When Starlink shows “Offline,” the app is actually telling you something specific — it just doesn’t explain it in plain language. The message you see in the app narrows the problem to one of five causes, most of which you can clear yourself in under ten minutes. This guide walks through every scenario, in the order you should check them.
These are the questions people type in a panic when the internet goes out and they can’t find a straight answer. Here they are, answered without the runaround.
Most of the time it is yours to fix. Major Starlink network outages — the kind that knock thousands of people offline simultaneously — happen roughly 20 times per year and average less than an hour. The July 2025 outage was the worst in recent history at 2.5 hours and was rare enough to make national news. When your app says “Offline,” the first thing to check is downdetector.com/status/starlink — if the report count is spiking sharply, it’s SpaceX’s problem and you wait. If reports are normal, the problem is your equipment and the rest of this guide applies. Roughly 95% of individual offline reports are local — cable issues, obstruction, power loss, or a router that needs a proper restart.
It means the Starlink app on your phone can see your home Wi-Fi network but cannot reach the dish through it. The app connects to the dish via the router — if the router is powered on but the dish is not responding, you get this message. The three causes are: (1) the dish genuinely lost power, (2) the cable between the dish and router has a connection problem, or (3) the dish is running a firmware update and restarting itself. A firmware restart typically resolves itself in 20 to 60 minutes without any action on your part. A power or cable issue will not resolve on its own. Checking whether the outage started at roughly the same time on a previous night is the fastest way to tell the difference — a firmware update pattern repeats at approximately the same hour.
Yes — Starlink now has two official phone lines. For connectivity problems specifically, call 1-866-606-5103 — this line is open Monday through Friday, 6 AM to 6 PM Central Time, and supports English and Spanish. You must have your account phone number and Starlink account number ready. For 24/7 assistance from Grok, SpaceX’s AI support system, call 888-GO-STARLINK (888-467-8275) at any hour — this line connects you to an AI that can diagnose issues and schedule a callback from a human agent. For everything else (billing, equipment, returns), support tickets through the Starlink app or starlink.com are the only channel. There is no general-purpose customer service email.
A lit power indicator means the router has power — it does not mean the dish is connected or that the internet is working. The router can be fully powered on while completely unable to reach the dish. Open the Starlink app and look at the Status section: if it says “Searching” or “No Signal Received,” the dish is not communicating with satellites — check the dish cable and obstruction map. If it says “Offline — Unplugged or Rebooting,” the router can’t reach the dish at all — reseat the cable. If the app itself says “Disconnected” in the very first screen, your phone isn’t on the Starlink Wi-Fi network — connect your phone to the Starlink Wi-Fi before troubleshooting anything else.
A factory reset clears stored configuration from the router — it does not fix a physical cable problem, a dish hardware failure, or a network-side outage, and it will require you to reconnect all devices to Wi-Fi afterward. It is worth trying when: the router has persistent software errors that don’t clear with a regular restart, or the app cannot find the router at all even though the hardware appears to be powered on. Never factory-reset before first trying a full power cycle — unplug the router from the wall for two full minutes, then reconnect. That step alone resolves a majority of software-related offline states without wiping your settings. A factory reset is the last hardware-side step before contacting Starlink support for a replacement.
Four things to check after a storm, in this order. First, look at the cable where it enters the dish — heavy wind sometimes vibrates a cable loose at the connector, which is the single most common storm-related cause of offline status. Second, check whether the dish has shifted on its mount — a dish that moved in wind loses the precise alignment it needs. Third, look at the dish face for debris accumulation or ice on the lens surface. Fourth, check the power path — a surge protector that tripped during a lightning strike cuts power to the router even though the outlet itself is fine. Reset any surge protectors by pressing the reset button on the strip before assuming the problem is the dish or cable.
Possibly. In November 2025, Starlink announced it is ending software and security updates for its original Gen 1 routers — the hardware that shipped with early subscriber kits. The router continues to function, but without firmware updates it becomes increasingly susceptible to software glitches as the Starlink network evolves around it. Starlink is offering Gen 1 users a free upgrade to a current-generation router at no cost — check your account email for an upgrade offer, or log into starlink.com to see whether the offer appears in your account. If it does, accept it before troubleshooting further — an unsupported router on an updated network is a likely source of recurring offline issues.
