Apple service outages affect App Store, Maps and more (updated)
iCloud and podcasts are also suffering.
Notice Apple that several Apple services are unavailable? You're not alone. As Bloomberg's Mark Gurman notes, Apple's system status page indicates outages across several major services, including the App Store, Apple Arcade, Apple TV+, on-device AppleCare, Find My, the iTunes Store, Maps and radio. The alerts note that some users are affected, and that problems may be "intermittent" (the App Store) or lead to slowdowns. We've asked Apple for comment.
Apple appears to be recovering. Gurman initially observed problems with the Podcasts app as well as school- and work-oriented services like Apple Business Manager and Schoolwork. Those products had come back online as of this writing, however, and Apple also marked iOS device activation as a "resolved outage." Corporate and retail systems were reportedly down and have started bouncing back.
This isn't the first time Apple has dealt with a significant service outage, and it isn't as severe as in the past. The company grappled with multiple outages in late 2020, including one on Christmas that may have stemmed from a flood of new users. Still, this isn't exactly thrilling if you need to grab an app or navigate to a mid-day meeting.
Update 3/21 3:45PM ET: Apple now says all the outages have been resolved, including one with Fitness+ that surfaced after initial reports.
