
Apple App Store STATUS_CODE_ERROR causes service problems - wolfhumble
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6868907
======
jgrahamc
I can't commit code at CloudFlare because we use two-factor auth for the VPN
(and everything else) and non-Apple apps on my iPhone are asking for my iTunes
password. Tried airplane mode and apps simply don't load at all!

Total app-ocalypse.

Why do apps need me to be authenticated against iTunes to work at all?

~~~
anmilo
Curious, which apps seem to be affected? Anecdotally, I hadn't seen any issues
on my phone this morning with anything asking for a password, but on my laptop
I did see a login prompt when i woke it from sleep.

~~~
jgrahamc
All non-Apple apps. So far have tested Twitter, Hipchat, BBC Weather, Wickr,
Authy, Google Authenticator, YouTube and Citymapper.

~~~
tombrossman
While this comes too late to help you right now, I recommend looking at
running a 2FA app on your laptop or desktop like this -
[https://github.com/gbraad/gauth](https://github.com/gbraad/gauth) so that you
are not in this situation again.

Either that or grab a cheap Android handset and use it as a backup. The
standard 2FA app on Android needs nothing more than occasional network
connectivity to keep the clock in sync. You don't even need a Google account,
the app is on FDroid.

Cloudflare is huge and many of us rely on it, so I hope you can easily avoid
this predicament in the future - good luck!

~~~
pilif
_> I recommend looking at running a 2FA app on your laptop or desktop_

I very strongly recommend against doing this: If you do that, you are giving
up a lot of security provided by that second factor as the malware you are
using 2FA to protect against now also has access to the keys used to create
the 2FA token.

~~~
tombrossman
This is a fair point of course, but running it on a second laptop is probably
more secure than running it as a mobile app. You wouldn't run it on the same
machine you are pushing production code out from, it could be a personal
laptop with no access to company systems. I didn't make this point clear in my
original comment though.

------
wolfhumble
No mention of this on
[https://www.apple.com/support/systemstatus/](https://www.apple.com/support/systemstatus/)
though . . .

[Update 15:02 11-03-2015, GMT+1]

* iTunes Store - All users are affected

* iCloud Account & Sign In - All users were affected

* iCloud Mail - All users were affected

~~~
epaga
This is what I think is the bigger news and deserves far bigger pressure than
the downtime. Server downtime can always occur, but then you need to inform
your paying customers (such as developers whose apps are counting on your
services!) what the issue is. If you are paranoid and don't want to reveal
information (for example if it is due to a hack of some kind), you AT LEAST
should say something along the lines of "we know there are issues, we are on
it."...

But it is absolutely unacceptable and inexcusable to have hours of downtime
and have BOTH your end-user and developer status page still be completely
green across the board.

Infuriating!

~~~
wolfhumble
Tried to contact Apple via:
[https://www.apple.com/support/contact/](https://www.apple.com/support/contact/)
(As mentioned on the bottom of the page: "If you are experiencing an issue not
listed here, contact support"), but that does not seem to work.

~~~
bulkan
I keep hitting this error
[http://i.imgur.com/D6TWBuF.png](http://i.imgur.com/D6TWBuF.png)

------
kalefranz
This is just another example of Apple's severe structural deficit on their
cloud engineering teams. From a user perspective, Apple's backend engineering
is in desperate need of a management shake-up.

~~~
urda
> This is just another example of Apple's severe structural deficit on their
> cloud engineering teams.

Apple rarely has infrastructure issues this large. Mind detailing your "other
examples" for evidence?

~~~
golergka
iCloud is widely considered to be troublesome by many different developers.

------
ceeK
I'm wondering if Apple will, at least, issue iOS developers with an extra day
on their membership.

More notable is how many apps, and thus businesses and individual developers,
this is affecting in terms of lost sales.

I doubt Apple will compensate in that case though.

------
B-Scan
It looks that they are losing $2,054,794 per hour of downtime [1].

[1]
[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2989656/Apple...](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2989656/Apple-
s-iTunes-App-Store-Users-unable-download-songs-apps.html)

~~~
mikeash
That assumes that failed sales during an outage are lost forever, not merely
delayed.

I've heard from various third-party developers that store downtimes (of
reasonable lengths) tend to be followed by corresponding sales spikes, so that
ultimately nothing is lost. I have no idea if that applies here, but it's
reasonable to think it would at least partially.

~~~
antaviana
I'd say that a sizeable part of App Store sales or downloads are impulsive
purchases: i.e. you think you need something or are in the mood of playing
some game and you can't resist hitting the button. If you can't make that
impulsive purchase now, you tend to forget about it until you are in the right
mood again. My take is that a very high amount of sales has been lost, not
deferred.

------
n9com
CNBC are reporting Apple made the following statement:

“We apologize to our customers experiencing problems with iTunes and other
services this morning. The cause was an internal DNS error at Apple. We’re
working to make all of the services available to customers as soon as
possible, and we thank everyone for their patience.”

------
oscarhong
Seems like DDoS toward the US?

[http://map.ipviking.com/](http://map.ipviking.com/)

~~~
knd775
Here's something that I've always wondered: Where do they get this data?

