Server, connectivity problems add to Apple's MobileMe woes

[AppleInsider]

A mail server crash and unexpected fiber-optic line problems are the latest in a long string of hiccups that have soured the launch of Apple's new MobileMe internet service and recently left some subscribers without email access for as many as five straight days.

Apple's support forums are rife with complaints from affected users, many of which are just as frustrated with the company's poor communication over the matter as they are with the service outage itself. Several also doubt an official assessment of the scope of the problem posted to the MobileMe support site, which states that only 1 percent of subscribers have lost access to their email.

"I know at least 10 people with MobileMe and all of them have not had access to MobileMe mail since last Thursday or Friday, including me," one subscriber told AppleInsider. "Now either it's just a coincidence that everyone I know is in the 1 percent, or Apple is flat out lying."

Subscribers aren't the only ones troubled by a lack of information. Apple's support representatives have also found the MobileMe launch to be a burden due to a lack of communication from higher-ups.

"The MobileMe transition has been pretty rough on us as well, mainly because Apple isn't telling us much of anything either," one AppleCare tech support agent explained. The agent added that a rare memo was issued to some AppleCare support teams earlier this morning.

In the memo, Apple reportedly noted two separate issues, only one of which was identified. *That issue, which has since been resolved, is said to have affected "all customers" as a result of an inadvertent fiber-optic cable cut during a previously scheduled maintenance procedure. The other, Apple said, "is affecting less than 1 percent of customers."

Although Apple stopped short of detailing the second issue, some subscribers were successful in receiving an explanation from the company's online support chat before it was overwhelmed with requests and taken offline.

"The server that supplies the mail for your account ran into issues on Friday," a support representative by the name of Lisa told one subscriber. "A repair was attempted but the issue became worse. The engineers are attempting to bring the server back online without losing any of your data."

Another subscriber that has been unable to access her email since Friday was offered a similar response from an Apple representative named Craig in the company's online support chat.

"Unfortunately, after reviewing your account, it looks like your account is part of a small group of customers experiencing a temporary *outage in mail service with MobileMe," he said. "I know it's been a few days and it is frustrating. I'm in the same boat as you, my mail hasn't been up for four days either."

When pressed for more details, Craig would only say that "Apple is working hard and has made this issue their number one priority. [...] We are experiencing a temporary issue with one of our mail servers. I'm sorry that is affecting you as well. I know how frustrating it is to be without mail."

Update: Apple is now confirming a "serious issue with one of" its MobileMe mail servers in a support document.

"This issue is currently affecting approximately 1% of MobileMe members. Affected members are unable to send or receive email at www.me.com or access email using any email client software such as Mail on a Mac or Microsoft Outlook on a PC," the company said. "We understand this is a serious issue and apologize for this service interruption. We are working hard to restore your service."

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[nvidia2008]

In the past few days Mobile Me Status reports 1% of mail users unable to access. I had the problem for a few hours this morning but it was okay after a few hours.

To be honest, I consider myself one of the lucky ones with all the Mobile Me stuff. And I get 30 days extra.

On a serious note, I empathise with everyone that has had a rocky period. It is not a good time for those seriously relying on Mobile Me.

[chrisb2]

Well, perhaps they are exagerating when they say 99% of users are unaffected, since if this person really knows 10 people with MobileMe and they are all having problems that figure seems unlikely. However, I haven't had a single problem at all with my .Mac subscription since the transition. My email has continued to go through to my iphone and Mail program with no problems. So everyone is not affected..

[paxman]

One server goes down and no email? Don't they have a back up procedure of some kind? The outage was probably cause by some technician spilling his coke on the server box under his desk. Or maybe someone tripped over the cable which is taped to the floor with ducktape busting the connector. It takes time to send someone to Best Buy to get a new one, you know! I bet SJ will refer to mobileMe as a hobby next year.

[wolfneuralnet]

This is really not good practice. Everyone knows email is how we do business these days, and this affects peoples livelihoods.

I for one would never trust Apple to be my main mail service because they clearly do not adhere to standard practices like having a duplicate server up and running at all times for ALL mail servers.

