Apple's iTunes Store hit with hours-long outage affecting music, app and e-book downloads [u]

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited September 2014
Apple late Tuesday confirmed an unknown issue affecting its digital storefronts has barred users from purchasing, downloading or re-downloading content from the iTunes Music Store, App Store and iBookstore.




While the extent of Apple's apparent iTunes outage has yet to be reported, the company informed customers of the ongoing problem through its system status webpage, saying affected users "may be unable to access multiple stores or make purchases" as a result of the issue. The company retroactively updated the status page's Detailed Timeline to reflect more than five hours of downtime.

Users affected by the outage took to Twitter earlier today, saying purchase and download attempts returned the error message, "This item is temporarily unavailable." Some customers saw trouble re-downloading already purchased items through the iOS App Store, while others noted similar problems on the Mac App Store.

It appears only select distribution servers are affected at this time, however, as certain regions saw no interruption in iTunes Store service. In addition, some users have reported the issue resolved.

At the time of this writing, the outage has been ongoing for nearly six hours, according to Apple's status page.

Update: Shortly after acknowledging the iTunes Store outage, Apple reported the problem as fixed with a total downtime of over five and a half hours.
«1

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 33
    adamcadamc Posts: 583member
    I am surprise this is news.
  • Reply 2 of 33
    lord amhranlord amhran Posts: 902member

    Wasn't just limited to iTunes. Mail was also down for hours today and I had to re-enter my password multiple times. It's back ok for me now.

  • Reply 3 of 33
    suddenly newtonsuddenly newton Posts: 13,819member
    "Apply Windows Server update and reboot?"
    OK
    "You're fired."
  • Reply 4 of 33
    512ke512ke Posts: 782member
    Apple is being hacked by its enemies whose goal is to undermine and discredit the company prior to the iPhone 6's launch. Either that or Apple is just very unlucky this week.
  • Reply 5 of 33
    grape ceogrape ceo Posts: 26member
    Honestly I think all this will garner attention that will be turned positive come next week, I mean even with that celebrity leak pointing to AAPL this didn't shake investors. I can't wait
  • Reply 6 of 33
    grape ceogrape ceo Posts: 26member
    Honestly I think all this will garner attention that will be turned positive come next week, I mean even with that celebrity leak pointing to AAPL this didn't shake investors. I can't wait
  • Reply 7 of 33
    chasmchasm Posts: 3,296member
    Luckily, the celebrity photo hack turned out to have nothing whatsoever to do with any sort of iCloud compromise, so the stock should go even higher tomorrow! Yay!
  • Reply 8 of 33
    suddenly newtonsuddenly newton Posts: 13,819member
    512ke wrote: »
    Apple is being hacked by its enemies whose goal is to undermine and discredit the company prior to the iPhone 6's launch. Either that or Apple is just very unlucky this week.

    No evidence for that, just coincidence.
  • Reply 9 of 33
    dnd0psdnd0ps Posts: 253member
    I suspect it's due to some backend update. Can't wait for sept 9
  • Reply 10 of 33
    gtrgtr Posts: 3,231member
    suddenly newton wrote: »
    No evidence for that, just coincidence.

    Once is an accident. Twice is coincidence. Three times is an enemy action.
  • Reply 11 of 33
    philboogiephilboogie Posts: 7,675member
    adamc wrote: »
    I am surprise this is news.

    I'm not; the iTunes Store has only been down once before IIRC. The Music, Apps & iBooks that is. Early 2013, think March/April. It's their Cloud offerings that suffer the occasional outage, like Mail and such.
    512ke wrote: »
    Apple is being hacked by its enemies whose goal is to undermine and discredit the company prior to the iPhone 6's launch. Either that or Apple is just very unlucky this week.

    I'd say unlucky. Because I think this would've happened many times in the past if it was 'hacked', and that doesn't seem to be the case.
  • Reply 12 of 33
    djsherlydjsherly Posts: 1,031member

    This may have cost apple 3 of my hard earned bucks. :) 

     

    I couldn't buy it on iBooks so I went to Amazon. It was the cheaper there anyway. 

  • Reply 13 of 33
    joshajosha Posts: 901member

    I'm now wondering if the fix will improve the very slow App Store on my iPhone4 iOS7.

    My App Store has been gradually slowing for several months, now is too painful to use. :???:

  • Reply 14 of 33
    philboogiephilboogie Posts: 7,675member
    josha wrote: »
    I'm now wondering if the fix will improve the very slow App Store on my iPhone4 iOS7.
    My App Store has been gradually slowing for several months, now is too painful to use. :???:

    I actually never use the App Store on my iPhone or iPad: I buy everything on my Mac as I read reviews on other websites concurrently.
  • Reply 15 of 33
    macky the mackymacky the macky Posts: 4,801member
    grape ceo wrote: »
    Honestly I think all this will garner attention that will be turned positive come next week, I mean even with that celebrity leak pointing to AAPL this didn't shake investors. I can't wait

    That bears repeating...!
  • Reply 16 of 33
    flaneurflaneur Posts: 4,526member
    suddenly newton wrote: »
    No evidence for that, just coincidence.

    Absence of evidence is not evidence of coincidence ¡
  • Reply 17 of 33
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    macky the macky wrote: »
    That bears repeating...!
    But Jim Edwards over at Business Insider says Apple is in disarray. :p

    http://finance.yahoo.com/news/eve-supposed-tim-cooks-greatest-100533003.html
  • Reply 18 of 33
    paxmanpaxman Posts: 4,729member
    djsherly wrote: »
    This may have cost apple 3 of my hard earned bucks. :) 

    I couldn't buy it on iBooks so I went to Amazon. It was the cheaper there anyway. 
    Amazon doesn't deserve your money, that is the difference.
  • Reply 19 of 33
    eliangonzaleliangonzal Posts: 490member
    Wow, you showed them @djsherly.
  • Reply 20 of 33
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by dnd0ps View Post



    I suspect it's due to some backend update. Can't wait for sept 9

     

    This ^^

     

    I worked in an AT&T central office for over twenty years. Human beings make mistakes. Even with a ten step safety process for performing updates (Do I know why this work is being done? Do I have the knowledge? Do I have the tools? Have I notified other departments? And so forth...)  things go wrong. With the high capacity transmission systems in use today pulling the wrong fiber connection can take down an entire region. Even redundant systems can be taken down by pushing the wrong button on a control panel or pulling out the wrong circuit pack.

     

    And yes, in those twenty years I caused my share of outages. One was even FCC reportable and I had a letter in my personnel file for a couple of years.

Sign In or Register to comment.