Apple's iCloud services again hit by global outage

The iCloud suite of services experienced an outage Tuesday morning, marking yet another period of downtime for Apple's cloud-based operations.

Update: Later on Tuesday, Apple's iCloud System Status page was updated to reflect downtime for account and sign-in, Apple ID creation, the iTunes Store, and Game Center. Some of the outages spanned more than 5 hours.

The outage appeared to affect a number of iCloud-based services, including Mail, Find My iPhone, and Find My Friends. Users attempting to log in to iCloud.com were also met with a "Connection Error" message that explained that "iCloud encountered an error while trying to connect to the server."

The issues appeared to be worldwide as of Tuesday morning, as readers from around the globe reached out to AppleInsider to detail their own issues.

Despite the multitude of issues, Apple's iCloud System Status website claimed that all iCloud services were online and operational. No downtime was noted by the company.

Issues with iCloud uptime are not new, but the company has seen a number of service outages in recent weeks. Just last Friday, its iCloud-based email service saw a 27-hour outage before operation returned to normal.

A week prior, Apple's iMessage and FaceTime services saw two outages in a span of just a few days. Apple's iCloud System Status page revealed that the problem affected "some users."

12 Ways to Get the Most Out of Apple's iCloud

t's been a year and a half since Apple launched its online storage system, iCloud, to the public.

More recently people have been talking about the storage system's shortcomings, calling it "broken."

Every user with an Apple ID gets 5 GB of storage for free to back up apps and settings from their iPhone, iPad, or iPod. The service also syncs your photos, documents, and email with your Mac and mobile devices.

The idea behind iCloud is to be able to access all your stuff no matter what Apple device you're using.

But while iCloud is baked into all Apple products, it can be a bit confusing to use and get the most out of it. Here are some great tips to make sure you're getting the most out of Apple's cloud service.

Can’t install iCloud on a Mac: How to get iCloud

What to do if you can’t install iCloud on your Mac


iCloud is an excellent feature that people with multiple Apple products really should take advantage of. Essentially it is Apple’s take on cloud storage that syncs music, photos, calendars, contacts and documents to all of your Apple devices. 

However, iCloud isn’t so much an independent application for Macs, rather a feature built into the new Mac OS. So in order to get iCloud installed on your Mac you need to completely upgrade your Mac’s operating system to OS X 10.7.4 or later.

Apple has a guide on How to Upgrade to Mountain Lion on its website. Follow the intsructions on this site and you will be able to upgrade your Mac and in turn use iCloud.

Here is Apple’s list of Apple's requirements to be able to upgrade to OS X Mountain Lion:
 

        Your Mac must be one of the following models:

        iMac (Mid 2007 or newer)

        MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer)

        MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer)

        MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer)

        Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer)

        Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer)

        Xserve (Early 2009)                      

Find out if your current Mac qualifies by clicking the Apple icon at the top left of your screen, choosing About This Mac, then clicking More Info.

Lion or the lastest Snow Leopard:

While you have the About This Mac window open, check what version of OS X your Mac is running.

If you're running Lion, you’re ready to update to Mountain Lion. If you're running Snow Leopard, click the Apple icon and choose Software Update to install version 10.6.8.

OS X Leopard:
 

If you’re running OS X Leopard and would like to upgrade to OS X Mountain Lion, first you’ll need to upgrade to OS X Snow Leopard. You can purchase OS X Snow Leopard for £13.99 online via the Apple Online Store.

How to Connect to iCloud From a PC

Although the iCloud service was created by Apple and synchronizes data across Apple devices, you can still connect to your iCloud account with a Windows PC. Since iCloud is an online service, you can connect to it from your computer by navigating to the iCloud website with a Web browser. You can also connect to iCloud from your PC with the iCloud Control Panel for Windows, available for download directly from the Apple website.

 

USE YOUR WEB BROWSER

 

STEP 1  Navigate to the iCloud website (link in Resources).

 

STEP 2  Enter your Apple ID login credentials in the appropriate fields.

 

STEP 3  Press the "Enter" key or click the arrow in the Password field to enter your iCloud account.

 

INSTALL THE ICLOUD CONTROL PANEL
 

STEP 1  Navigate to the iCloud Control Panel for Windows page and click the "Download" button (link in Resources).

 

STEP 2  Click the "Save File" button on the pop-up box to download the software to your PC.

 

STEP 3  Double-click the iCloud setup file and follow the instructions to install the program.

 

STEP 4  Start the iCloud program after the installation is complete.

 

STEP 5  Enter your Apple ID login information and click "Sign In" to connect to your iCloud account.

 

STEP 6  Select the check box next to each iCloud service that you want to access -- such as Photostream.

Google is keeping iCloud’s promises

Apple was incredibly proud of iCloud when it was first announced. The service, which promises to keep users’ documents, photos, and other data in sync across devices, was described by Apple’s executives as “magical” more than once during its unveiling. Finally there was a synchronization service that would, according to Apple, “just work.” But that was 2011 and now, two years later, we know that the only dependable aspect of iCloud is its utter lack of dependability. Despite all of its promise — and the promises, perceived or otherwise, made on its behalf — iCloud is broken.

 

Now it’s Google’s turn to make the same promises on behalf of its own services. The company has developed tools and services to keep users’ photos, game data, documents, and other data in sync across devices — and it’s doing so for Android, iOS, and the Web, not just its own products.

 

Google recently combined the free storage it offers to Drive, Gmail, and Google+ users into a single 15-gigabyte-large “bucket.” This will allow users to keep their documents, photos, and email archives in sync across all of their devices without worrying about arbitrary limits placed on each service. Data is no longer attached to specific Google services, it’s simply attached to Google.

 

And, unlike iCloud, Google isn’t simply storing this data and making it available on other devices. The company announced at the Google I/O developer conference today that photos shared with Google+ can now be edited and enhanced, as well as backed up, with Google-built tools. Google Keep allows Drive users to make their notes and lists available and editable across devices.

 

Then there are the new games services Google announced today, which promise to keep saved data and facilitate multiplayer gaming via Google’s cloud. This is similar to Apple’s Game Center, a multiplayer gaming service that sometimes works across the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, and iCloud, which also promised to keep game data synchronized across devices. The difference between the two? Google’s services aren’t restricted to its own devices.

 

Apple developed iCloud for people who want to keep data in sync across their iOS and Mac devices. Besides rudimentary photo-sync support on Windows PCs, iCloud doesn’t allow any data in or out from, say, the Web or Android. Anyone wanting to make their data available on all of their devices without being restricted to Apple’s products must turn to other solutions, and that doesn’t seem to be changing any time soon.

 

Google is different. Despite operating the world’s most popular mobile operating system, Google is keeping data in sync across iOS and the Web instead of restricting its services to the Android ecosystem. Apple develops its best applications for its own devices; some of the best Google apps are found on the iPhone. Google seems to view data the same way it views software — it’s better when it’s everywhere.

 

Apple failed to deliver on the promise of iCloud. The service is buggy at best and a “developer’s worst nightmare” at worst — and that’s before you consider the lock-in, which is typical Apple but still frustrating. Google is now making similar promises, and doing so without the restrictions inherent to iCloud even if it were operating perfectly. And, given Google’s experience with managing massive amounts of data and shipping online services that, unlike Apple’s, actually work, it’s easy to believe that Google can fix this problem better than Apple has.

 

That doesn’t mean that Google will succeed where Apple has failed, however. The company’s executives attempted to demonstrate some of the new games services in front of all the developers and members of the press gathered at the Moscone Center; they couldn’t get it to work.