Those of you looking for another provider who actually does this can check out fastmail.fm - this is an IMAP mail service that you can store all your mail on and also have it forwarded to the mac.com address to be pushed to your phone. Then when Apple goes down you will still have your mail...

I sympathize with those of you who are having problems, but if its been 4 days, I expect you might not see your data again.

[bubba451]

So is this what they mean when they say "Exchange for the rest of us?"

[Virgil-TB2]

I appreciate that Apple is working hard on this stuff, but the constant lying is really starting to get to me.

This is also a really good example of how Apple's long-held policy of not telling anyone anything and not commenting much on their problems simply doesn't scale to the size of operation they are now running. In the 90's when there were only a few thousand people likely to be affected by a given issue maybe... but now... not so much. Even 1% (and that is a total lie) of Apple's users is a big big number nowadays.

Back to My Mac stopped working for me about two weeks before the launch, and is still broken. MobileMe is completely unusable (when it's up) and various bits and pieces of it have gone down, and up, and back down again for me since the very first day. It's pretty much a 100% failure for me and for everyone I have talked to in person who uses it. That's only a sample size of about ten to twelve people, but *all* of them are still having major problems with the service. I can only suspect that the outages are based on geography, and not accounts.

The really really scary part about MobileMe IMO is that even when it's up ... the email component in particular is unusable due to how incredibly slow it is. I am on a high-speed connection in a major urban area and can access my Zimbra based web-services (the closest open-source analogue to MobileMe using some of the exact same technology) with normal speed and everything works fine. if I then switch to MobileMe on the exact same connection, the email slows to a crawl.

If, when I click on an email it literally takes two or three seconds to show up, and worse, if I *delete* an email, and the result takes 5 to 8 seconds to occur, that simply is *not* usable. I have deleted quite a few emails by mistake already by clicking on the delete button too many times, thinking it was not working and I'm a tech. With everything occurring out of sync with the mouse movements, it's just not possible to safely and sanely navigate your email. Certainly the average consumer would always be deleting the wrong thing etc.

My greatest fear is that Apple will find a way to solve the *major* (data loss) problems and get it all up and running and then just say "ta-da!" (or whatever) and leave it at that.

Also, until Apple fixes the "push" for the Macs only taking place every 15 minutes, then your iPod or your iPhone will *always* be up to 15 minutes out of sync with the rest of the system. How is that even useful? Let alone usable?

[dreyfus2]

While I had no MobileMe problems myself (except for the buggy Web interface, which is still not 100% reliable), I do not really think the glitches themselves are the worst part of the story here; they simply do happen. What alerts me is Apple's now proven inability to handle the matter professionally and transparently. If they intend to attract more businesses with 10.6, they should prove that they are a professional provider and maintain good communication with clients, especially when there are problems.

It is nice to receive 30 days for free after a hick-up, but for people using this email address for business purposes, having a 99 USD/yr service with outages of multiple days might be unacceptable. For this amount of money one would 1) expect a service that has sufficient redundancies built-in and 2) expect an instant notification to the alternate email address stored in the user profile if there is an outage - some Webhosts charging 99 ct/m provide that.

[Callaway7]

When creating a new email at www.me.com, does the TO: field autopopulate for anyone? Does the contacts icon work for anyone? Cause it sure doesn't for me u sing FF3.0

I mean I can get over the AJAX not working correctly to autopopulate my TO: field as I type in an address....but to have the Contacts icon not even work so you can't even select an email address is just stupid.

[tmedia1]

For anyone who switched their primary email to mobile me in first 30 days of its existence, well, all I can say is "what were you thinking?!" I'm seriously considering mobile me, but not until its out of it beta stage and fully operational...

[dreyfus2]

Originally Posted by Callaway7

When creating a new email at www.me.com, does the TO: field autopopulate for anyone? Does the contacts icon work for anyone? Cause it sure doesn't for me u sing FF3.0

I mean I can get over the AJAX not working correctly to autopopulate my TO: field as I type in an address....but to have the Contacts icon not even work so you can't even select an email address is just stupid.

It does not work anywhere - it has been deactivated some days ago. I know it might be good once it works, but so far I really miss the old Webmail interface. It was more responsive, had better keyboard shortcuts, direct links for emptying trash and junk and mass move/deletion worked more reliably). I cannot remotely believe that this thing was tested before release.

