LinkedIn down: Users greeted with weird error messages during outages

LinkedIn users reported widespread site outages and unusual error messages on Tuesday as the Microsoft-owned social network suffered apparent server issues.

The website Down Detector logged more than 25,000 reports in the span of a few minutes, as Twitter was flooded with jokes about disappointed thought leaders and lost career opportunities. Outage reports seemed to be centered around U.S. job hubs such as New York and San Francisco, but users in Europe and Asia also reported issues.

One of the messages told LinkedIn users that “an error has occurred” while delivering a lengthy, indecipherable reference code. Another said the site was “unable to locate the server.”

“We know some members are experiencing an issue with accessing LinkedIn on mobile and desktop,” a LinkedIn spokesperson told Fast Company. “We’re working on this as we speak and will provide updates as we have them.”

Update Tuesday, 5:15 p.m. ET

LinkedIn says service has been restored and attributed the outage to a “configuration change in our internal systems.” You can read the update here.