Roger Fingas
Apple's TestFlight beta-testing platform for iOS has been inaccessible to developers since late Wednesday, with no indication thus far of when the service might be restored.
Trying to install apps through the official TestFlight app, for instance, will trigger an error message saying the service is "currently unavailable." An exact timeframe is difficult to pinpoint, as Apple has not updated its System Status page to reflect any mention of the problem. Likewise, Apple has yet to say when TestFlight might return to normal.
Developers were also impacted yesterday by iTunes Connect downtime that ran for several hours. Connect is the portal through which iOS and Mac developers manage their titles on the App Store, and through which labels, studios, publishers, and other parties control media published on the iTunes Store and the iBooks Store.
The TestFlight glitch appears to be affecting developers worldwide. Without it, app creators are unable to seed new or updated betas to registered testers.
Both TestFlight and iTunes Connect occasionally suffer periodic outages, but rarely for as much time as this week outside of scheduled maintenance or holiday hours.
Charles Martin
Malcolm Owen
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
Wesley Hilliard
4 Comments
In these matters Apple is no different and no better than other tech companies. We all know shit happens but don’t act like it didn’t. If you have an outage, tell us. You don’t have to tell us what happened, just that it did and you are working on it. Is that too much to ask? I subscribe to Charter cable tv service right now. Last Saturday night, the night of the big pay-per-view fight, Charter’s entire network went down around 08:30PM in the St. Louis, MO area. Facebook and Twitter were lit up with people screaming bloody murder. You know what we heard from Charter? Not one damn word, not a peep. The customer service lines were all busy and no one could get through. Never did hear an explanation, let alone an apology, from the company.
This story has the wrong status page linked. The correct one is at https://developer.apple.com/system-status/ It didn't display the correct status until sometime today, but was correct when this article went live.
[quote name="lkrupp" url="/t/186168/testflight-beta-testing-platform-down-since-wednesday-developers-say#post_2720939"]In these matters Apple is no different and no better than other tech companies. We all know shit happens but don’t act like it didn’t. If you have an outage, tell us. You don’t have to tell us what happened, just that it did and you are working on it. Is that too much to ask? I subscribe to Charter cable tv service right now. Last Saturday night, the night of the big pay-per-view fight, Charter’s entire network went down around 08:30PM in the St. Louis, MO area. Facebook and Twitter were lit up with people screaming bloody murder. You know what we heard from Charter? Not one damn word, not a peep. The customer service lines were all busy and no one could get through. Never did hear an explanation, let alone an apology, from the company. [/quote]When this happened with AT&T(U verse) they let people know, but it also happened to 1/4 the country and a couple days.
The status site listed in the above article is incorrect, TestFlight is on their Developer System Status page and not the general consumer site. You will see the outage listed here: https://developer.apple.com/system-status/