[You think so?]

Callaway7,

My autopopulate just started working for me this morning since the transition took place on 7/11. I can access my address book through Contacts, but cannot access my contacts in the 'new mail' pane. That has also been the case since 7/11.

[Pondus]

Mobile me maybe new technology, but managing a huge server-farm 24/7 shure isn't. They have done it themselves with Itunes for years - and if thast not enough, they could always ask Eric Schmidt for help, seems Goggle knows how to do this pretty smoothly.
And maybe apple should start creating a customercentric aproach alongside theire well-proven user-centric one.
But that ofcourase all requires that stubborn-Steve for admits that once in a while, even he make a wrong move - and that this was one of them

[JeffDM]

Originally Posted by tmedia1

For anyone who switched their primary email to mobile me in first 30 days of its existence, well, all I can say is "what were you thinking?!" I'm seriously considering mobile me, but not until its out of it beta stage and fully operational...

Have you not considered that a lot of MobileMe customers are preexisting .Mac customers that were cross-graded? I hesitate to say upgrade because extra features at a cost of overall reliability really isn't an upgrade to me.

[manfrommars]

Originally Posted by bubba451

So is this what they mean when they say "Exchange for the rest of us?"

Well put.

Yeah, the corporate double-speak followed by complete radio silence is tedious and bureaucratic. I don't like to see Apple following that path.

[JeffDM]

Originally Posted by Pondus

Mobile me maybe new technology, but managing a huge server-farm 24/7 shure isn't. They have done it themselves with Itunes for years - and if thast not enough, they could always ask Eric Schmidt for help, seems Goggle knows how to do this pretty smoothly.
And maybe apple should start creating a customercentric aproach alongside theire well-proven user-centric one.
But that ofcourase all requires that stubborn-Steve for admits that once in a while, even he make a wrong move - and that this was one of them

I think the idea is sound, but the execution was just poor. It does seem like Apple could have done much better, it seems as if they tried too hard to get by with too few resources.

[gobble gobble]

Virgil, my MM has been dog slow as well. I've simply given up accessing it and now rely on Mail. I also have a problem were MM refuses to push sync contacts.

[Callaway7]

Originally Posted by You think so?

My autopopulate just started working for me this morning since the transition took place on 7/11. I can access my address book through Contacts, but cannot access my contacts in the 'new mail' pane. That has also been the case since 7/11.

I'm glad to read it's working for someone but I still cannot get over how you can provide someone with email capabilities but not provide them with a way to select a recipient from your address book (Contacts) when creating a new email. Where is the logic in that?

Least I'm on the trial right now. I really feel for those who were existing .MAC subscribers and used your .mac address as your primary email. You're getting hosed.

[jcw5002]

I was so stoked for MobileMe when I first heard about the service. I was fully prepared to drop the cash for the service as advertised. Luckily, they offered the trial period and I was able to see what it's all about. Sadly to say, if things continue the way they are going, I will not be purchasing after my trial period is up. I haven't had any problems accessing my stuff since the first few days, but I fail to see where the value is. Sure, it's great having my contacts and calendar sync, but it's not THAT big a deal. I consider the email aspect virtually worthless until they build in some support for linking in emails from GMAIL and other IMAP sources. I don't want to use the MobileMe email account for anything serious, and don't want to forward all my mail through MobileMe.

So, I can't justify spending the money simply to sync calendars and contacts on the fly. Hopefully Apple is able to fix these scalability and reliability problems soon as well as add some more compelling features to make those of us on the trials want to purchase.

[photoeditor]

I at least have not had service outages other than associated with the three or four days around the launch, but the service is slow and there have been weird glitches with the syncing (disappearing calendar information being the most disturbing) and it just generally is not up to par.

When I signed up for dotmac with a new computer back in early June knowing there was about to be a relaunch, I figured the relaunch would be sort of a version 3.0 kind of thing where all the wrinkles were at last gone. However, I did not migrate primary email because I figured they would screw up the go-live. What I did not expect was to see them still falling over their shoelaces two weeks later. So the migration is still waiting, and it may not be to MobileMe at all, but rather to GMail/Google Docs, who at least seem to know a thing or two about programming, security, redundancy, speed and reliability.

