Apple Store Down or is it just me?

[BasilFawlty]

I went to watch a movie from my iMac iTunes library via my ATV2, but get an error. Also, when I try to go to the Apple Store, I get "iTunes could not connect to the iTunes store. An unknown error occurred (-54)"

Is this happening to anyone else (Sunday, 1 April approx 8:00-8:15PM EST)?

 

[marc11]

I got an Apple Store not available all weekend too. So I could not watch any purchased content unless I streamed from my Laptop.

IMHO Apple needs to get this crap together. They want us all to get into the ecosystem, stream everything and store nothing, which is great but then we have a right to expect 101 percent up time. Period.

When I want to watch a show I paid for I do not want to be told to try again later.

Really pissed me off and is making me rethink if I really want all my eggs in the Apple basket. Of were to only own an Apple tv with no local storage I would have been screwed this weekend when trying to watch something.

This on top of all the recent bugs I am finding on my iPhone is concerning.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate Apples systems, products and services but there is a reliability expectation that goes along with the reputation Apple had. Recently things are dipping a bit IMHO.

 

[BasilFawlty]

I just got off the phone with Apple care and am now in the process of a clean install of Lion. Tried a bunch of things, to no avail. What was strange is that when I started up in "safe" mode, I could access the iTunes store with no problem. It was only when I do a normal boot up that I get an error accessing iTunes store. Very strange. I also found that I can access the iTunes store with my MBP with no problem. So in my case, it "seems" that some OS file or iTunes file got corrupted. It's odd that you can't just re-install the iTunes APP - you have to re-install the whole danged OS!

 

[BasilFawlty]

UPDATE: Such an IDIOT!! I spent about two hours on the phone with Apple Care trying to figure out why my iTunes would work fine, but I could not connect to the iTunes Store (which meant I could not stream any of the movies I own onto my TV via my Apple TV). We went through the whole drill: I turned off the iMac's firewall. No help. I reinstalled iTunes. No help. I reinstalled the entire OS. No help. I went in and deleted all the caches. No help.

What was really strange is, it would work if I started up in "safe" mode, but not in regular mode. Also, my MacBook Pro could connect with no problems. I tried disabling my wireless and connecting via ethernet directly to the cable modem. No help! Just when I'd pulled out most of my hair, I had one of those forehead smacking moments (smack! I coulda had a V8!!) That's when It dawned on me that I had installed Norton 360 a while back, which also has a firewall! I went into the Norton Firewall and wouldn't you know it - the iTunes Program was in the list of "blocked" applications! (no idea how it got there, but I must have clicked on a popup and didn't realize what it was or something).

Sometimes it just doesn't pay to get out of bed!