McDonald's closes its doors amid global IT outage

McDonald's restaurants across Australia have been forced to temporarily close, and other branches around the world have reported a widespread technology issue meaning customers can't pay for food.

Internal systems at Australian restaurants went offline since around 3:10pm local time, according to a report by News.com.au.

Online IT issues have also been reported in China including Hong Kong, Japan, Canada, South Korea, Taiwan and Germany.

The logo of American fast food company McDonald's is displayed outside one of its stores on January 09, 2024 in Stoke-on-Trent, United Kingdom. Technological issues have been reported in many countries around the world.

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What we know

A McDonald's USA spokesperson said Newsweek: “We are aware of a technology outage, which affected our restaurants; the issue is now being resolved. We thank customers for their patience and apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. It is worth noting that the issue is not related to a cybersecurity event.”

In Australia, internal systems at some restaurants have been down since around 3:10pm local time. Some stores have been forced to close completely, while others are only accepting cash orders, according to a report by news.com.au.

McDonald's Japan previously said on Twitter that there had been a “system failure” and that the company apologized “for any inconvenience this may cause and asks you to wait for some time until service is restored.” It does not explain why the outage occurred.

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A McDonald's employee in New Zealand told… New Zealand Herald A computer server crash means they are unable to take any orders or serve any food, as the screens used to take orders are not currently working.

New Zealand-based .

Customers in Hong Kong were able to purchase food, but could not use mobile kiosks and self-order kiosks, according to a Facebook post on Friday. It says the outage was due to a “computer system failure.”

The statement continues: “Please order directly from the restaurant window.”

Taiwanese company McDonald's issued a similar statement, saying that its “24-hour Happy Delivery” service and phone ordering had been temporarily suspended due to the system undergoing maintenance.

UK social media users said they were unable to order food, but this has not been confirmed by McDonald's UK. According to data from Downdetector, UK-based McDonald's app users began reporting issues with orders this morning at around 5:30 a.m. local time.

Other issues have been reported from the US, Canada, and the Netherlands by Reddit users. Issues have also been reported in Germany by X users.