[SpamSandwich]

Originally Posted by bubba451

So is this what they mean when they say "Exchange for the rest of us?"

Perhaps they meant "Vista for the rest of us".

[aplnub]

Originally Posted by Callaway7

I'm glad to read it's working for someone but I still cannot get over how you can provide someone with email capabilities but not provide them with a way to select a recipient from your address book (Contacts) when creating a new email. Where is the logic in that?

Least I'm on the trial right now. I really feel for those who were existing .MAC subscribers and used your .mac address as your primary email. You're getting hosed.

No I am not. It is working as it should for me with no problems. So I am not getting hosed but I am getting what I paid for.

Besides, I am a planner and I have a GMail account as backup just in case. Everything is under control for me. Also, my email works beautifully on my iPhone. I just wish Subscription Calenders were Push compliant at this time but I will live until they get that resolved.

[macologist]

Originally Posted by Callaway7

When creating a new email at www.me.com, does the TO: field autopopulate for anyone? Does the contacts icon work for anyone? Cause it sure doesn't for me u sing FF3.0

I mean I can get over the AJAX not working correctly to autopopulate my TO: field as I type in an address....but to have the Contacts icon not even work so you can't even select an email address is just stupid.

Same here. The Address Button doesn't work for me either... Also, in Received Message there is not button to Add Sender to Addresses.

Switching to Address Tab is SLOW! I often get Unresponsive Scrip Error, and if I click on Continue, after a a while it displays the Addresses, but they work SLOW, unlike the Demo at WWDC on 6/9/08!

Hope all this stuff is fixed soon, so that the ENEMIES don't start make commercials mocking ME.COM

This issues exist on both FF 2.0.0.16 and the latest Safari on OS 10.4.11

[justfine]

Originally Posted by nvidia2008

In the past few days Mobile Me Status reports 1% of mail users unable to access. I had the problem for a few hours this morning but it was okay after a few hours.

To be honest, I consider myself one of the lucky ones with all the Mobile Me stuff. And I get 30 days extra.

On a serious note, I empathise with everyone that has had a rocky period. It is not a good time for those seriously relying on Mobile Me.

As a 4 year two person mac.com subscriber ($800 so far) I am annoyed at the disappearance of Status reports. Where exactly is that found now?

[dreyfus2]

Originally Posted by justfine

As a 4 year two person mac.com subscriber ($800 so far) I am annoyed at the disappearance of Status reports. Where exactly is that found now?

http://www.apple.com/support/mobileme/

(Status indicator contains forward looking statements and may be nuts )

[winterspan]

Originally Posted by Virgil-TB2

I appreciate that Apple is working hard on this stuff, but the constant lying is really starting to get to me.

This is also a really good example of how Apple's long-held policy of not telling anyone anything and not commenting much on their problems simply doesn't scale to the size of operation they are now running. In the 90's when there were only a few thousand people likely to be affected by a given issue maybe... but now... not so much. Even 1% (and that is a total lie) of Apple's users is a big big number nowadays.

Yeah, I've always hated the secrecy and long periods of silence on problems from Apple, it really drives me nuts. They are obviously going to need to evolve their strategy to deal with the burgeoning customer base.

MobileMe is certainly having some problems, but it's still very early. These types of issues aren't at all unexpected with a major service launch like this -- that's just the way it goes. Large servers grids, networks connections, software, etc all conspire to make a very difficult environment sometimes. But I guarantee they will soon have it all smoothed out and everyone will forget the growing pains. I'm sure it will turn out to be an excellent service, and finally provide a solution for email/contact/calendar synchronization to personal and SOHO users.

[boobooq88]

Well... I am definitely part of that 1%... been without mail for a few days now... At least I'm only doin the 60 day trial so I'm not gettin ripped off or anything.

Hope it gets resolved soon though so at least I can "test" stuff out a bit more

[Messiah]

I'm part of the 1% as well.

I've been a .Mac subscriber, pretty much from day one. I found the .mac service to be really reliable, and indeed, I did rely on it for my business because unlike my POP3 accounts .mac always seemed to just work on all my devices.

There were a couple of occasions about a month or so ago where .mac just flat out refused to let me send two particular emails - but apart from that, .mac has been fine.

