BREAKING: PlanetScale Branch Creation Delays in GCP europe-west-1 – Immediate Workarounds

PlanetScale is experiencing branch creation delays in GCP europe-west-1. Critical workarounds and monitoring guidance for affected indie hackers.

⚠️ BREAKING: PlanetScale Branch Creation Delays – GCP europe-west-1

Status: Investigating | Severity: High | Last Updated: Now

What's Down and Who's Affected

PlanetScale is currently experiencing branch creation delays specifically in the GCP europe-west-1 region. This primarily impacts:

Users attempting to create new database branches in europe-west-1

Deploy requests that rely on automatic branch creation

Development workflows requiring instant branch provisioning

Teams with strict EU data residency requirements

Other regions (us-east, us-west, eu-central-1) appear unaffected at this time. Read/write operations on existing branches are functional.

Immediate Workarounds (Do This Now)

1. Switch Region Temporarily

If you're not bound by data residency:

Create branches in us-east or us-west temporarily

Route dev traffic there until europe-west-1 recovers

This is a 15-minute fix, not permanent

2. Pause Deploy Requests

Don't queue new deploy requests expecting instant branches:

Manually create branches in alternative regions

Trigger deployments against existing branches

Resume automation once PlanetScale confirms recovery

3. Use Connection Pooling

Maximize your existing branch capacity:

Enable PlanetScale Boost if applicable

Consolidate dev/staging environments on single branches

Reduce connection churn during the outage

4. Failover Strategy

For production concerns:

Your primary databases should NOT be in europe-west-1 for this reason

If they are: contact PlanetScale support immediately for priority assistance

Consider read replicas in unaffected regions as emergency routing

How to Check If Your Project Is Affected

1. Log into PlanetScale dashboard 2. Go to your database → Branches 3. Attempt to create a new branch 4. If stuck in "Creating" state for 5+ minutes: you're affected 5. Check your branch region: Settings → Database settings → Region

Alternatively, check the [PlanetScale Status Page](https://planetscalestatus.com) for official updates.

Alternative Tools to Consider (If You Need Immediate Alternatives)

If you absolutely cannot wait:

Neon – PostgreSQL, excellent branch support, global regions

Supabase – PostgreSQL with similar features, more transparent status

Render – MySQL/PostgreSQL, simpler setup, reliable regions

Railway – Developer-friendly, good region coverage

Note: Switching databases mid-incident is chaotic. Use these only if your timeline is non-negotiable.

How to Monitor Recovery

Real-Time Monitoring:

1. PlanetScale Status Page: planetscalestatus.com (auto-refresh) 2. Twitter/X: Follow @planetscaledb for updates 3. Slack: If you're on their enterprise plan, check dedicated incident channels

Post-Outage Verification:

Create a test branch in europe-west-1

Should complete within 2-3 minutes (normal is 30-60 seconds)

Monitor for 15 minutes before resuming normal operations

Action Items:

✅ Check your region assignment NOW

✅ Pause critical deploy requests

✅ Route new branches to us-east if possible

✅ Bookmark PlanetScale status page

✅ Set up alerts (use status page webhooks)

Bottom Line

This is regional and temporary. Keep calm. Existing databases work fine. Branch creation will resume. Use the workarounds above and you'll barely notice this. PlanetScale's team is investigating and has a track record of quick resolution.

We'll update this post as the situation evolves.