Cobb County server outage disrupting services for residents

COBB COUNTY, Ga. - What began as a planned maintenance window for Cobb County’s online systems has stretched into a major network disruption now affecting courts, county offices, and even air conditioning at government buildings.

Some Cobb County services remain affected by a server outage following an unscheduled maintenance operation over the weekend. As a result, residents may experience delays with certain online services and email communications this week.

What we know:

Officials initially announced Friday that some government phone lines and internet services would be temporarily offline over the weekend. But four days later, key systems remain down, prompting widespread issues for residents and employees alike.

The network issues also affected Tuesday’s Board of Commissioners meeting.

"We are only able to show PowerPoints but not cameras this evening," said Chairwoman Lisa Cupid during the session.

Cupid said the county was alerted to "anomalies within the network" and took some systems offline to evaluate the situation.

"We are working diligently to investigate the sources of those abnormalities and confirm the impact that is having on our systems and our data," she said, adding that systems would be brought back online only when it is safe and secure to do so. No timeline has been given for full restoration.

Despite the outage, county departments remain open, and the phone system is operating normally. The county’s court system is also functioning, though specific filing systems and non-cash payment services may be unavailable. Residents with case-related questions are advised to contact the appropriate court for further details.

Those needing to schedule a building inspection should call the Community Development Department at 770-528-2060 instead of using the online system.

Cobb County Information Technology Services reported that unusual activity on a county server prompted the maintenance operation, which required multiple servers to be taken offline. The restoration process has taken longer than expected, affecting several county systems. While services are being gradually restored, officials have not provided a timeline for full recovery.

The county website, bill payment services, and phone system are functioning as usual. Residents needing assistance can contact the county’s call center at 770-528-1000 or email information@cobbcounty.org.

What we don't know:

Officials have not said when they expect to have the situation fully resolved. 

County officials have not yet disclosed the root cause of the outage.

What they're saying:

"It’s just overall a slow process," said Eric Sampson, who showed up for jury duty only to find several courthouse functions offline.

"They have a little work area that wasn’t available, they couldn’t validate our parking because of the system being down," Sampson said. "Even the air conditioning was running on Wi-Fi, so it was kind of muggy and hot."

Inside the courthouse, staff resorted to pen and paper. "From downstairs in the clerk’s to upstairs in the courtroom — pen and paper," he said.

Corey Street, another Cobb County resident, said he ran into problems while attending a court appointment. He noted that virtual hearings were impacted by the outage.

"They have these Skypes. And they have to have the internet to do a Skype," Street said. "A lot of people missed court, weren’t able to attend."

Despite the disruptions, county officials say all departments remain open for business, and the court system continues to operate — though some filing systems and non-cash payment options are still unavailable.