I don't understand why Apple had to take something which worked fine, and over-egg it and turn it into a complete fiasco.

I'm freelance, and clients tend to contact me without any warning to offer me work. As a result I rely on my mobile and .mac for my livelihood. I'm appalled that Apple has allowed a single point of failure to take down the entire system.

I certainly won't be renewing either of my iMac subscriptions!

[heller14]

"This issue is currently affecting approximately 1% of MobileMe members"

Yep ! and if Steve need a new Job after this disaster he can always apply as "Chief Liar Operator" in China or North Korea !

I'm part of the 49% (not 1% ) see:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=524124

They really are taking the mickey ! as a 20 years old Apple good customer (6 Macs at home) and ex Apple-fan I'm gutted:

I've suscribed to .mac one year ago.

About 2 weeks ago we've been forced by Apple to "upgrade" our .mac to this "immobilise me" thing without anyone asking if we wanted this "upgrade " in the first place !
It would have been easy for Apple to set up this new "mobileme" service as a new different offer next to the existing .mac service, Huu dude!

This new "mobileme" email doesn't work on my wife iMac with a system (OS 10.3.9) only 3 years old !
So, I'm going to be forced to buy a brand new Apple computer to be able to get our email on a .mac account we've already paid for !

In Europe where we're living it is unlawfull to:
1/ breach contracts (.mac)
2/ force people to buy what they do not want: Mobile Me, OS 10.5 or a new Apple computer.

And "oups" I forgot: an Apple email I received this morning said that my mobile me (ex .mac) account is supposed to be renewned in 6 days, where are the 30 DAYS FREE EXTENSION APPLE promised me in another email after a five days interuption of all the services ???

I'm fed up with Apple, NOT ONE answer from support / customer service and even Legal deptmts (I want to file an official complaint to the autorithies but Apple doesn't want to give me their address in Belgium. Cost dozens of Euros to try to get someone on the phone !

I will go to court to have my customer rights back ! and I hope some of other customers will do the same if Apple doesn't scale back.

Joel


With me sing my song loudly:

I WANT MY GOOD OLD .Mac BACK !
DON'T WANT THIS "IMMOBILISE ME" CRAP !

PS: don't google "complain + apple" = you will get nothing concerning Apple customers real complaints , you'll only get an Apple diversion against a cloning firm. Well done Bill (oups, Steve, my mistake !)

----

MacMini OSX10.4.11, iMac OSX 10.3.9, b&w G3 OS 9.2.2, Powerbook G3, 3 iBooks
Linksys WiFi, iPod 80 Go, Shuffle

[tonton]

I used to be able to access dotmac using Opera Mobile Java edition on my non-Apple phone. I can't any more. Of course I can't get Firefox or Safari on my freaking Sony Ericsson. Which means I can't read any of my email with my phone. Thanks, Apple.

That's my only gripe about Mobile Me.

[nvidia2008]

Originally Posted by heller14

...
In Europe where we're living it is unlawfull to:
1/ breach contracts (.mac)
2/ force people to buy what they do not want: Mobile Me, OS 10.5 or a new Apple computer
...

Europe is way advanced from the rest of the world in many ways. Too bad I can't get a bloody decent job here in London (I know...) after 2 bloody months... Or did you mean mainland Europe? LOL.

[teckstud]

This is beginning to sound like Karma.
Is MobileMe Apple's Vista?

[teckstud]

Originally Posted by Messiah

I'm part of the 1% as well.

I've been a .Mac subscriber, pretty much from day one. I found the .mac service to be really reliable, and indeed, I did rely on it for my business because unlike my POP3 accounts .mac always seemed to just work on all my devices.

There were a couple of occasions about a month or so ago where .mac just flat out refused to let me send two particular emails - but apart from that, .mac has been fine.

I don't understand why Apple had to take something which worked fine, and over-egg it and turn it into a complete fiasco.

I'm freelance, and clients tend to contact me without any warning to offer me work. As a result I rely on my mobile and .mac for my livelihood. I'm appalled that Apple has allowed a single point of failure to take down the entire system.

I certainly won't be renewing either of my iMac subscriptions!

