[NewsPoster]

[Update: outage has ended] Some of Apple's online services are down, for at least some users, in a prolonged attack that started around 8:30PM Pacific Time on Wednesday and is currently ongoing. Prior to that, 0.6 percent of iCloud users were cut off from iCloud Tabs and iCloud Keychain services for about an hour and 45 minutes, beginning around 7PM PT. At the time of writing, Apple's System Status page shows the App Store, Apple TV, the iBookstore, iTunes Store, Mac App Store and Volume Purchase Program are either slow or down entirely for some percentage of users.

On Tuesday, the iTunes Store suffered a similar outage between 9:30AM and 12:15PM PT. Despite an unusually specific report on the early-evening iCloud downtime that enumerated the exact percentage of users affected, recent report simply say that "some" users are seeing either slowdowns or outages with the services. The iTunes and iOS App Stores were affected by more minor outages on Monday, but they were very limited and short-lived compared to the current downtime.

"Users may be unable to access multiple services and stores or make purchases," Apple has noted on the status page. As is normal, there is no indication of when the problems might be resolved. Apple ID, iCloud services, email, instant messaging, FaceTime, Siri, Apple Music and a wide range of other Apple services are continuing to operate normally.

Update: The Apple System Status page now shows all services as running normally. On the detailed timeline, it shows "All Store Services" back up and running at approximately 1:20AM PT. The outage itself appears to have lasted for around five hours in total.

[Inkling]

Strange article. You mention a "prolonged attack," which implies an attacker, and yet say nothing more about that. Apple itself is not giving a cause, so why suggest one but never explain it? Apple's usual problems with keeping its larger server farms up is probably sufficient cause.

[aroxnicadi]

Still getting the message that iTunes is down in Canada even thought the page says it working. Another faulty iCloud app at work.

[aroxnicadi]

They finally updated the page

[revco]

Can't download or update apps or buy music in Australia. Prior to this the service has been super slow for about a week.