Is iTunes down? How to check iTunes server status for potential issues

Are you experiencing issues when trying to connect to iTunes from your iPhone, iPad or Mac? While it could be due to local connectivity issues, it’s also possible that iTunes is having issues with its servers or systems. While there’s little you can do to fix the issue if iTunes is down, there is a way to monitor the status so you know when it’s working again. Here, we show you how to check whether iTunes is having server issues.

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Is iTunes down? Check Apple’s System Status

The first step in checking whether iTunes is down is to head to Apple’s own System Status webpage. As long as you’ve got an active connection to the internet (if you don’t, that could be the reason you’re having issues!), the Apple System Status page should give you the most up-to-date information not only about the status of iTunes, but also iCloud, the App Store, Apple Music and all other Apple-powered services.

As well as keeping you up to date on the status of Apple’s services, the System Status webpage also gives you a heads up about any services with planned maintenance work, along with a report of any recently resolved issues in any of its services. It’s a handy website to check when you’re having connectivity issues as if the site is reporting no issues, chances are it’s something to do with your device or connection to the internet.

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Is iTunes down? Check crowdsourced status site

Apple’s System Status webpage isn’t perfect, however. We’ve had iTunes connectivity issues in the past while Apple’s System Status site suggests that all is well. This could be down to several reasons: the outage could be localised, or it could be that the website only checks the service status every 5/10/30 mins and is yet to be updated. But what are users to do in that situation?

Thankfully, there are a myriad of third-party service status websites online with many relying on crowdsourced data to offer the most up-to-date status information. Our go-to service status site is Down Detector, which offers not only the current status of all Apple services but a number of services, from Steam to PSN and even individual games.

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Down Detector also provide you with a graph detailing outage reports from the past 24 hours, and even an outage map to see whether you’re in an effected area. You can even leave comments so others know they’re not alone with their connectivity issues. The best part? There’s even a free iOS app for easy access to the status of a wide range of services.

If you don’t like the look of Down Detector then the aptly named Is It Down Right Now? is another great option, although it’s more for websites than services, making it a bit fiddlier to check the status of the likes of iTunes and iCloud. Unlike Down Detector, Is It Down Right Now? offers the current status of websites rather than services, allowing you to check whether websites like iTunes (http://itunes.apple.com) are down. It’ll offer a detailed rundown of how the site has been recently performing, along with information on the last time the service went down.

Of course, if both Apple’s own System Status page and crowdsourced status sites both suggest that all is running properly, you might need to visit an Apple Store to see if the problem is hardware related. Before you head down to the Genius Bar, it might be worth updating your iPhone, iPad or Mac to the latest version of iOS or macOS to see if that fixes any issues.  

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