Users reporting problems accessing App Store and iTunes (update: back up again)

iTunes item not available

A growing number of users are taking to Twitter this morning to complain of yet another outage affecting Apple’s App Store and the iTunes Store. Several folks around the world have reported problems purchasing new applications, with the App Store and iTunes returning a “The item you’ve requested is not currently available” error message.

Others complain about not being able to conduct searches for content on the iTunes Store and App Store and download apps and other content.

UPDATE 11:35am ET: all systems seem to have become operational again following a brief outage that lasted about an hour or so.

Windows, iOS and Mac users have all reported difficulties.

At the time of this writing, the issue affected the iTunes Store, App Store, iBookstore and Mac App Store. Apple’s iCloud Status Page has not acknowledged any problems yet, which is typical as any issues get reported there an hour or more after occurring.

Earlier this month, a number of iCloud services along with all of Apple’s online content stores had experienced an eleven-hour long outage, prompting the company to issue an apology to the affected customers.

https://twitter.com/Turqmelon/status/580746122123055105

The company attributed the outage to “an internal DNS error” on its end, but not everyone bought the explanation given.

Are you getting a “Service unavailable” error when trying to access or use the App Store, Mac App Store, iTunes Store or iBooks Store?

Tell us in comments as we investigate this further.