iCloud Mail Outage Enters Second Day for Some Users

[Slartibartfass]

Offline since 9/11/12 1:51p EDT (last sync)

[krspkbl]

Wow, some people gotta stop over reacting.

**** like this happens! It'll be fixed soon. This is the first I've had any problem with the iCloud service. I have a gmail but it's my junk account. iCloud, IMO, is much better so that's why I stick with it.

[rmwebs]

Originally Posted by craigab1

This is outrageous. I've been without access to my email for more than 20 hours now. Apple support can't give me any answers and all we get is the same recycled update on the system status page. My business—my livelihood—is tied to my access.

Whilst I do sympathise - if you really cared about your livelihood, you wouldn't be running it on a free mail provider in the first place. They are technically under no obligation to provide you with anything at all.

[jbachandouris]

Day 2 for me as well. Fortunately it is not my primary email, gmail is.

Funny thing is I just gave GNC my me.com email as gmail blocks them at the server level and now its down.

[carboat]

No email for 30 hours now and folks are being dramatic? Clearly some users don't get important or business email from Icloud. I suppose that is the takeaway, don't use Icloud for anythimg but casual needs. I also don't believe the 1.1% (even though that's over 1m users) I know at least 5 people effected, others also seem to know multiple down users, no way statisticly it could be that skewed. The worst part is the apathy by Apple, no pr, no info at all other than the one lne status update acknowledging the issue with the ASAP resolution timeframe. After 30 hours, ASAP no longer applies.

[flopticalcube]

Originally Posted by krspkbl

Wow, some people gotta stop over reacting.

**** like this happens! It'll be fixed soon. This is the first I've had any problem with the iCloud service. I have a gmail but it's my junk account. iCloud, IMO, is much better so that's why I stick with it.

How soon is "soon"? Apple has been saying that for over 24 hours now.

[cublah]

yep second day for me also, had no email since 5:48 am PST yesterday

[hortod1]

Originally Posted by craigab1

I would hate to believe that their focus on today's iPhone 5 launch is getting in the way of fixing this problem.

EXACTLY. Mine's been down for 25 hours now. Was expecting a job offer yesterday - 8 years I've been waiting for it, on the list trying to get in. If it did come, and I don't reply, I'll loose it and it will go to the next candidate. Been up all night hitting refresh non-stop. Called them first thing this morning to try to get more answers - didn't get anywhere.

I asked if anyone was actually working on the problem or if everyone is prepping for the iPhone5 announcement. She wouldn't say either way.

[carboat]

Originally Posted by krspkbl

Wow, some people gotta stop over reacting.

**** like this happens! It'll be fixed soon. This is the first I've had any problem with the iCloud service. I have a gmail but it's my junk account. iCloud, IMO, is much better so that's why I stick with it.

Has Gmail ever been down this long? And I am paying for the extra storage so this is not a free service for me with no expectation of performance. Always amazes me the fanboy types that will defend Apple regardless of their actions. Bravo on the marketing though don't know how the fanboys don't feel like chumps when ths stuff happens.

[Northgrove]

It's just one of the iCloud services, yes, but e-mail is a pretty big one to lose for over a 24 hours if you happen to rely on their service. I've used Gmail since it was launched and can't recall an event like this during all these years.

[dfinecy]

Well I guess I'm one of the few...I haven't been able to access my email for two days now...kinda irritated but it should be fixed soon...i hope!

[tigres]

For those defending apple herein, can you offer me a valid reason why I should not be pissed, appalled, or disgusted; as to why a simple email service has been out for me (and other users) for 27 hours? Believe it or not, many users have needs for Personal email today, 2012.

Case in point- we have a family wedding this weekend; and my wife is waiting for a dress to ship. Well, guess where her confirmation code was sent? For security, they now escalated the problem at the vendor to determine if she can get a new email to confirm her shipment- for some reason, she was sent an email on Tues to confirm; yet she did not get it and assumed all was well until she told me last eve she was not getting personal emails. My sons school is emailing me this week as we are setting up some events for the PTSA this Monday, now it a mad dash get everyone an alternative email addy. I for one do NOT like mixing my business emails with personal email addresses, ever.

All tied to MM/iCloud.

This is OK because it's apple, right?

My go-daddy email went offline on Monday (my website was not affected), but they acknowledged it; issued a statement, and it was back up (for me at least) in about 4 hours. I am not a huge fan of Go-daddy by any means; but this week has shown me who has a little wherewithal to at least issue some assistance or communication as to such a high service outage. I find over 1MM users being out kind of a high number at least.

The iCloud/former MM status page is and always has been a worthless point of reference and nothing more. It's out, next update in 5 hours. It's out, next update in 3 hours....

[JBaker122586]

I am the 1%.

[megfilmworks]

Originally Posted by tigres

For those defending apple herein, can you offer me a valid reason why I should not be pissed, appalled, or disgusted; as to why a simple email service has been out for me (and other users) for 27 hours? Believe it or not, many users have needs for Personal email today, 2012.

Case in point- we have a family wedding this weekend; and my wife is waiting for a dress to ship. Well, guess where her confirmation code was sent? For security, they now escalated the problem at the vendor to determine if she can get a new email to confirm her shipment- for some reason, she was sent an email on Tues to confirm; yet she did not get it and assumed all was well until she told me last eve she was not getting personal emails. My sons school is emailing me this week as we are setting up some events for the PTSA this Monday, now it a mad dash get everyone an alternative email addy. I for one do NOT like mixing my business emails with personal email addresses, ever.

