Looks like something is amiss with that $1 billion North Carolina data center as Apple just acknowledged that a limited number of iCloud users are having issues accessing their iCloud email. A bunch of people reported the problem earlier today on Apple’s discussion forums.
The Cupertino, California company is working to resolve the problem “ASAP”, reads a notice on Apple’s iClod status page. It appears that the issue is not contained just to iCloud email as some users are beginning to complain about hiccups with the App Store and iMessage services as well. Moreover, looks like FaceTime is down for some, too…
UPDATE: All services are now back online…
As noted on Apple’s iCloud status page:
A small number of users may currently be unable to access older email messages. Sending and receiving new messages is unaffected. Access to older messages affected by this issue will be restored ASAP.
This marks the second serious downtime for iCloud email and iMessage in just a little over a month. Apple is clearly experiencing technical issues at its $1 billion North Carolina data center which powers iCloud services.
According to its last earnings call, Apple as of end of June had 150 million registered iCloud users and 410 million iPhones, iPads and iPod touches in the wild. Its App Store, which operates in 155 countries, now serves 650,000 apps. iTunes saw 20 million song downloads just last quarter.
The Mac App Store is also seeing continuous growth, with three million downloads of the 4GB OS X Mountain Lion installer in just four days since its release.
Are Apple’s servers becoming strained?
Apple is also building a mysterious new 20,000 square feet building t-boned to the existing iCloud server farm, describing it in building permits as a tactical facility. Another 500,000 square feet data center is also being planned next to the existing one, which also covers 500,000 square feet.
Here’s your screenshot.
It seems strange the status page would say that “all other services are online and fully operational” because some users have flocked to the company’s discussion forums to report issues with App Store access and the iMessage service.
It was unclear at press time just how widespread these issues were.
I am based out in Europe and had no trouble sending or receiving messages through iMessage throughout the day.
I was also able to access my iCloud email and purchase / download apps off the App Store.
Are you experiencing problems with iCloud / iMessage / App Store.