Motor vehicle agencies across the U.S. were unable to issue licenses and car titles for over two hours Thursday due to a technical issue.
The software used by state departments of motor vehicles comes from the nonprofit American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators. The group said a loss of connection to the data cloud caused the hiccup.
The outage lasted from about 9:50 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. EDT, the AAMVA told The Associated Press.
Without connection to other departments of motor vehicles and to verification services, workers could not provide their typical suite of services.
“During that time, there was no ability to process messages that support transactions of driver licenses and motor vehicle titles,” AAMVA spokesperson Claire Jeffrey told NBC News.
The connections were hurt by “a network-level outage within Microsoft’s data center infrastructure,” Ms. Jeffrey said. A Microsoft spokesperson told the network that some of their Virginia customers experienced a connectivity issue Thursday that is now resolved.
AAMVA and its national database are based in Arlington, Virginia.
By Thursday afternoon, states had their connections restored, Ms. Jeffery told reporters.