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iCloud Down: Mail, Calendar, Contacts and Photos Fail on Nov. 10

By Outages Now Editors

A woman using a laptop navigating a contemporary data center with mirrored servers.
Photo: Christina Morillo / Pexels

Several iCloud services stopped working normally for some users starting at 5:49 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday, Nov. 10, according to Apple’s System Status page. The affected services included iCloud Mail, Calendar, Contacts, iWork for iCloud and Game Center, and Apple also listed Photos and iCloud account sign-in.

AppleInsider reported that the iCloud problems were marked resolved at 7:22 p.m. ET and that its article was updated at 8:10 p.m. EST to say the outages were over. Reports differed on the Photos and sign-in problems. MacRumors said that as of 7:22 p.m. ET the Mail, Calendar and Contacts outages were resolved, while Photos and iCloud sign-in were then listed as having issues.

Which services were affected

Apple’s System Status page named these services during the incident:

  • Game Center
  • iCloud account and sign-in
  • iCloud Calendar and iCloud Contacts
  • iCloud Mail
  • iWork for iCloud
  • iCloud Photos

AppleInsider said the outage hit syncing and other functions for Mail, Calendar, Contacts, Photos and Game Center. Apple said some users were experiencing issues, which means the page described the problems as affecting a portion of users and not everyone.

Find My had its own problem

Find My began having trouble at 5:50 p.m. ET, one minute after the iCloud issues were first listed. Apple said on its status page that the service may be slow or unavailable. AppleInsider reported that the Find My issue was still ongoing when it published its update on the iCloud services, and its sources did not say when Find My returned to normal.

What Apple has said about the cause

Apple has not disclosed what caused the outage. Both outlets relied on the System Status page, which is Apple’s own public list of service problems, and neither cited a statement from the company explaining the failure or giving a fix time. AppleInsider noted that a listing on the page means Apple is aware of the problem and working on it.

What this means for users

People who rely on iCloud for email, calendars, contacts or photo syncing may have seen delays or errors between about 5:49 p.m. and 7:22 p.m. ET. Anyone who could not sign in to their iCloud account during that window was dealing with the sign-in problem Apple listed on its status page. Game Center was also on the list of affected services.

Users who want to check whether a problem is on Apple’s side can look at the System Status page, which shows each service with its current state and any listed issues. The page is the source both outlets used to track when each service went down and when it was marked resolved.

MacRumors said it would update its report when services were back online, and AppleInsider’s final update at 8:10 p.m. EST listed the outages as resolved. Neither outlet gave a count of affected users, and Apple has not said how many people were affected.

Sources: AppleInsider, MacRumors

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