Apple's iMessage and FaceTime suffer another significant outage [u]

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Users are reporting that iMessage and FaceTime are experiencing outages across the U.S., the second time in a week that services attached to Apple's iCloud are seeing issues.

Update: All services have been restored as of 4:41 PST.

iMessage and FaceTime Outage


A number of AppleInsider readers reported on Sunday that they could not send or receive iMessages from their iPhones and iPads, a problem that is becoming more common since the company's newest iOS 6 was released in September.

According to Apple's iCloud system status webpage, "some" users unable to use iMessage or place FaceTime calls, with the error coming less than two days after an issue appeared with iCloud storage upgrade payment transactions. Apple said service will return to normal "ASAP."

Sunday's downtime marks the fourth such outage in the past three months, with one incident in September and two in October (1, 2) affecting users of iMessage on both iOS and OS X clients. At the time, messages sent through Apple's proprietary service were pushed through as SMS texts.

While iMessage and FaceTime appear to be the most prone to errors, iCloud's email service has also seen problems, the latest being a September outage that affected 1.1 percent of all users.

Introduced alongside iOS 5, iMessage is Apple's smartphone-integrated answer to online messaging services like AOL Instant Messenger and Google Chat. The service is data based, allowing iOS device users to communicate with each other and Macs running OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, without racking up text fees.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 85
    These outages with iMessage and Facetime are almost routine now. I remember when people were bashing RIM when they suffered a rash of BBM outages; people were touting iPhones as an alternative. Hmm, I realize it's a bit of Apples to Oranges but Apple can't run a cloud service to save it's life.
  • Reply 2 of 85
    19831983 Posts: 1,225member
    iCloud is still too problematic. When is Apple finally going to sort out these recurring bugs?
  • Reply 3 of 85

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by 1983 View Post



    iCloud is still too problematic. When is Apple finally going to sort out these recurring bugs?


    iCloud is amazing.


     


    The problem is that Apple (and everything related to them..) is growing too quickly. 5 years ago they sold 4 million macs per year. Now they sell per quarter:


     


    -30 million iPhones, 15 million iPads, 15 million iPods, 5 million macs, 2 OSes, lot's of software, lot's of Apps/music/movies and services, more hardware. iCloud just suffers with this sort of growing and demand.


     


    Be patient and please behave with common-sense.

  • Reply 4 of 85
    I think PhotoStream is also being affected. I took a picture on my iPhone, it's showing up on the Photostream on the phone, but isn't showing up on my Macbook Air's Photostream.
  • Reply 5 of 85
    So is iMessage failing back to SMS on phones? Does that work even when you also/mainly use an ipad / mac? And can you still phone people without FaceTime?
  • Reply 6 of 85

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by markbyrn View Post



    These outages with iMessage and Facetime are almost routine now. I remember when people were bashing RIM when they suffered a rash of BBM outages; people were touting iPhones as an alternative. Hmm, I realize it's a bit of Apples to Oranges but Apple can't run a cloud service to save it's life.


     


    RIM never had this scale of users hammering their servers.

  • Reply 7 of 85
    genovellegenovelle Posts: 1,480member
    My att data connection and my cox internet goes down at least one a month for a period. I wonder why there aren't news articles every time they go out.
  • Reply 8 of 85
    genovellegenovelle Posts: 1,480member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by 1983 View Post



    iCloud is still too problematic. When is Apple finally going to sort out these recurring bugs?


    I think its kind of funny that Apple gets so much attention from the media on the cloud services.  Apple is a failure when 1.1 % of users are affected but other companies can have their whole service or have more than half of their users affected and its not a big deal.  How silly.

  • Reply 9 of 85


    Originally Posted by OriginalMacRat View Post

    RIM never had this scale of users hammering their servers.


     


    Hmm. Didn't they? Do we know stats on 1) BBM's hardware install base and 2) the number of BBMs sent? 



    While no one else seems to want to give up their own internal data like that, Apple's great about telling us that however many billion iMessages have been sent, and I really think that's their subtle way of saying, "Hey, you're having a problem with it? So are we. Look at these numbers; no one has ever had to deal with this sort of infrastructure before."


     


    Remember when Twitter being down was a nearly weekly thing? Talk about growing pains. Apple's suffering them too, just smaller ones.

  • Reply 10 of 85
    genovelle wrote: »
    My att data connection and my cox internet goes down at least one a month for a period. I wonder why there aren't news articles every time they go out.

    When they get the blogs the level of page hits that mentions of Apple get then there will be the articles
  • Reply 11 of 85
    Apple is really falling apart... what's going on? Are they trying to drive their customers to Android? I'm going to start checking out Android Black Friday sales....
  • Reply 12 of 85


    The more general issue I have is this: for a company that is so brilliant on so many fronts, Apple seems to have this puzzling history of sustained mediocrity on just about every one of its networked product offerings.


     


    It just does not seem to be in their DNA. I think they should consider outsourcing it.

  • Reply 13 of 85

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


     


    Hmm. Didn't they? Do we know stats on 1) BBM's hardware install base and 2) the number of BBMs sent? 



    It's common knowledge that BBM's hardware install base is ± 80 million users. A few months ago they had an ad saying something like: "80 million people cannot be wrong", wasn't it? Or am I making things up?


     


    I remember reading something "800 million people say that you (RIM) are wrong".


     


        Quote:


    Originally Posted by anantksundaram View Post


    The more general issue I have is this: for a company that is so brilliant on so many fronts, Apple seems to have this puzzling history of sustained mediocrity on just about every one of its networked product offerings.


     


    It just does not seem to be in their DNA. I think they should consider outsourcing it.


     


    iCloud is amazing and it's just getting better/more robust. Is someone there doing a better job?

  • Reply 14 of 85


    This would have never happened under Steve. Cook is destroying Apple.  AAPL will be worth less than $100 in 2 years time.

     

  • Reply 15 of 85
    This would have never happened under Steve. Cook is destroying Apple. 

    I'm certain where was a /s meant to be in there

    Cause MobileMe was under Steve's watch.
  • Reply 16 of 85
    Maybe Apple needs to get those server farms in Oregon and Nevada up and running, and operational ASAP..
  • Reply 17 of 85

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by pedromartins View Post


    iCloud is amazing and it's just getting better/more robust. Is someone there doing a better job?



    Would you use the same criteria for Apple's hardware design, or quality, or operating systems?


     


    Perhaps I am being unfair, but "better/more robust" is not the standard of "amazing"ness to which I would hold Apple.

  • Reply 18 of 85

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by island hermit View Post


    This would have never happened under Steve. Cook is destroying Apple.  AAPL will be worth less than $100 in 2 years time.

     



    Then stop whining, and either: (i) Sell and get out; or (ii) Put your money where your whining is, and buy long-dated put options on AAPL.


     


    Let us know if you've done it, and if so, a few months from now, how it has worked out for you.

  • Reply 19 of 85


    I remember Steve showing the server farm and the non-Apple technology servers in there...


     


    Is this 'outage' problem coming from the server farm?


     


    If so, maybe Apple should take its own advice from an ad long ago where a PC is having trouble and someone shouts out from the back of the room...


     


    "Hey, get a Mac!"


    /


    /

  • Reply 20 of 85
    adonissmuadonissmu Posts: 1,776member
    Maybe we should all get Android phones. Apple doesnt seem to be up to the task of providing internet software services. They make amateurish mistakes.
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