Apple’s Developer Center is where it keeps the documentation and resources third-party developers need to make their apps. If a registered developer needs to download the latest iOS or OS X build, they go to the Dev Center. It’s an invaluable resource Apple provides for $100 per year to each person in its developer program.
When the Dev Center goes down for maintenance, it usually only lasts for a few minutes. But for some unknown reason, the Dev Center has been down for well over 24 hours. Developers are scratching their heads on Twitter, and Apple hasn’t said anything.
“This site is undergoing maintenance for an extended period today,” reads Apple’s splash page. “Thanks for your patience.” Developer.apple.com still works, but you can’t login. More importantly, developers can’t download iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks betas until Apple brings everything back online.
Reports started coming in earlier Thursday morning about the outage, and the portal has stayed down for over 30 hours.
Here’s what some people are saying on Twitter:
Within a week of beginning iOS development and working on my second app, Apple’s Dev Center goes down for 28 hours (and counting). My bad.
— Patrick (@ptraughber) July 19, 2013
i could have got an app through review that would alert you when the apple dev center is back up in the time it’s been down — Jeremy Schoenherr (@jeremysomething) July 19, 2013
Apple Dev Center is out for more than a day now! Wondering whats happening behind the scenes — Krishnaprasad J (@renderman47) July 19, 2013
pain. in. ass. RT @jozeran: Pretty astonished that we’re now beyond 24hrs of Apple iOS Dev Center maintenance downtime. #HugeInconvenience — Chris Courtney (@designhawg) July 19, 2013
Anyone want to place bets on whether the dev center will be down long enough that someone will ask about it during Apple’s earnings call? — Tom Harrington (@atomicbird) July 19, 2013
Dev Center has been down so long I’m considering Blackberry development. Send help.
— Justin Williams (@justin) July 19, 2013
This well-known developer called Apple to see what’s up:
Just talked to WWDR on the phone: no ETA. — Craig Hockenberry (@chockenberry) July 19, 2013
Even the creator of Temple Run is pissed:
Man, I really hope the Apple Dev Center comes back online soon. Down almost 2 days. I need it now! — Keith Shepherd (@kshepherd) July 19, 2013
Apple’s developer forum, the only place Apple allows developers to talk about confidential stuff in its upcoming software, has also been down for over 24 hours. Hacker News picked up the outage about four hours ago, with one commenter nothing that “it’s also not possible to provision new devices or update expired certificates.”
The worst part about the dev center downtime isn’t the downtime. It’s the complete lack of communication from Apple.
— Kyle S. (@optshiftk) July 19, 2013
The iOS Dev center is on day 2 of being down…. When did apple stop caring about it’s developers?
— Chris Moyer (@kopertop) July 19, 2013
I wonder how long it will take for Apple to get rid of the linen texture background on the dev center maintenance page.
— Joel Housman (@joelhousman) July 19, 2013
And Microsoft to the rescue:
If you’re having trouble reaching the Apple Dev Center today, we welcome you to check out our developer tools: https://t.co/QGR3GFOetE
— Microsoft Developer (@msdev) July 19, 2013
We’ve asked Apple to comment on why the Dev Center has been down for so long. We’ll update this article if we get a reply.
Update: As of about 4:20 p.m. PST, Apple added the following message to its maintenance page:
