Search glitches hit iOS and Mac App Stores, concealing major apps [ux2]

Posted:
in iPhone edited May 2016
The iOS and Mac App Stores are failing to show important apps in search results, or are even showing iPhone apps in iPad-only search results, according to complaints seen on Twitter and received by AppleInsider. [Updated x2]




Apps reported missing include ones like Spotify, Periscope, Tidal, Waze, Star Wars titles, and various Google apps, or even Apple products like Xcode. Lesser-known apps are likely affected as well. Based on the scope of complaints, the issue appears to be worldwide.

Apple's system status page shows no recent or ongoing problems for any online services. The tracker regularly misses out on some issues, however.

Still functional are the App Store's Featured, Top Charts, and Explore sections. Likewise, searching for an app should turn up results if it's already installed.

Support staff said to be aware of the trouble and working on a solution, but have not offered a timeline.

Update: The system status page is now acknowledging problems with the App Store. These reach back to about 5 a.m. Eastern time, and Apple says that all users have been affected.

Update 2: Search should now be working as of about 11:30 a.m. Eastern.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 11
    antonpabloantonpablo Posts: 90member
    Apple should let Google run search for them.. 
    cnocbui
  • Reply 2 of 11
    palegolaspalegolas Posts: 1,361member
    The App Store search is pretty underwhelming. It's much much better to search for apps through Google. You'll find more options, and more adequate results. You can spell wrong, write words together or separated. Google is the search giant after all.
    this here is probably a new glitch, but they should really overhaul the whole search functionality I think.
  • Reply 3 of 11
    noivadnoivad Posts: 186member
    Everyone with any experience with Apple’s cloud services long enough knows Apple has never done cloud sync well.
  • Reply 4 of 11
    icoco3icoco3 Posts: 1,474member
    Affected AppleMusic as well.  Seems to be clearing up now but still not getting the search results I would expect.
    108
  • Reply 5 of 11
    mj webmj web Posts: 918member
    Possibly a hack targeting removal of best selling apps from App store?
  • Reply 6 of 11
    titantigertitantiger Posts: 300member
    It wasn't just the App Store. iTunes Music store wasn't returning searches for certain artists, but then they'd come up if you searched by an album title and then clicked on the artist's name.
  • Reply 7 of 11
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    So we have an outage that lasts a couple of hours and you’d think the world was ending. I chuckle at the new commercial AT&T has out showing how a family can’t cope with the losing the Internet. The ad starts out with “2 minutes without the Internet” and the family starts ranting. Then comes “5 minutes without the Internet” and the family is suffering serious withdrawal symptoms. It’s hilarious because it rings true. An Apple service gets interrupted and we immediately start seeing “Steve is dead” posts or something akin to them. The ranting starts quickly and escalates into charges of incompetence, lack of purpose, Amazon or Google (take your pick) is better, and of course the “Steve would not have allowed this” obligatory nonsense. AT&T’s ad was about reliability and that AT&T Internet claims 99.999% reliability, also nonsense. Please get a grip people.
    edited May 2016
  • Reply 8 of 11
    cnocbuicnocbui Posts: 3,613member
    Is the Opera browser supposed to be in the App store?  I looked yesterday but the search did not find it if it is.  No problem getting it from Opera's website of course.
  • Reply 9 of 11
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,153member
    cnocbui said:
    Is the Opera browser supposed to be in the App store?  I looked yesterday but the search did not find it if it is.  No problem getting it from Opera's website of course.
    There's Opera Mini.
    https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/opera-mini-web-browser/id363729560?mt=8
  • Reply 10 of 11
    cnocbuicnocbui Posts: 3,613member
    gatorguy said:
    cnocbui said:
    Is the Opera browser supposed to be in the App store?  I looked yesterday but the search did not find it if it is.  No problem getting it from Opera's website of course.
    There's Opera Mini.
    https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/opera-mini-web-browser/id363729560?mt=8
    Thanks.  No, that didn't appear in my search so the mentioned bug must have been operative.
  • Reply 11 of 11
    VisualSeedVisualSeed Posts: 217member
    I know some people actually confuse the search suggestions for the actual search results. If you don't see it in the drop down list under the search field, hit enter, you may be pleasantly surprised. 
    edited May 2016
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