Apple Maps suffers widespread search and directions outage [UPDATED]

By

Apple Maps outage
Save us, Google Maps!
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

Good luck finding your way with Apple Maps today.

The service is suffering a widespread outage that is preventing many users from using search or directions. The problem seems to be affecting iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac users around the world, but Apple says all services are operating normally.

UPDATE: As of Friday afternoon, whatever the earlier problem was, this service appears to be working normally again.

Apple Maps has bounced back from its embarrassing introduction in 2012. It is now a reliable and trusted service for millions of Apple users. But not today. Many are unable to use Apple Maps for search or directions.

Apple Maps outage

“Directions Not Available,” reads the error message many Maps users are seeing right now. “Route information is not available at the moment.”

In some cases, searching for locations doesn’t work, either. I got “no results” when using my iPad Pro to search for “Times Square,” as you can see in the screenshot above.

The problem is not limited to specific countries or regions; users all around the world are affected. One Apple data center employee told AppleInsider that “nothing obvious” is going on at the moment. The company’s System Status page shows that all services should be functioning normally.

It’s not yet clear what’s causing these issues at the moment, then. Some users have also reported problems with the App Store, but these don’t appear to be anywhere near as widespread; members of the Cult of Mac team can download apps just fine.

We’ll update you when we know more.

Newsletters

Daily round-ups or a weekly refresher, straight from Cult of Mac to your inbox.

  • The Weekender

    The week's best Apple news, reviews and how-tos from Cult of Mac, every Saturday morning. Our readers say: "Thank you guys for always posting cool stuff" -- Vaughn Nevins. "Very informative" -- Kenly Xavier.