McDonald’s IT outage leaves thousands hungry, restaurants closed


McDonald’s restaurants across Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and other countries can’t serve customers because of an IT outage, with some locations shutting down completely. The company says the problem is not a cybersecurity issue.

Computers and kiosks went black in Australia’s McDonald’s restaurants, leaving customers with empty stomachs. McDonald's global office said the company is aware of the “technology outage.”

“We are aware of a technology outage, which impacted our restaurants; the issue is now being resolved. We thank customers for their patience and apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Notably, the issue is not related to a cybersecurity event,” McDonald's said in a statement shared with Cybernews.

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McDonalds Japan faced a similar issue with the fast food chain's official X account saying that “many stores across the country have temporarily suspended operations.”

McDonald's outage
Sign warning customers about an outage in Australia. Image by Reddit user SnooObjections4329.

“We are currently experiencing a system failure,” read another post in Japanese.

McDonald's restaurant in New Zealand also are faced with similar issues. Some restaurant reportedly resorted to using cash payments only and taking orders with pen and paper.

McDonald's branch in Hong Kong released a statement on Facebook, saying that “due to a computer system failure, the mobile ordering and self-ordering kiosks are not functioning.”

Australian media reported that McDonald’s went down at 4 p.m. local time, with many self-checkout kiosks displaying “Sorry, this kiosk is closed” messages.

Customers aren't taking the downtime well, as one Reddit user, who claims to be a shift manager, shared on a forum dedicated to McDonald's employees.

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“We’re now having to take orders via paper, and then paying by cash. Already been yelled at by seven people, so I’m loving this,” Reddit user Portalguy9107 said.

A post on Reddit shared a sign supposedly on McDonald’s doors saying the outage is a nationwide issue.

“We can not take any orders, our systems are down – this is a national issue at the moment,” the sign read.

According to reports by Newsweek, McDonald's in China, Canada, the Netherlands, South Korea and Germany have also faced IT issues, pointing to a global issue affecting the company's systems. Users on Reddit claim the issue is also impacting restaurant across the US.