Fifteen minutes is the right threshold for most offline states. Satellite handoff drops last 1–3 seconds. Firmware restarts resolve in 20–60 minutes but you’ll see the connection come back on its own. If your dish has been offline for more than 15 minutes with no improvement after a power cycle and cable check, you have a problem that won’t fix itself. One hour with no recovery and no network-wide outage reported is the point at which a support ticket to Starlink is warranted — that threshold is actually the guidance listed in Starlink’s own support documentation for when to escalate. Keep in mind that Starlink support tickets filed through the app include remote diagnostics access to your dish’s signal data, which accelerates their response significantly compared to a vague description of the problem.
The Starlink app uses specific phrases when your dish is offline. Each one is a different diagnosis. Find your message below and go directly to the right fix — skipping the trial-and-error.
| App Message | What It Means | Fix Type | First Action | Resolves In |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Offline — Unplugged or Rebooting | Router powered on but can’t reach dish | Cable / Dish / Firmware | Check & reseat cable at both ends | Minutes (cable) or 20–60 min (firmware) |
| Searching | Dish is looking for a satellite and not finding one | Usually self-resolves | Wait 15 min — power cycle if no change | 5–15 min normally |
| No Signal Received | Dish found a satellite but lost the signal | Obstruction / Weather / Hardware | Check obstruction map in app | Immediate after obstruction clears |
| Obstructed | Physical object blocking satellite line of sight | Dish relocation needed | View obstruction map — identify red zones | After repositioning dish |
| Disconnected (app first screen) | Your phone is not on Starlink’s Wi-Fi network | Connect phone to Starlink Wi-Fi first | Join Starlink Wi-Fi on your phone’s settings | Immediate |
| Poor Cable Connection | Cable between dish and router has a fault | Reseat or replace cable | Unplug cable fully at both ends, reseat firmly | Immediate after reseating |
| Booting (extended, 15+ min) | Dish stuck in startup loop — software glitch or overheat | Power cycle + cool down | Unplug dish fully 5 min, let cool, reconnect | After restart or cool-down |
| No internet (router light normal, app shows online) | DNS failure or IP conflict — not a Starlink fault | DNS / IP fix | Set DNS to 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 on device | Immediate after DNS change |
| Starlink Unreachable | App can’t communicate with router at all | Router power cycle | Full 2-minute router power cycle | After restart |
| Software Update (nightly, brief) | Planned firmware restart — normal and expected | No action — wait | Wait 20–60 min — system restores itself | 20–60 minutes |
Before unplugging a single cable or restarting anything, run these three checks. They take under two minutes and will tell you which section of this guide to jump to directly — saving the 45-minute process of trying fixes in random order.
On any phone with cellular service — or a neighbor’s internet — go to downdetector.com/status/starlink and look at the report count in the last hour. The site shows a live chart of user-submitted problem reports. A flat baseline with fewer than 50 reports per hour means no widespread outage is in progress and the problem is your local equipment. A sharp spike to hundreds or thousands of reports means SpaceX is having a network-side problem and nothing you do to your router or dish will fix it. In that case, the only action is to wait and check back every 30 minutes. This 30-second check eliminates the most common mistake people make when Starlink goes offline: spending an hour restarting equipment and reseating cables during a SpaceX-side outage that would have resolved on its own.
Flip your Starlink router upside down. The LED on the base tells you the power and communication state immediately. White and blinking: router is powered and connected to the dish — the problem is the satellite link or internet routing, not the router itself. White and steady: fully operational — if you still have no internet, the issue is your device or DNS, not Starlink. Red: router is on but cannot communicate with the dish — the cable between them has a fault, the dish has lost power, or the dish hardware is failing. No light: the router has no power — check the outlet, surge protector, and power cable before anything else. Never attempt cable diagnostics until you’ve confirmed the router actually has power to begin with.
Open the Starlink app on your phone. Make sure your phone is connected to the Starlink Wi-Fi network — if the app shows “Disconnected” on its very first screen, that means your phone switched to cellular data and isn’t on the Starlink network at all, which is not an outage. Once connected to Starlink Wi-Fi, the Status screen shows the exact error. Write down or photograph the exact words — “Offline — Unplugged or Rebooting,” “Searching,” “No Signal Received,” “Obstructed,” or “Poor Cable Connection.” Each phrase points to a specific cause. The app also has a Statistics section (tap Statistics on the main screen) which shows a log of every recent outage with timestamps and labeled causes — this is the most valuable diagnostic tool Starlink gives you and most people never open it.