Same here- a subscriber since day one.
Don't you know - it's all about the iPhone.
That's why I didn't renew mine June 25th- thank god.

[teckstud]

Originally Posted by tmedia1

For anyone who switched their primary email to mobile me in first 30 days of its existence, well, all I can say is "what were you thinking?!" I'm seriously considering mobile me, but not until its out of it beta stage and fully operational...

Well you couldn't think if you already had a .Mac account- you had no choice.
At least with Visa you can still choose XP. We can't go back to .Mac if we want to here.
Oh the irony in the world.

[Ea32]

So good to know its just not me, One more person no access all of last week and sporadic this week

[razorpit]

Originally Posted by teckstud

Well you couldn't think if you already had a .Mac account- you had no choice.
At least with Visa you can still choose XP. We can't go back to .Mac if we want to here.

Common people lighten up. MobileMe is everything I thought I was getting when I signed-up for .Mac last year. Now that I've seen what it is capable of I feel screwed for paying for .Mac for the year, MobileMe blows it out of the water. I admit Apple screwed the pooch big time on its release and it appears they are admitting it also. I say give them some time to work out the issues. I'm not ready to jump ship yet. This looks way to promising to be that irrational.

[heller14]

Originally Posted by Messiah

I'm part of the 1% as well.
...
I don't understand why Apple had to take something which worked fine, and over-egg it and turn it into a complete fiasco.
...

I certainly won't be renewing either of my iMac subscriptions!

Common sens would have be to give 2 simple options for their band of fan / customers:
1/ one simple .mac as usual you can use on your old Macs for your webmail, no hassle.
2/ a brand new trendy "Mobile me" thing you can use with you brand new mac + iphone etc.... at a different price.

and let their customers decide themselve what suits their own needs.

Isn't it too rocket science that a family home with 4 old macs used only for word processing, some surfing and emailing doesn't need more than a simple webmail in a "safe" environment (I say safe, because we could get webmails for FREE with microsft, google etc... we give our money to Apple because we trusted them)

And if one day this family want the new cool flashy features offered on Mobile Me, so they can try it (separetly from .mac) and get informed that they will have to buy new computers to be compatible.

BUT AT LEAST THIS IS THEIR OWN CHOICE!
they wouldn't be forced as we are today.


result:
I certainly won't be renewing either of my iMac subscription.
their mistake.

[heller14]

Originally Posted by nvidia2008

Europe is way advanced from the rest of the world in many ways. Too bad I can't get a bloody decent job here in London (I know...) after 2 bloody months... Or did you mean mainland Europe? LOL.

Europe is no different from anywhere else, no better, no worst.

Personnal advice: London is the best place to find a job in Europe, it is much worst in France or Italy - depending of what sort of job you're looking for and from which country you come from (employment laws).
Maybe I could help ?
Good luck !

[norton]

When I delete an email on my iPhone and then check the mail a while later on my web inbox, the deleted mail is still in the inbox as well as a copy in the trash. Also once you delete at least one other message on the web, then all previously deleted messages go into the trash.

When you read the email on the web, it does not update your iPhone with the proper number of emails that have not been read. The only way to update the iPhone at this point is to log into the mail application and then the mail application connects to server and checks it.

There is nothing PUSH about the two scenarios above.

When contacting Apple it is like speaking to a wall, and that is how they treat their loyal customers.

I hope they are reading it. And I hope that people that did not get their services yet, stay FAR FAR AWAY.

[kenaustus]

So Apple has both a SNAFU and a FUBAR. I'm glad that the optic cable problem is solved - just as I'm happy that my email is working. I don't want to try anything else at the moment!

As for those that are having email problems I hope that Apple has some very good back up procedures and don't tell the customer that it is their fault that the back up is a customer responsibility.

I wouldn't be surprised if the problem isn't one of the actual servers and, if it is a hardware problem Apple should have replacement servers on hand to handle the problem.

As for the slowness of the MobileMe system, that sounds like Apple simply needs to significantly increase the capacity of their server farms. Like the old texas oil man said when presented with a carefully prepared hardware proposal from IBM in the 50's - "fine, now double that".

The explosive sales of the iPhone plus a free trial of MobileMe has probably left Apple's servers straining and major upgrades are needed ASAP.