An ongoing iCloud Backup service outage has left a small number of iCloud users unable to restore their devices. At the time of this post, the outage has lasted almost 2 straight days.
Apple’s System Status page shows the outage is affecting 1% of users. The iCloud Backup service has been down since around 11 a.m. Eastern time on Tuesday. While 1% may sound like a low number, Apple’s iOS install base runs into the millions, meaning hundreds of thousands of users can be affected by the outage.
Customers that are affected by the outage are seeing the restore process get stuck while restoring. It’s been reported that iCloud backups can still be made from an iOS device, but the data will not be able to be restored until the outage is resolved.
MacRumors reports buyers of new iPhone and iPad devices are being advised by Apple employees to setup their recently purchased devices as new devices rather than restoring from a backup.
iCloud Backup allows users to backup their device settings, app data, and other information to the cloud, offering the ability to restore the data in case of a system failure, or for restoring a previous device’s data to a newly purchased iOS device. iCloud handles backups for iPhones, iPads, iPod touch devices, and Apple Watch devices.
Apple has not announced what the issues are that is causing the outage, or when it will be resolved.