The cable connecting your Starlink dish to the router is responsible for a disproportionate share of offline incidents. It looks fine. It may have worked for two years without a problem. And then one cold snap, one windstorm, or one small vibration causes the connector to back out a fraction of an inch — and everything goes dark.
Before assuming a dish or cable problem, confirm the router has power. A surge protector that tripped during a lightning strike, a GFCI outlet that needs to be reset, or a power brick that failed will all produce the same “Offline” result in the app as a cable or dish issue. Test the outlet with another device — a phone charger is enough. If the outlet works, plug the Starlink power cable directly into the wall outlet, bypassing any surge protector, to determine whether the surge protector is the failure point. If the router comes back online, the surge protector tripped and needs its reset button pressed. If the router still shows no light, the power cable or the router itself has failed and you’ll need a replacement from Starlink.
Starlink uses a proprietary cable with a connector that develops micro-gaps over time — particularly after freeze-thaw temperature cycles, heavy winds that vibrate the cable run, or repeated physical movement. The cable connector at the dish mast end is the most common point of failure because it’s exposed to weather and is less visually obvious than the router end. To properly reseat it: unplug the cable at the dish end first, then at the router end. Inspect both connectors for corrosion (greenish or white residue) or a bent contact pin. Blow out any debris with compressed air if available. Reconnect at both ends firmly — the connector should click or seat with clear resistance when fully in. A well-documented field fix: cut a small strip of thick paper or cardboard and insert it at the cable entry point of the mast — this maintains pressure on the connector and prevents it from gradually backing out. If drops return within 24 hours, the cable needs replacement. Order through the Starlink app.
A dish that shows “Booting” for more than 15 minutes is either stuck in a software loop or — for Gen 1 round dish owners — may be overheating. A standard restart through the app’s Settings menu does not perform a full hardware power cycle. For a proper reset: use the “Stow Starlink” slider in the Settings tab — this puts the dish into a shutdown position and performs a deeper hardware reset than a standard restart. When you then “Unstow,” the dish re-initializes from scratch. Additionally, some users report that being at a location different from the registered service address causes a persistent booting state — if you’ve moved the dish to a temporary location, this may be the cause. For Gen 1 round dishes specifically, a dish that’s been in direct sun for hours may be too hot to complete the boot sequence — unplug it, let it cool for 30 minutes in the shade, and reconnect.
A dish that’s physically fine but pointed slightly wrong, or that has a single tree branch crossing its signal path at a specific time of day, will show the same “Offline” or “No Signal” state as a broken dish. These two causes look identical in the app — but the fix is completely different.
Starlink dishes need a clear 100-degree cone of sky — anything that enters that cone at the moment a satellite is in that direction causes a dropout. The obstruction doesn’t have to be large. A single branch covering 5% of the sky view causes regular brief outages. Because satellites move across the sky, the problem presents differently at different times of day — a branch that causes a dropout at 2 PM may not be the problem at 7 AM, making the issue feel random when it isn’t. To find your obstruction: open the Starlink app → Statistics → Obstruction Map. Red streaks and zones show exactly which part of the sky is being blocked and when. A streak pointing toward your roofline means the dish is mounted too low. A streak toward the south usually means a tree or pole. A scattered pattern of small dots means intermittent movement — a branch swaying in wind. Reposition the dish to eliminate red zones, or in severe cases, mount the dish higher using a pole extension or roof mount.
A dish mount that isn’t rigidly secured will shift its aim angle in wind — and the app logs this as an obstruction event, making it look like a sky-blocking problem when the real issue is mechanical. If your drops correlate strongly with wind events rather than a specific time of day, push the dish gently. Any wobble, play, or movement in the mount is enough to cause dropouts in high winds. Tighten all mounting bolts, add bracing if using a pole mount, or switch to a wider-base roof mount for installations in consistently windy locations. After securing the mount, monitor the outage log for 48 hours to confirm drops have stopped. A dish that was properly tight when installed can loosen gradually over months from vibration — particularly on roofs with HVAC units or metal surfaces that conduct vibration well.
