Apple suffers App Store, iCloud, FaceTime outage

Apple had a bad day on Tuesday, with users reporting iCloud email outages, along with App Store purchase problems and FaceTime issues.

On Apple's forums, iCloud users reported that their emails had vanished from iCloud, leaving their inboxes completely empty. 

Apple later acknowledged the problem on its iCloud status page, and claimed that it was working to resolve the problem "ASAP". At the company's earnings call on 24 July, Apple announced that iCloud has 150 million registered users. 

Users also began to complain that they were unable to make purchases from Apple's App Stores, and that iMessages and FaceTime were experiencing some hiccups. 

iOS users were having trouble sending iMessages, receiving multiple messages at once, and some messages were randomly deleting, reports 9to5Mac. This is the second time users have been experiencing problems with iMessage this week. 

iCloud email also experienced a serious outage earlier this year in May, when the online mail service was out of action for up to 15 million users twice in a week. 

On 30 June, Apple discontinued its MobileMe service, replacing it with iCloud. The recent outages are a sign of concern, as many users have migrated their online accounts from MobileMe to iCloud, and rely on the service for backup and as a cloud storage solution.