Is Heroku Down? Complete Status Check Guide + Quick Fixes

Heroku app not responding?
Deploys failing?
Dynos crashing or restarting?

TL;DR: If you think Heroku is down, check the official Heroku status page and a live monitor first.
If both show operational, the issue is likely your app (crash loops, memory limits, build errors, or config vars).
This guide covers quick checks, fixes, and when to worry if Heroku is not working.

Quick Check: Is Heroku Actually Down?

Don't assume it's Heroku.
Most "Heroku down" reports are caused by app crashes (H10 errors), memory quota exceeded (R14), slug compilation failures, or expired SSL certificates.

60-second triage

  1. Check the Heroku status page.
  2. Run heroku logs --tail on your app.
  3. Check heroku ps for dyno status.
  4. Try accessing the Heroku Dashboard.

Quick decision tree

Status page operational + your app crashing → App-level issue (check logs)
Status page operational + dashboard down → Browser/network issue
Status page degraded + many apps affected → Heroku platform incident

Keywords people search

  • "Heroku down"
  • "Heroku status"
  • "Heroku not working"
  • "is Heroku down today"

Official Sources

Heroku Status Page (Primary)

Heroku Status:
🔗 status.heroku.com

What to look for:

  • ✅ No Issues
  • ⚠️ Yellow (degraded)
  • 🔴 Red (outage)

Common components listed:

  • Apps (Dyno execution)
  • Data (Heroku Postgres, Redis, Kafka)
  • Tools (Dashboard, CLI, API, Git)
  • Builds (Slug compilation)
  • Add-ons (Marketplace)

API Status Check (Independent Monitor)

🔗 apistatuscheck.com/api/heroku

Live "Is Heroku Down" page

🔗 apistatuscheck.com/is-heroku-down

Third-party tools

Common Issues

Issue: App returning H10 (App Crashed)

Symptoms:

  • "Application error" page shown to users
  • H10 error code in logs
  • App starts then immediately exits

Likely causes:

  • Unhandled exception on startup
  • Missing environment variable
  • Port binding issue (PORT env var)
  • Dependency not installed

What to check:

  • heroku logs --tail -a your-app
  • heroku ps -a your-app
  • Verify all config vars: heroku config -a your-app
  • Check Procfile syntax

Issue: Deploys failing

Symptoms:

  • git push heroku main fails during build
  • "Build failed" in dashboard
  • Slug compilation timeout (15 min limit)
  • Buildpack errors

Likely causes:

  • Build dependency failure
  • Slug size too large (500MB limit)
  • Buildpack version incompatibility
  • Package lock conflicts

What to check:

  • Build logs in dashboard or CLI
  • Slug size: heroku slugs:info
  • .slugignore to exclude unnecessary files
  • Buildpack versions

Issue: R14 (Memory Quota Exceeded)

Symptoms:

  • App slow or unresponsive
  • R14 warnings in logs
  • Dyno memory above 512MB (free/basic)
  • OOM kills

Likely causes:

  • Memory leak in application
  • Too many concurrent requests
  • Large file processing in memory
  • Insufficient dyno type

What to check:

  • heroku logs --tail for R14 entries
  • Memory metrics in dashboard
  • Consider upgrading dyno type
  • Profile memory usage

Issue: Heroku Postgres connection issues

Symptoms:

  • "too many connections" errors
  • Database timeouts
  • Queries slow or hanging
  • Connection pool exhausted

Likely causes:

  • Connection pool misconfigured
  • Database plan limits exceeded
  • Heroku Data service degradation
  • Long-running queries locking tables

What to check:

  • Status page for Data component
  • heroku pg:info -a your-app
  • Connection count vs. plan limit
  • Kill idle connections: heroku pg:killall

Issue: Custom domain not working

Symptoms:

  • Domain shows Heroku error page
  • SSL certificate errors
  • DNS not resolving to Heroku

Likely causes:

  • DNS not pointing to Heroku
  • ACM (Automated Certificate Management) failed
  • Domain not added to app
  • SSL cert expired

What to check:

  • heroku domains -a your-app
  • heroku certs:auto -a your-app
  • DNS records (CNAME to your-app.herokuapp.com)
  • Wait for DNS propagation

Issue: Heroku CLI not connecting

Symptoms:

  • heroku commands hang or timeout
  • "API request failed" errors
  • Login fails

Likely causes:

  • Tools service degradation
  • Auth token expired
  • Network/proxy blocking Heroku API
  • CLI version outdated

What to check:

  • Status page for Tools component
  • heroku auth:token to verify auth
  • heroku update to get latest CLI
  • Try from a different network

Quick Fixes

Fix #1: Check your app logs

heroku logs --tail -a your-app

Look for: Error codes (H10, H12, H14, R14, R15), stack traces, startup failures.

Fix #3: Check dyno status

heroku ps -a your-app

Look for: crashed dynos, idle dynos, scaling issues.

Fix #4: Verify config vars

heroku config -a your-app

Common issue: Missing DATABASE_URL, PORT, or API keys after a config change.

Fix #5: Rollback a bad deploy

heroku releases -a your-app
heroku rollback v42 -a your-app

When to use: If the app worked before the last deploy.

Fix #6: Clear build cache

heroku plugins:install heroku-builds
heroku builds:cache:purge -a your-app
git push heroku main

Fixes: Stale dependency caches causing build failures.

Fix #7: Scale dynos

# Scale up
heroku ps:scale web=2 -a your-app

# Or upgrade dyno type
heroku ps:type standard-1x -a your-app

Fix #8: Check Postgres

heroku pg:info -a your-app
heroku pg:diagnose -a your-app
heroku pg:killall -a your-app  # kill idle connections

Fix #9: Update Heroku CLI

heroku update

Fix #10: Flush DNS

Mac: sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder
Windows: ipconfig /flushdns

History of outages

Where to find incident history

status.heroku.com

Notable events

  • 2022 security incident: OAuth tokens compromised, requiring token rotation across all users.
  • Periodic Postgres maintenance: Planned maintenance windows for database infrastructure.
  • Build service degradation: Common during high-traffic deploy periods.

Typical causes

  • AWS infrastructure issues (Heroku runs on AWS)
  • Build service capacity during peak deployment times
  • Postgres/Redis maintenance or failover
  • Routing layer issues
  • Add-on provider outages

When to worry

Signs it's a real outage

  • Status page shows issues
  • Multiple unrelated apps affected
  • Dashboard and CLI both failing
  • Twitter reports spiking

Signs it's your app

  • Only your app is down
  • Logs show application errors (H10, R14)
  • Other Heroku apps work fine
  • Recent deploy preceded the issue

Escalation checklist

  1. Check heroku logs --tail
  2. Check status.heroku.com
  3. Try heroku restart
  4. Rollback if recent deploy caused it
  5. Open Heroku support ticket (paid plans)

FAQ

Is Heroku down right now?

Check status.heroku.com and apistatuscheck.com/api/heroku.

Why is my Heroku app showing "Application error"?

This is usually an H10 (App Crashed) error. Check heroku logs --tail for the root cause — often a missing config var or startup exception.

Can Heroku Postgres be down while apps work?

Yes. Data services are separate from the dyno runtime. Your app may run but fail on database queries.

How do I check Heroku status quickly?

Open status.heroku.com and apistatuscheck.com/is-heroku-down.

How can I monitor Heroku automatically?

Use apistatuscheck.com/api/heroku for uptime alerts.

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