BREAKING: Cloudflare MINOR — Cache Reserve write errors in APAC [2pnkzytq24yj]

Cloudflare Cache Reserve users experiencing increased write errors across APAC region. Immediate workarounds and monitoring steps for indie hackers.

⚠️ INCIDENT ALERT: Cloudflare Cache Reserve Write Errors (APAC)

Status: MONITORING | Severity: MINOR | Impact: Partial Disruption

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What's Down & Who's Affected

Cloudflare is reporting increased write errors specifically affecting Cache Reserve users in the Asia-Pacific region (APAC: Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, Mumbai zones).

You're affected if:

Your origin servers are in APAC or serve primarily APAC traffic

You're actively using Cloudflare's Cache Reserve feature (Enterprise tier)

You rely on cache writes for dynamic content or real-time data

What's working:

Read operations from cache are unaffected

Cache Reserve users outside APAC are operating normally

Standard Cloudflare caching and CDN services continue normally

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Immediate Workarounds (Do This Now)

1. Disable Cache Reserve Temporarily

If you're experiencing write failures: ``` Dashboard → Caching → Cache Reserve → Toggle OFF ``` This forces requests to fall back to standard cache behavior. No code changes needed. Users still get cached content; new writes just go to default cache instead.

2. Implement Retry Logic on Your Origin

Add exponential backoff to cache write requests: ```javascript const retryWithBackoff = async (fn, maxRetries = 3) => { for (let i = 0; i < maxRetries; i++) { try { return await fn(); } catch (err) { if (i === maxRetries - 1) throw err; await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, Math.pow(2, i) * 100)); } } }; ```

3. Route Traffic Away from APAC (Temporary)

If critical: use Cloudflare Load Balancing to shift APAC traffic to non-affected regions temporarily. This is a 5-minute setup in your dashboard.

4. Enable Cache-Everything Rule

For static assets, set aggressive cache TTLs to reduce write pressure: ``` Page Rules → Cache Level: Cache Everything (TTL: 1 month for static assets) ```

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How to Check If You're Affected

Step 1: Check your Cloudflare dashboard

Notifications tab → Search "Cache Reserve"

Analytics → Status codes 5xx in APAC region

Step 2: Monitor your logs ```bash

Look for write timeout errors in past 2 hours

grep "cache.*write.*error\|ECONNREFUSED\|timeout" your-logs.txt ```

Step 3: Test from APAC region ```bash curl -I -X POST https://your-api.com/cache-write \ -H "CF-Cache-Status: HIT" ``` Expect response times >1s if affected.

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Alternative Tools to Consider

If you need redundancy:

AWS CloudFront + S3 (similar pricing tier)

Bunny CDN (Cache Reserve alternative with separate region setup)

Fastly (enterprise-grade with better multi-region support)

For most indie hackers: stick with Cloudflare—this is minor and Cloudflare's MTTR is typically under 4 hours.

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Monitor Recovery

Real-time status: 1. [Cloudflare Status Page](https://www.cloudflarestatus.com) — bookmark this 2. Enable Email Notifications in your Cloudflare account (Account → Notifications) 3. Follow [@Cloudflare](https://twitter.com/cloudflare) for incident updates

Expected recovery: Cloudflare typically resolves MINOR incidents within 2-4 hours. No customer action required for resolution.

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Bottom Line

If you're in APAC using Cache Reserve: toggle it off now, monitor recovery, toggle back on when resolved. Zero impact to your users. Stay calm, check your dashboard, and implement the retry logic above as a permanent safeguard.

This is a routine incident—not a security breach or data loss event.

Updates posted here as received.