True Starlink network outages are rare but do happen. Knowing the difference between a local equipment failure and a SpaceX network incident saves time and prevents the frustration of troubleshooting equipment that has nothing wrong with it.
Starlink averages roughly 20 network-level outages per year, but each lasts an average of only 0.8 hours — shorter than most cable or fiber outage incidents. The most significant recent outage occurred on July 24, 2025, when a software failure knocked users worldwide offline for approximately 2.5 hours before SpaceX resolved it. A geomagnetic storm in September 2025 also caused a brief outage affecting users for up to 90 minutes. The defining characteristic of a true Starlink network outage is that it affects a large number of users simultaneously and cannot be fixed by anything on your end. Check downdetector.com/status/starlink and StatusGator (statusgator.com/services/starlink) — if reports are spiking to hundreds or thousands above the normal baseline, it’s SpaceX’s problem. The only correct action is to wait. Attempting to contact Starlink support during a known network outage adds to queue volume without producing faster resolution for anyone.
Strong geomagnetic storms — solar events rated G3 or higher by NOAA’s Space Weather Center — can temporarily disrupt satellite communications by expanding Earth’s upper atmosphere and affecting radio frequency propagation. Starlink experienced a brief connectivity disruption during a significant geomagnetic storm in September 2025. If NOAA has issued a geomagnetic storm warning (spaceweather.noaa.gov) on the same day your Starlink went offline, the two events are likely related. The disruption is temporary and resolves as the storm passes — typically within a few hours. This is not a hardware failure and does not require any action on your part.
These six steps cover the full range of local Starlink offline causes. Most people find the answer at step two or three. Complete each step before moving to the next — skipping around wastes time.
Starlink’s support structure is different from most ISPs. There is no general customer service phone line — the connection-issues phone number is specifically for people who are offline right now. Here is every legitimate way to get help.
Starlink’s outage-specific phone line exists for subscribers who are actively offline and cannot troubleshoot through the app. You must have your account phone number and Starlink account number ready before calling — the system verifies your subscription before connecting you to support. This line handles connection problems only. Billing, equipment questions, cancellations, and account changes require a support ticket through the app or website. If your Starlink is offline and it’s after 6 PM Central Time on a weekday, or it’s a weekend, this line is not available — use the 24/7 AI hotline or submit a ticket and monitor the Starlink app for updates.
SpaceX integrated Grok — xAI’s AI assistant — into Starlink’s customer support system as a 24/7 voice hotline. Call the number at any hour, describe your issue in plain language, and Grok will walk you through diagnostic steps and either resolve the issue or schedule a callback from a human support agent. This is the only Starlink support channel available outside of business hours on weekdays and on weekends. Be specific when describing your problem — say the exact error message from the app, describe the router LED color, and tell the AI what steps you’ve already tried. The more specific the description, the faster the diagnostic process moves. This line can also flag hardware replacement requests when the AI determines remote troubleshooting has been exhausted.
For anything other than an active connection outage — billing disputes, equipment questions, return requests, account changes — the support ticket system in the Starlink app or through starlink.com is the only channel. Open the Starlink app → tap Support → select the category that matches your issue → describe the problem. Before submitting, take a screenshot of your Statistics → Outage Log and include it in the ticket — this gives Starlink’s team timestamped diagnostic data that significantly speeds up their response. The app also grants Starlink remote read access to your dish’s signal data when you submit a ticket, which allows them to run diagnostics they cannot perform without that access. Response times vary; tickets submitted with detailed diagnostic information consistently get faster and more useful responses than vague problem descriptions.
When you search for “Starlink customer service number” online, the first result is often 1-855-753-2495 — this is not Starlink. It is the customer service number for Subaru STARLINK, an entirely different in-vehicle safety system that happens to share the name. Calling it when your internet is down will not help. The only legitimate Starlink internet support numbers are 1-866-606-5103 (connection issues, business hours) and 888-467-8275 (24/7 AI hotline). Any other number advertised as Starlink internet support is either incorrect or a scam.
