of other software and platform that is best for video conferencing, people still choose to use it because it’s easy to use and can be maximized even without a paid subscription. With their first major crash, hopefully, Zoom will become more prepared and able to cope with its rising number of users and subscribers.