Apple internet services suffer wide outage, iCloud, App Stores, Apple TV, iTunes, others down [ux2]

AppleInsider

Apple's internet services experienced trouble for the second time in as many days on Thursday as customers reported outages affecting the iOS and Mac App Stores, iCloud, iTunes and Apple TV.

Apple acknowledged the issue on its system status webpage, initially noting "some users" were impacted by a downtime to App Store, iTunes in the Cloud, Apple TV and Volume Purchasing Program services starting at around 12:45 p.m. Pacific. An update added a slew of iCloud and iCloud-related products to the list of nonfunctioning services.

Today's system outage comes one day after users reported connectivity issues with iCloud Music Library. Without backend access to Apple's music servers, some iTunes users attempting to stream tracks ran into repeated "Unable to connect to iCloud Music Library" messages, while others experienced issues with Apple Music authentication. A small number of customers also saw their music libraries seemingly disappear.

At least one problem appears to lie with Apple's purchase processing system, as multiple AppleInsider readers reported seeing error messages when attempting to access App Store and iTunes assets. For example, some users looking to buy an item through the iTunes storefront were greeted with a popup reading, "The iTunes Store is unable to process purchases at this time." Others have reported seeing "Unable to connect to iTunes purchases" messages.

Apple is currently investigating the problem and the outage is ongoing as of this writing.

Update: It appears the initial glitch has cascaded down to affect a large number of services including iCloud Account & Sign In, iCloud Backup, iCloud Bookmarks & Tabs, iCloud Calendar, iCloud Contacts, iCloud Drive, iCloud Keychain, iCloud Notes, iCloud Reminders, iCloud Storage Upgrades, iCloud Web Apps, Documents in the Cloud, iMovie Theater, Back to My Mac, Find My Friends, Find My iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Mac, iPhone Calls to iPad and Mac, iWork for iCloud, Mac App Store, Mail Drop and Photos.

Update 2: Apple rectified all issues shortly before 3:30 p.m. Pacific. The company has not detailed the cause of today's problems.

timbit

Can't even update apps

pigybank

I have one computer where I have a local copy of all music, and another that is mostly iCloud Music streaming. Only my computer with the local copies is working properly. I tried signing in and out, which worked yesterday, but now its been "waiting for Apple to deliver your iCloud Music library" for quite a while...

thewhitefalcon

Yay Eddy!

jeffj2h

Tim Cook needs to consider replacing Eddy Cue.  Here is Cue's bio from the Apple webpage:

"Eddy oversees Apple's industry-leading content stores including the iTunes Store and Apple Music, as well as Apple Pay, Siri, Maps, iAd, Apple's innovative iCloud services, and Apple’s productivity and creativity apps."

Isn't that basically a list of the products Apple has had the most problems with?

rogifan_new

jeffj2h said:

Tim Cook needs to consider replacing Eddy Cue.  Here is Cue's bio from the Apple webpage:

"Eddy oversees Apple's industry-leading content stores including the iTunes Store and Apple Music, as well as Apple Pay, Siri, Maps, iAd, Apple's innovative iCloud services, and Apple’s productivity and creativity apps."

Isn't that basically a list of the products Apple has had the most problems with?

Yep. I've only been saying this since forever. Obviously outages can happen but they seem to happen more frequently with Apple these days. 

macpro

I am seeing far more off line that the AI image, maybe a time difference or area difference.  This in mid west Florida:

edited June 2016

roake

This one s exactly the kind of thing that would have sent Steve Jobs into an apoplectic seizure.

And when he regained consciousness, there would one or two fewer directors left to screw things up.

I'm looking at YOU, Eddy Cue!

thewhitefalcon

rogifan_new said:

jeffj2h said:

Tim Cook needs to consider replacing Eddy Cue.  Here is Cue's bio from the Apple webpage:

"Eddy oversees Apple's industry-leading content stores including the iTunes Store and Apple Music, as well as Apple Pay, Siri, Maps, iAd, Apple's innovative iCloud services, and Apple’s productivity and creativity apps."

Isn't that basically a list of the products Apple has had the most problems with?

Yep. I've only been saying this since forever. Obviously outages can happen but they seem to happen more frequently with Apple these days. 

And Forstall was sent packing over Apple Maps, whereas Eddy has problems with all the services, many times a year. Starting to look like a favoritism thing at this point. 

volcan

digitalclips said:

I am seeing far more off line that the AI image, maybe a time difference or area difference.  This in mid west Florida:

I don't think the graphic is specific to regions. I see the same thing in Southern CA, but my Services are working. It says "some users are affected."

The article has an update noting that the problem has worsened.

edited June 2016

pepe779

...and in the meantime I see no outages whatsoever here in Europe 

slprescott

Apple's pivot to SERVICES won't succeed if their services aren't reliable.

insite4u

iCloud is still raining on my parade! Suck an Apple!!!

insite4u

volcan said:

digitalclips said:

I am seeing far more off line that the AI image, maybe a time difference or area difference.  This in mid west Florida:

I don't think the graphic is specific to regions. I see the same thing in Southern CA, but my Services are working. It says "some users are affected."

yeah like me in lowly Ohio...

slurpy

timbit said:

Can't even update apps

Trust me, you'll survive. You can wait a few minutes/hours to update apps. Your life will not be negatively affected in any way. 

roake

slurpy said:

timbit said:

Can't even update apps

Trust me, you'll survive. You can wait a few minutes/hours to update apps. Your life will not be negatively affected in any way. 

I feel the life draining out of *right now*...

Dang you, Eddy Cue...!  *gasp*

Argh!

jkichline

It's less than two weeks before WWDC... this ALWAYS happens. They are busy updating the backend for new features. Unfortunately, Apple hasn't figured out how to change store or service without downtime.

thewhitefalcon

slurpy said:

timbit said:

Can't even update apps

Trust me, you'll survive. You can wait a few minutes/hours to update apps. Your life will not be negatively affected in any way. 

This kind of attitude is why Apple's services are midrate at best. 

volcan

pepe779 said:

...and in the meantime I see no outages whatsoever here in Europe  

Looks pretty widespread in Germany and the UK according to this map. Although it looks like LA is out too but my services are working fine here.

http://downdetector.com/status/icloud/map/

edited June 2016

dick applebaum

jkichline said:

It's less than two weeks before WWDC... this ALWAYS happens. They are busy updating the backend for new features. Unfortunately, Apple hasn't figured out how to change store or service without downtime.

Good observation!

I suspect that some of the compelling new offerings at WWDC will be based on iCloud/backend services.

I hope that Apple has used FoundationDB as the basis for [re]implementing these services -- that way it should be trivial to implement changes without downtime ...

Sigh, I think parts of the online store and iTunes are still running WebObjects.

lord amhran

Cue needs to spend less time screaming and pointing at Steph Curry and get to work on fixing the myriad of problems the things he's supposed to be in charge of are working properly.

edited June 2016