All tied to MM/iCloud.

This is OK because it's apple, right?

My go-daddy email went offline on Monday (my website was not affected), but they acknowledged it; issued a statement, and it was back up (for me at least) in about 4 hours. I am not a huge fan of Go-daddy by any means; but this week has shown me who has a little wherewithal to at least issue some assistance or communication as to such a high service outage. I find over 1MM users being out kind of a high number at least.

The iCloud/former MM status page is and always has been a worthless point of reference and nothing more. It's out, next update in 5 hours. It's out, next update in 3 hours....

Wow, where did you find the time, after all that, to write such a long winded boring anecdotal story?

[tigres]

Originally Posted by megfilmworks

Wow, where did you find the time, after all that, to write such a long winded boring anecdotal story?

Nothing of value to add, noted...

[flopticalcube]

Originally Posted by tigres

Nothing of value to add, noted...

Empathy has never been one of the fanboys' traits.

[jstjck]

Originally Posted by Northgrove

It's just one of the iCloud services, yes, but e-mail is a pretty big one to lose for over a 24 hours if you happen to rely on their service. I've used Gmail since it was launched and can't recall an event like this during all these years.

Sorry to use you specifically northgrove but it fascinates me how many defenders here rely on gmail over me.com

I've relied on mobileme for years and in this day and age, outages of this duration should be highlighted unfavourably. It's why I'm glad I am one of the masses relying on gmail - a "$0" facililty.

FYI - between what I have spent on MM subscriptions, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPad 2 & iPad 3 to be eligible for a me.com address, don't be crying poor to me for being upset at not having email for days on end.

[markmcrobie]

My girlfriend has had some forms emailed to her that she needs to fill in prior to going for an MRI scan on Friday and she can't get emails...

[ConCat]

I don't know why, but Apple has never been reliable when it comes to the cloud. The fact of the matter is, iCloud is still in many ways MobileMe, with many differences, but still being run by the same people, and partially the same infrastructure. I don't know why anyone expected iCloud to be more reliable than MobileMe. If anything, I expected it to be worse seeing as how it's free now.

[alFR]

Originally Posted by craigab1

My business—my livelihood—is tied to my access.

I am the biggest Apple fan you'll meet and have been since buying my first Mac SE in 1987. But the way Apple is responding to this has even me wondering if I need to move my email to a more stable server.

Originally Posted by carboat

No email for 30 hours now and folks are being dramatic? Clearly some users don't get important or business email from Icloud.

Certainly, if your email is mission-critical you'd be best running it on your own server or one with a guaranteed response time for fixes. It'll cost you though, and you'll never find one with a guaranteed 100% uptime.

Originally Posted by hortod1

EXACTLY. Mine's been down for 25 hours now. Was expecting a job offer yesterday - 8 years I've been waiting for it, on the list trying to get in. If it did come, and I don't reply, I'll loose it and it will go to the next candidate. Been up all night hitting refresh non-stop. Called them first thing this morning to try to get more answers - didn't get anywhere.

Originally Posted by markmcrobie

My girlfriend has had some forms emailed to her that she needs to fill in prior to going for an MRI scan on Friday and she can't get emails...

You guys have heard of a phone, right? Why not call the parties involved, explain the problem and ask for them to contact you in another way, fax you the forms instead etc.? Have we really become so dependent on one mode of communicating that we can't think of any workarounds if it goes down?

Originally Posted by tigres

This is OK because it's apple, right?

Of course it's not, they need to fix it ASAP. Unfortunately the reality is that "ASAP" doesn't mean "instantly" for most things, and there's nothing any of us can do about that.

[gopnick]

Apple needs to farm out their iCloud operation. They suck at it.

My email is down for the second day in a row. Unacceptable.

I won't be re-upping my upgrades. I'll transition to my own Kerio server entirely.

[bitslap47]

Mine has been down since 9A EST yesterday.

I pay for the service, so the free argument isn't really valid.

Besides that... email isn't a new concept, standard, or interface. Its pretty simple to get right. It's 2012 not 1998.

And I'd hate to be the guy/team who didn't get it fixed in time for the iPhone 5 event.

With their new data centers I would have to make some sort of assumption it isn't a hardware or routing failure.

It's either crap code, or they are rolling out new features to iCloud possibly related to today's event and have poor procedures/mechanisms in place for doing so.

In any case, none of this is my problem. Fix it. Now. I'm a paying customer.

[forty2j]

I AM the 1.1%!

[a1exey1azar]

Developer's Documents experience outage too... Not as important as email thou.

[flopticalcube]

Originally Posted by aurichie

People need to ... support Apple.

Why?

They are doing their best to resolve this problem as quickly as possible.

How do you know this? Maybe they just don't see it as high priority.

As I wrote last night, this only affects a tiny proportion of the iCloud universe so Apple has done a good job limiting problems to a tiny minority.

Again, you have no knowledge of what has happened so you cannot make any assumptions on what Apple has done.

In the past, an outage like this would have affected everyone. Progress.

How do you know this? Do you know the cause? Is it different from the past?