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MobileMe Email: Down for the Count?

Thursday, July 24th, 2008 at 11:25 AM - by

MobileMe, Apple's replacement for its .Mac service, launched with stability issues, and now some subscribers have been without email for nearly a week thanks to server problems. According to Apple, a MobileMe email server began experiencing "serious issues" on July 18, and as July 24 the company is still trying to resolve the problem.

Apple is claiming the email issue is impacting about one percent of its MobileMe subscribers. Those subscribers aren't able to send, receive, or view email through the MobileMe Web site or through email applications.

Some subscribers suffering from the inability to access their MobileMe email have found that at least some of their messages are still available. One TMO reader said "Oddly, my Sent Folder on MobileMe only has five emails: one from 2005, one from 2006, two from 2007, and one sent today to test the service. I wonder where the rest went?"

So far, Apple has been characteristically quiet about the problem, but is confirming that there is a problem. Subscribers that check MobileMe's system status will see a statement from Apple that reads "1% of MobileMe members cannot access MobileMe Mail. Service will be restored ASAP. We apologize for this service interruption and are working hard to resolve the problem."

After nearly a week of downtime, however, it's unclear just how long it will take for Apple to restore email service to the alleged one percent that have been cut off.

10 comments from the community.

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A guest said: (hide)

Thu Jul 24, 2008 12:28 pm

Jeff,

As one of the "1%", after checking out the support forums, I strongly suspect that it's waaaaaay more than 1%. Thousands of posts from Thailand, London, Australia and yours truly in Jersey testify to this fact.

As a professional photographer that relies on email, the lack of communication from Apple regarding this is staggering. I've been loyal to Apple for over a decade and I know they have a lot on their plate. Fiasco's like this were bound to happen. But the lack of support/communication from Apple during this is just unacceptable.

I call Faility Fail Fail Fail on Mobile Me!

At least I can rely on your podcast. It gets me thru Jeff. Just knowing that you are acknowledging this problem brings me solace.

~Doug

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Sir Harry Flashman said:

member since 08 Feb 2007 with 763 posts, unranked , send him a message or view his profile

Thu Jul 24, 2008 12:54 pm

For the most part is has been working for me. Quite a few problems those first few days, but only a few since then and nothing persistent. Now it does seem slow, say when switching from Mail to Calendar, or Address Book. I don't rely on it for personal or business email the way our guest Jeff does, but I do use it for Sync and to back up some important files.

I hope they get the kinks worked out soon, MobileMe could be a real asset, but a bad first impression is tough to overcome.

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derpassante said:

member since 23 Aug 2007 with 12 posts, unranked , send him a message or view his profile

Thu Jul 24, 2008 12:59 pm

Same here. MM is working fine for me. Just sent an message to my MM account and got it in 5 seconds.

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Shoaf said:

member since 31 Jul 2007 with 34 posts, unranked , send him a message or view his profile

Thu Jul 24, 2008 1:27 pm

I'm also one of the "1%". No .mac/mobile me mail on any device/client since a week ago this afternoon. My .mac email WAS my primary email. I've had rock-solid service since being a paid member for the past several years... until now.

Whatever the problem is, it must be awful "serious". I would think that most email providers would have their paid subscribers up-and-running within a couple of hours even if a meteor fell on their data center!

At this point, I am wondering if I'll ever get my account back online.

On the good side of things, this ordeal has given me the opportunity to see how impressive gmail is.

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Shoaf said:

member since 31 Jul 2007 with 34 posts, unranked , send him a message or view his profile

Thu Jul 24, 2008 1:30 pm

Oh, and one thing I find ironic is that when Apple started to allow Windows users to use this service "natively", everything broke!

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A guest said: (hide)

Thu Jul 24, 2008 2:09 pm

Based on Apple's track record with dotMac, which after years of working on it still went down on a weekly [or at least monthly] basis, why would you assume that MobileMe would be significantly better? Ignoring the transition between dotMac and MobileMe, Apple would have to show me that they are serious about providing a solid, reliable service before I would even consider using MobileMe for anything important.

Of what use is 'push' if you never know when or how long the service will be down?

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A guest said: (hide)

Thu Jul 24, 2008 3:33 pm

I like the theory of .Mac and MobileMe, but they require a significant commitment of resources to the boring details of server optimization and maintenance. I don't really use Apple's mail servers, and they work well enough for the few messages I do get. iDisk and sync services have always been a little flaky for me, and MobileMe just seems to be making things worse.

I wonder how well Leopard Server handles really heavy loads, or how it handles clustering along with all the new features.

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A guest said: (hide)

Thu Jul 24, 2008 8:21 pm

After being an Apple Addict from the 80's, I find and have read that way too many people are finding the premise of "MobileMe" juvenile and insulting. I am in the process of pitching Mac's to Window's company looking to spend a ton of money. And as of Apples latest maneuvers, I'm scared to death to proceed with Apple. Looks like Steve is cutting off his nose to spite his face. I'm not going to allow him to hurt me. So, Bill what new toys do you have?

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