Toast Outage: How to Check Offline Mode Before Your Rush

Toast had a service outage during Saturday dinner on October 3, 2026, and its advice to restaurants was to keep serving in Offline Mode. How well that works depends on a few settings, and some of them can only be changed while you’re online. Here’s the check we recommend for every restaurant, with a link to Toast’s own documentation for each step.

What happened on Saturday, October 3

Toast posted a “POS/Toastweb Incident” on its public status page (opens in a new tab). It began investigating at 5:59 PM ET, said it had identified the issue at 6:30 PM, started monitoring a fix at 7:09 PM, and marked the incident resolved at 7:15 PM ET. Status trackers recorded the affected components (opens in a new tab) as the Toast POS app, POS Web, Online Ordering, and Toast Tables.

During the incident, Toast told restaurants their devices should automatically enter Offline Mode, so they could keep placing orders, printing tickets and receipts, and taking card payments. It also pointed them to its Offline Mode guide (opens in a new tab).

What Offline Mode does

According to Toast (opens in a new tab), devices switch to Offline Mode automatically after about 40 seconds without a connection to the internet, your local network, or the Toast cloud. A yellow banner appears at the top of each affected device. While it’s showing, staff can still:

Take new orders on the POS and Toast Go handhelds.
Accept credit and debit cards and tips, as long as background card processing is turned on.
Print receipts and open cash drawers, as long as the Ethernet cables stay connected.
Send tickets to a hardwired kitchen display (KDS), if your network meets Toast’s requirements.

Some things pause until devices reconnect: Toast Online Ordering, gift cards, loyalty, Quick Edit (so no 86ing items from the POS), shift review, and pre-authorization for any card that wasn’t pre-authorized before the outage.

The 5-minute check (do it while you’re online)

Confirm background card processing is on. In Toast Web, go to Finance > Related > Settings > Payment options and scroll to the Credit section. Under “Card authorization during payment disruptions,” Toast recommends Continue accepting card payments without waiting for authorization. It’s on by default, but it may have been changed, and Toast notes the setting can only be changed while your POS is online. You need the 6.3 Payments Setup permission. Toast: Prepare for Offline Mode (opens in a new tab)
Decide on an offline transaction limit. In the same section you can set an optional limit. In Offline Mode, a manager has to override any single transaction above it.
Give managers the offline permission. In Team > Settings > Jobs, open each manager job, go to the Permissions tab, and turn on 1.15 Offline/Background Credit Card Processing. That lets them approve offline payments above the limit. Then select Save and Publish.
Check how your terminals connect. Toast says terminals set to use both Ethernet and Wi‑Fi may have connection issues, and recommends turning Wi‑Fi off on terminals. Make sure Ethernet cables are firmly seated.
Subscribe to Toast status alerts. At status.toasttab.com (opens in a new tab) you can sign up for SMS or email alerts. That way a manager hears about an outage before a server is standing there with a card that won’t go through.

When you have 20 more minutes

Kitchen display. For the KDS to keep getting in-store tickets offline, Toast requires Universal Plug-and-Play multicast traffic to be enabled on your router and at least one hardwired non-Elo V1 Toast device to act as the local hub. On networks you run yourself, keep all Toast devices on the same subnet. Toast: KDS in Offline Mode (opens in a new tab)
Handhelds. Make Toast Go handhelds forget other Wi‑Fi networks so they don’t try to switch networks as staff move around. Check that Wi‑Fi coverage reaches everywhere the handhelds are used.
Internet speed and backup. Toast recommends 15 Mbps download and 5 Mbps upload. It also suggests considering a cellular backup, because card authorizations taken offline can expire and be declined if an outage drags on.
An “Offline” dining option. Toast suggests creating a custom dining option, such as “Dine In - Offline Mode,” that collects a guest’s name and phone number. If a card declines later, you can reach the guest.

During an outage: what not to do

First, open status.toasttab.com (opens in a new tab). If Toast lists an active disruption, its guidance is to leave your equipment alone, because service comes back on its own. Specifically, Toast says to:

Not unplug Ethernet cables, turn off Toast devices, or restart your router.
Not log out of or uninstall the Toast app (Switch User is fine). Uninstalling it while offline can permanently lose the order and payment data on that device.
Not select Capture on the Close Out Day screen. Authorizations are captured automatically when devices reconnect.
Keep each employee on the same device for the whole outage.
Check the cardholder’s name and the card’s expiration date, ask guests to insert their card and enter their PIN when possible, and keep the merchant copy of every card receipt.
Turn off Toast Online Ordering and Mobile Order & Pay if needed, and switch DoorDash or Uber Eats to their backup process.

If the banner says “no internet connection” or “no network connection,” the problem may be your own internet or network rather than Toast. That calls for different troubleshooting steps (opens in a new tab).

After you’re back online

Keep devices powered on, overnight if necessary, so offline payments can process.
The next morning, check Reports > Payments > Payments in Toast Web, reconcile any open checks with denied payments, and complete shift reviews.
Don’t select Capture until every payment from the outage has moved out of Processing. If a payment still shows Processing after three to five days, Toast says to contact its Customer Care team. Toast: Recover after an outage (opens in a new tab)
Double-check time entries and tips before you run payroll.

A staff card you can print

If Toast goes offline

Tell the manager. The manager checks status.toasttab.com.
Keep ringing in orders, and stay on your own device.
Don’t unplug, restart, or log out of anything.
For cards, check the name and expiration date, have the guest insert the card and enter a PIN, and keep the merchant copy.
At close, don’t press Capture. Leave devices on.

Where Overwatch fits

We don’t replace Toast. For restaurants on IT as a Service, we make the network under it reliable. That means a stable, dedicated network for Toast terminals, handhelds, and printers, Wi‑Fi planned for the dining room, bar, patio, and kitchen, and a network setup that supports Toast’s Offline Mode and recovery. Guest Wi‑Fi stays separate from payments, and cybersecurity covers the rest. The IT as a Service Estimator includes cellular backup as an add-on if you want internet failover for each location.

Sources

Menu paths, setting names, and permission names are quoted from Toast’s documentation as checked on October 6, 2026 and may change. This guide is independent. It isn’t sponsored or reviewed by Toast. Toast is a trademark of Toast, Inc.