Apple Services Experiencing Widespread Outages

Apple has officially acknowledged that multiple core services are currently facing disruptions and outages as of Wednesday morning. A significant number of services utilized by consumers are affected, encompassing Apple Music and Radio, Apple Books, and the App Store on both iOS and Mac platforms.

Impact on Users

Many users are reporting complete service unavailability. Initial reports indicated difficulties streaming music via Apple Music or utilizing iTunes. Others have observed anomalies within the App Store, such as limited search results displaying only a select few top applications related to their queries.

Even when services remain partially functional, performance is significantly degraded. Users are experiencing prolonged loading times, with blank pages persisting for several seconds before content appears.

Apple's Response and Status Updates

Initially, Apple’s System Status page did not reflect these issues, indicating all services were operational. However, this has been updated to show ongoing outages affecting the App Store, Apple Books, Apple Music, Apple Music Radio, iTunes Store, Mac App Store, and Radio.

The Apple Support account on Twitter has confirmed the outage, though specific details regarding the cause or estimated resolution time have not yet been released.

Potential Wider Impact

Concerns are growing as the Apple Support team responded to a user complaint regarding password reset failures. This suggests the outages may extend to other essential backend services.

Expanding Outage Scope

Following initial reports, the scope of the outages broadened to include additional services. These now encompass iCloud Backup, iCloud Drive, iCloud Notes, iCloud Storage Upgrades, and Photos, as detailed on the System Status page.

Apple has not yet disclosed the underlying cause of these disruptions.

Resolution

Update, February 3, 2021, 12:38 PM ET: The System Status page now indicates that all reported outages have been resolved.