iCloud

Apple’s system status webpage indicates that the company has resolved an outage affecting “iCloud Account and Sign In” services. Apple doesn’t indicate how widespread this outage was, but it does say that the issue was affecting users for 36 hours.

A variety of Apple’s iCloud services are experiencing outages this morning, including Calendar, Contacts, iCloud Drive, and more. Apple has confirmed the outages on its System status webpage.

When Apple announced its Apple One service bundles, it immediately raised a query for many: those with different Apple IDs for iCloud and Apple Music. Would the system cope with that situation, allowing them to take advantage of the savings?

Apple’s longest-serving employee, Chris Espinosa, has just confirmed that this will be fine …

Update: Apple says the issue is now fixed and users should be able to access iCloud again. You can read the original article below.

Some users are unable to access iCloud services this afternoon. The issue affects the iCloud website as well as backup tools, calendar, and photos. Apple has confirmed the outage, but there’s no timetable for a fix.

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Update: Apple says the issue is now fixed and users should be able to access iCloud again.

iCloud seems to be down today for some users this evening, at least that’s what people are reporting on Twitter and Apple Support Community. Apple has confirmed the outage as well, but there is no timetable for a fix.

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The FBI has obtained a copy of iCloud data belonging to Senator Richard Burr, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, after serving Apple with a warrant compelling it to hand over the data. This likely includes an iCloud backup of Burr’s iPhone.

The FBI used the data in order to obtain a subsequent warrant to seize Burr’s iPhone as part of an investigation into whether the senator broke the law to profit from the coronavirus crisis …

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I love iCloud Drive, and I’ve been using it as my primary file storage method for a couple of years at this point. It took off for me once Apple debuted the Files app in iOS 11. Once Apple added the ability to sync the desktop and documents folder in macOS Sierra, I had true files happiness. Even without folder sharing (which is finally available), I had been using iCloud Drive for 99% of my file sync needs. The only thing I am not using is the legacy shared folders I have in Dropbox. My biggest complaint about iCloud Drive is that the deleted file restoration pales in comparison to Dropbox.
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I’ve been a customer of 1Password for as long as I can remember. I love being able to have a dedicated application/service for password management, rotating one-time passwords, storing secure information like social security numbers. I know I have a dedicated place to manage all my data in a place I know is safe and easy to access. On the other hand, iCloud Keychain works well and is built-in on all my devices. Is it time for Apple to release a dedicated app for iCloud Keychain, so it’s easier to manage and interact with that data?

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A search warrant issued on behalf of Homeland Security Investigations provides a glimpse into how Apple detects and reports child abuse images uploaded to iCloud or sent via its email servers, while protecting the privacy of innocent customers.

The first stage of detection is automated, using a system common to most tech companies…

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Doubt has been cast on the story that Apple gave in to FBI pressure on iCloud backups, and abandoned plans to switch to end-to-end encryption for these.

In particular, it appears that the timing behind the claim may not be right…

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iCloud is a vital aspect of the Apple experience. When you get a new iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple TV, signing into iCloud is one of the first steps. iCloud is now a crucial part of managing documents, photos, and videos as well. iCloud isn’t perfect, though. Last year, we saw the announcement and delay of iCloud folder sharing. This feature is something Google Drive and Dropbox have had for years. There are still random bugs with contact syncing if the person’s picture is too large. I’ve been thinking about how I want to see iCloud evolve, so I’ve come up with my iCloud 2020 wishlist.
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A 22-year-old Londoner has been convicted of attempting to blackmail Apple out of $100,000 worth of iTunes cards after falsely claiming he had access to 319 million iCloud accounts.

He variously threatened to sell access to the account details, and to reset all the accounts…

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I love iCloud Drive. I love how integrated it is into macOS and iOS, and I long ago moved most of my documents away from Dropbox (except for Shared Folders). I am always looking for new ways to back up my photos, though. Since I keep an active Microsoft Office subscription, I thought I would use the 1TB of storage as another place to upload my photos. When I was using the OneDrive app, I noticed it had a Personal Vault section that I thought would be a great addition to iCloud Drive for storing sensitive files. Microsoft announced it back in June, and it rolled out worldwide in October. As I started using the OneDrive iPhone app, I quickly began to wonder why Apple hasn’t created a secure iCloud Drive folder with Touch ID and Face ID support.
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