~~~
lepht
In this case, at least, honeypots. From the linked page:

> Every second, Norse collects and analyzes live threat intelligence from
> darknets in hundreds of locations in over 40 countries. The attacks shown
> are based on a small subset of live flows against the Norse honeypot
> infrastructure, representing actual worldwide cyber attacks by bad actors.

------
laumars
I think this is as good an illustration as any about the benefits of a
decentralised ecosystem.

------
melling
Siri isn't very helpful this morning either. I don't think she can talk to the
mothership.

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chtoric
they updated the status page
[http://www.apple.com/support/systemstatus/](http://www.apple.com/support/systemstatus/)

~~~
ponytech
"iTunes Store Service is unavailable for all users." Wow, how much will that
cost to Apple!

~~~
oneeyedpigeon
Considerably less than ($revenue_per_minute * $downtime) would have you
believe because few people are going to attempt to buy an album, have their
purchase fail, then never attempt to repurchase it. True, some number will use
another online seller, but I suspect they're in a tiny minority.

------
sbuk
My Apple TV has just randomly rebooted. Wondering if that has anything to do
with this...

~~~
Corrado
My Roku box wouldn't connect to Netflix this morning either. I wonder if there
is something else going on here. :/ Maybe there is a problem with AWS or the
internets in general.

~~~
revscat
steampowered.com is also down.

------
bottled_poe
I can hardly fathom how many sales this downtime is costing Apple and
developers.

~~~
s_dev
The entire business model of IAAS depends on the idea that the infrastructure
is 24/7 accessible. The loss of sales during this time is nothing compared to
the loss of confidence in the company will have. Measuring the damage will be
an interesting discussion.

------
mrmondo
Everything seems fine here in Melbourne, Australia. I am disappointed that
their status page doesn't reflect the issues that it seems many are facing, I
struggle with this a lot with Microsofts cloud offerings (o365 etc...) which
go down or are partially unavailable every week - Yes you heard that right -
weekly.

The model of trust with vendors, large and small alike has its downsides and
the widespread impact of centrally authenticated systems is one of them. Is
there an answer? I don't know but it certainly comes down to convenience vs
trust in many cases.

~~~
spacehunt
I'm also in Melbourne at the moment (on BigPond Cable), and I can't even
download Xcode 6.2 because of, you know, STATUS_CODE_ERROR.

------
japaget
See articles in Mac Rumors ([http://www.macrumors.com/2015/03/11/app-store-
itunes-connect...](http://www.macrumors.com/2015/03/11/app-store-itunes-
connect-down-march/)) and The Next Web
([http://thenextweb.com/apple/2015/03/11/the-apple-app-
store-i...](http://thenextweb.com/apple/2015/03/11/the-apple-app-store-is-
having-problems-and-itunes-connect-is-down/)).

------
dotbat
Glad I saw this—having problem restoring an iPad and I could not for the life
of me figure out what was going on. Now, this iPad has to leave the country in
about 30 minutes...

------
cgriswald
I was getting this error when trying to update my apps through the App Store.
After entering in my password it shows in red letters under the Apple ID entry
field "STATUS_CODE_ERROR". That was a couple hours ago.

I just tried again and it said, in red letters, in the same spot, "plist
parsing error". Clicking "sign in" returns these errors apparently
interchangably.

------
wolfhumble
Apple Multiple Store Services Working Again:

[https://www.apple.com/support/systemstatus/](https://www.apple.com/support/systemstatus/)

[http://i.imgur.com/O7lDwx4.png](http://i.imgur.com/O7lDwx4.png)

------
fatolutoye
iTunes Connect is down as well. I've been unable to login.

------
dang
Also
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9186162](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9186162).

------
mathgeek
iTunes and App Store are both unable to connect across any of my devices this
morning here in the US. Very strange.

------
peteretep
AppleTV can't rent films :-(

------
apexkid
iCloud is down as well. I am not able to edit my files. :(

------
lridley
my macbook has come up with with this STATUS_CODE_ERROR when trying to log in
to App Store... when will it be back to normal or how can i fix it???

------
arun_chopra
Why today app store is not working??

------
arun_chopra
Why app store is not working today? I am unable to download the apps from app
store.

------
WillyNourson
We should seek some news from Akamaï

------
nskfnkdsf
i couldnot download and update apps in iphone.

------
chappi42
monoculture ....

------
nskfnkdsf
i cannot update and download new apps. wht should i need to do solve it?

------
task_queue
Welcome to The Cloud

------
meragrin
You're just holding it wrong.

------
VeejayRampay
Computers, how do they work?

------
spydum
perhaps those west coast guys arent awake yet? too busy recovering from their
launch parties.

------
deuteronimi
the ONE day I want to buy Frozen from the iTunes store...

Thanks apple, for dashing the hopes and dreams of this twenty-something, now
bawling their eyes out and screaming for Frozen.

~~~
saiya-jin
download torrent now, buy later (ideally voting with your wallet by choosing
another seller)

------
gvr
HEADS UP TO IOS DEVS: You may want to update your iPhone to iOS 8.2. You'll
need to download the new XCode to deploy the app after that but it's not
possible at the moment due to STATUS_CODE_ERROR.

