Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Mobile
  3. News

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Apple’s App Store got out of the wrong side of bed this morning

By

ipad ios app store
bloomua/123rf
Hoping to download Spotify to your iPhone? Is Angry Birds good enough? Apple’s App Store was down for around six hours this morning with an interesting problem — searching for an app returned completely unrelated results.

Apple Offer: Trade up to a new iPhone for as low as $10 a month

Recommended Videos

The issue has been confirmed by Apple’s System Status website, which mentions that there was an issue in which “all users were affected.” The issue has since been resolved, and everything seems to be up and running now.

Related

It’s important to mention that not all searches were affected — for example, while it seems as though searching for Spotify returned unrelated results, searching for Facebook and Twitter did not seem to do so. Still, it was enough to send Twitter into an outrage.

Just when I need updates, @AppStore is down :( #itunesdown #appstoredown @AppleOfficial

— pwiksell (@pwiksell) November 18, 2015

The App Store is failing in several countries. Search functionality gone down the tubes in UK. C'mon @AppStore get it fixed.

— Gareth Morgan (@Gareth_D_Morgan) May 5, 2016

In addition to the issues with the App Store search results, users found that App Store links also weren’t working — when a user clicked on a link to an app, it would instead lead to a page with an error message.

The whole debacle is unusual for Apple — sure, the company has had issues with the App Store in the past, but to have such widespread problems that affect so many people isn’t something that often happens for the firm. And while this issue probably isn’t that important, especially considering the fact that it has been resolved, problems like this certainly aren’t good for customer satisfaction or the firm’s image.

Developers have separately expressed dissatisfaction with the App Store in the past, saying that its design makes it too hard for customers to find their desired apps. Not only that, but it seems as though Apple lets developers pay for top spots in search results, meaning that developers who have more money can pay to get seen by more people, and that small developers can rarely find a large customer base.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Christian de Looper
Christian de Looper
Contributor
Christian’s interest in technology began as a child in Australia, when he stumbled upon a computer at a garage sale that he…
Apple Music just got a cool feature you won’t find on Spotify
Apple Music Replay screenshots via Apple.

The Apple Music Replay feature gives you a rundown of which songs and albums you've listened to on the service every year. But now, it's getting a makeover that will make it more handy. Rundowns are being offered every month, allowing you to see your favorite tunes during the past 30-plus days — as well as how often you've listened to those titles.

The new monthly Apple Music Replay feature is only available through the web on the Apple Music Replay website, which is unfortunate, but unsurprising. The annual Apple Music Replay launches every December and is also a web-only feature.

Read more
Apple is updating one of the oldest apps on your iPhone
The Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max and iPhone 14 Pro showing the screens.

Apple iPhone 14 Pro (left) and iPhone 15 Pro Max Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Apple has updated one of its original iPhone apps, the Clock app, in the first iOS 17.4 beta. Specifically, the update includes a small, but significant change to the Stopwatch function.

Read more
A big change is coming to the iPhone — but only for some people
A person holding the Apple iPhone 15 Plus.

Big changes are coming to the iPhone this year. On January 25, Apple announced a slew of changes coming to iOS — including the ability to sideload applications and download apps from alternative/third-party app stores.

These are things you've been able to do on Android for years, but have long been absent from the iPhone. The Play Store is the primary way to download apps on Android, but you can also manually download APK files from any website that has them available. Similarly, you can use alternative app stores like the Samsung Galaxy Store and Amazon App Store. When iOS 17.4 releases later this year, iPhone users will finally be able to do similar things.

Read more