Navigating the Fallout: How Apple Downtime Causes iPhone App Issues

Read update

• Apple Service Outages May Be Resolved

It’s not just you; thousands of iPhone owners awoke to non-functioning apps this morning. Apple Game Center and Apple Cash service outages appear to be responsible for the problem. Other Apple services may also be experiencing issues.

UPDATE: 2024/08/15 13:16 EST BY ANDREW HEINZMAN

Apple Service Outages May Be Resolved

It seems that Apple has resolved both its Game Center and Apple Cash outages. We’ll keep an eye out for additional problems and update this article if any arise.

We began seeing reports of random iOS app crashes at 9:30 AM EST on August 15th. Impacted users took to Reddit and Twitter to discuss the situation—a smart choice, as the community quickly identified outages on Apple’s System Status page.

Affected users who did not check social media (or the Apple System Status page) likely attempted to resolve the app-crashing problem themselves. This is evidenced by increased traffic to How-To Geek’s iOS app troubleshooting guide .

Thankfully, the Game Center outage seems to be resolved. But the Apple Cash outage cropped up while we were preparing to publish this story—its impact is currently unknown, though it will probably interrupt some Apple Cash transactions.

It’s worth noting that the Game Center outage affected several non-gaming apps, including iMessage. These apps tap into Apple’s gaming services, but they shouldn’t crash when Game Center is down. It’s an odd situation that may raise questions from concerned users, especially if outages continue throughout the day.

Service outages are Apple’s responsibility and cannot be resolved from the iPhone. Those affected by today’s outages should not attempt to troubleshoot any problems in iOS. Just go on with your day and wait for Apple to get things fixed.

We will update this story as new information comes to light. Apple has not published a statement related to today’s outages, though it may do so after the outages are resolved.

Also read: