In a widespread "national outage" on Thursday, numerous states experienced service disruptions at their Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) offices, resulting in halted license-related transactions. The outage, caused by a loss in cloud connectivity, occurred from 9:50 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. EDT, according to a spokesperson for the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA).

During the outage period, states were unable to process messages required to support driver license and motor vehicle title transactions, preventing several motor vehicle agencies from issuing licenses and titles. The AAMVA assured that it was collaborating with both internal teams and cloud providers to identify the root cause of the outage, clarifying that it was solely related to connectivity and not software.

Most DMV offices across the country utilized social media platforms to inform the public about the disruption caused by the outage. Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias confirmed that all driver's license facilities and DMVs in Illinois, as well as nationwide, were affected. The Colorado Division of Motor Vehicles advised individuals with appointments at state driver's license offices to reschedule due to the outage, which they attributed to the AAMVA.

While online options and most driver's license services were impacted by the outage, the ability to conduct driver's license knowledge tests, permit tests, and requests for motor vehicle records remained unaffected in Colorado. The Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles also reported an inability to process any license or ID-related transactions due to the national system outage.

Similar notifications were displayed on the New York State DMV website, stating that DMV transactions were currently unavailable due to a network outage. Thankfully, connectivity was restored to nearly all states by 2 p.m. EDT, bringing the systems back in operation. The Virginia DMV also confirmed its system's recovery just before 1 p.m. after experiencing a third-party system outage affecting driver's license transactions.

As of now, there is no specific timeline for complete service restoration, and motorists are advised to keep checking for updates regarding the outage. The AAMVA and DMV offices nationwide are working diligently to rectify the issue and ensure smooth operations in the future.

This news article will be regularly updated as new information becomes available.