System outages reported at McDonald’s locations worldwide

LONDON — System failures at McDonald’s were reported worldwide Friday, shuttering some restaurants for hours and leading to social media complaints from customers, in what the fast food chain called a “technology outage” that was being fixed.

Chicago-based McDonald’s Corp. said the problems were not related to a cybersecurity attack, without giving more details on what caused them.

“We are aware of a technology outage, which impacted our restaurants; the issue is now being resolved,” the burger giant said in a statement. “We thank customers for their patience and apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.”

Earlier, McDonald’s in Japan posted on X, formerly Twitter, that “operations are temporarily out at many of our stores nationwide,” calling it “a system failure.”

The website Downdetector also reported a spike in problems with the McDonald’s app in the last few hours.

Some McDonald’s restaurants were working normally again after the outage, with people ordering and getting their food at locations in Bangkok, Milan and London.

A restaurant in Bangkok had plywood over a door with a sign saying, “Technicians are updating the system” and apologizing for the inconvenience, even as customers were able to order again and pay digitally.

A spokesperson for McDonald’s in Denmark said the “technology failure” was resolved there and its restaurants were open.

A worker at a Milan restaurant noted that the system was offline for a couple of hours and a technician walked them through getting it back up and running.

Media outlets reported that customers from Australia to the U.K. had complained of issues with ordering, including a customer in Australia who posted a photo to X saying a kiosk was unavailable.

“All McDonald’s restaurants are connected to a global network and that is what’s messed up,” Patrik Hjelte, owner of several McDonald’s restaurants in central Sweden, near the Norwegian border, told local newspaper Nya Wermlands Tidning.