Apple server outage prevented millions from downloading apps

In today’s tech industry, which is so reliant on internet connections and servers, a single glitch can leave tens of millions of people worldwide unable to use a service or even incommunicado. Just hours ago, Apple device users were experiencing issues when trying to download apps due to a brief platform outage.

Apple’s services are among the best in the industry, but like any brand, things can go wrong. This appears to have occurred today, as numerous reports of iPhone and iPad owners experiencing issues downloading or updating their apps began to circulate on social media. Fortunately, it didn’t take long for the Cupertino giant to put everything back in order.

The App Store was the only Apple service impacted by server issues

Apple’s server outage only affected the functioning of the App Store. The company’s other services seem to have remained unaffected. However, it’s possible that in-app payments were not working during the server crash. The App Store and the company’s payment platform are closely tied.

Reports of the incident began surfacing online around 11 AM ET. No particular region appeared to be the focus of the server outage. There are complaints from users facing issues with Apple’s App Store in both the United States and Europe.

Apple sent out a fix this afternoon

While the outage was active, tapping on the App Store’s “Get” button to install a new app would only result in an infinite “loading” icon. After a while, the “loading” icon would revert to the “Get” button. The same would happen with app updates. According to The Verge, Apple fixed the issues on the Apple Store servers around 12:30 PM ET.

This occasional problem is an example of how a small mistake can impact millions in today’s world. Not being able to install or update apps is not a big deal, thankfully. However, similar errors have occasionally left millions of people incommunicado. They have also caused disasters for businesses worldwide, as was the case with the CrowdStrike incident.