The virtual reality (VR) headsets from Oculus Rift have recently faced an outage globally because of a software error that prevented them from connecting to the ‘Oculus Runtime Service.’
It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the glitch, but many users reported the problem on the Oculus Rift forums. Most users said they saw the “Oculus Runtime Service” error when they launched the app on Wednesday morning.
The same error, was reported by users in nearly all countries, prevents the app from running which makes the VR headsets useless. Oculus recommended users to restart the app, which didn’t clear the issue for most of them.
There was also an update pending in the application during the error. Users also said they rebooted their devices, but the error was still there.
One user said that he found what the problem may be. After digging into the app’s files, he found a security certificate that expired Wednesday. These files are issued by third-parties and enable the app to authenticate itself when accessing a website, in order to prevent malicious apps from accessing the site.
Oculus Confirms a Security Certificate is Behind the Outage
Some operating systems will just shut down applications that lack a valid security certificate. Meanwhile, Oculus tweeted that it was notified about the error and it was working to fix it.
The company confirmed that lonely user’s conclusion, that the error was tied to an expired security certificate. Users are required to remain patient while the issue is being fixed.
After acknowledging the certificate problem, Oculus team said they are taking into account ‘different ways’ to fix the problem. The company promised to keep users informed about new updates as they appear. Users were asked to be patient until an official fix is available.
Image Source: Flickr