Do these three things at the same time, not one after another. First, pull out your phone and check Downdetector — if it’s a SpaceX outage, you need to know that now before spending time on equipment. Second, switch your work devices to your phone’s cellular hotspot while you troubleshoot — most carriers allow hotspot as part of standard plans and it takes 30 seconds to enable. Third, begin the cable reseat and power cycle process while your devices are on cellular backup. The time cost of switching to hotspot while diagnosing is zero — your work continues, your troubleshooting continues, and you’re not staring at a screen waiting for a restart to finish. If the outage is SpaceX-side, the hotspot buys you the time to finish the work you need to finish. If it’s local, the power cycle likely resolves it within five minutes.
Work through four specific checks in this order. One: surge protector — press the reset button on the power strip before anything else, because a surge during a lightning storm commonly trips the protector and cuts router power entirely. Two: cable at the dish end — wind vibrates the proprietary cable connector loose at the mast entry point, and this is the most common storm-related cause of offline status. Three: dish mount — visually inspect whether the dish has shifted position, particularly if you had high winds. Four: obstruction from storm debris — a branch that fell near the dish may now be in the signal path. If all four check out and the dish is still offline, go to Downdetector and confirm it’s not a broader network event. Storm-related issues account for the largest single category of post-storm Starlink support tickets, and most of them are surge protector trips or cable vibration — not hardware damage.
A Starlink that goes offline at a consistent time — within roughly a 30-minute window — on repeated nights is almost certainly receiving a firmware update. Starlink schedules firmware pushes during overnight hours specifically to minimize disruption, and the update restarts the dish, causing an outage that typically lasts 20 to 60 minutes. Open the Starlink app the following morning and go to Statistics → Outage Log — if you see a gap in activity matching the outage window with no error label attached to it, that’s a firmware update and there is nothing to fix. For overnight workers or people who stream late, a cellular backup connection covers this window. The update window varies somewhat from night to night but tends to cluster in a predictable range for any given installation area.
Three things in order, no technical knowledge required. First: press the reset button on your power strip — it’s usually a small button on the end or bottom of the strip. Wait 10 seconds and see if the router light comes back on. Second: unplug the black power cord from the back of the router, count to 120 (two minutes), plug it back in, and wait five minutes. Third: look at the cable that runs from your router up toward the dish — find where it plugs into the router and press it in firmly until it seats fully. If none of those three steps restores the connection, call 1-866-606-5103 (weekdays 6 AM–6 PM Central) or 888-467-8275 (any time). Tell them exactly what the screen on the Starlink app says and what color the light on the bottom of your router is — those two pieces of information are what their support needs to help you.
Two separate causes, and which one it is depends on when the outage started. If the outage started during or right after heavy snowfall, snow has likely accumulated on the dish faster than the built-in heater could melt it. The dish heater handles most snow automatically but struggles with very heavy wet snow that falls faster than it can melt off. If the dish is accessible and safe to reach, clearing it with a soft broom restores connection immediately — never use anything abrasive on the dish surface. If the outage started in clear, cold, dry conditions with no snow, the cause is almost certainly the cable connector contracting in very cold temperatures and developing a micro-gap. Unplugging and firmly reseating the cable at both ends typically resolves cold-weather connector gaps immediately. If your dish is an older Gen 1 round unit, overheating from the heating element itself — counterintuitively — can cause boot loops in very cold conditions. Unplugging for 30 minutes and reconnecting clears this.
Recurring offline events — not one incident but the same thing happening over days or weeks — almost always trace back to one of three causes. First: an intermittent cable fault that partially resolves each time you reseat it but hasn’t been fully replaced. If you’ve reseated the cable more than once and the problem comes back, the cable needs replacement, not re-reseating. Second: a seasonal obstruction change — a tree that wasn’t a problem in winter became an obstruction when leaves grew in. The obstruction map will show new red zones that weren’t there before. Third: a Gen 1 router with deteriorating software performance on an updated network. If you have original Gen 1 hardware, check your account for the free upgrade offer before troubleshooting further. For any recurring issue that has not been resolved after two full cable reseat cycles, submit a support ticket through the app — recurring offline states are exactly what Starlink’s remote diagnostic system is designed to investigate, and a ticket opens that access.
This guide provides general troubleshooting information and does not substitute for official Starlink support. Phone numbers, support hours, and product policies may change — verify directly with Starlink before relying on contact details. Equipment behavior varies by hardware generation and firmware version. This content is entirely original and independently written.