Apple Pay down globally? Thousands report payment, fund transfer issues with Apple Cash — Here’s what users should know
Apple Pay was reportedly down in the wee hours of Saturday, with outage reports spiking on Downdetector around 3 am (IST). Many also took to social media to report issues with Apple Inc.’s mobile payment and digital wallet service.
As many as 1270 incidents of Apple Pay outage were reported on Downdetector at 2:48 am. Users told the outage-tracking platform they were unable to complete transactions or transfer funds through Apple’s Wallet ecosystem.
The platform’s data indicated that payment issues and funds-transfer problems accounted for most of the complaints.
Downdetector’s data suggested the disruption was concentrated around money transfers rather than purchases. The platform reported that 57 percent of complaints involved fund transfers, compared with 25 percent related to payments and 13 percent tied to the app itself.
“Been about 2hrs for me…I already have money on there and I can’t even order anything to eat …DoorDash says no funds but there’s funds,” a user said in the comment section of Downdetector.
An X account, MiggiTheJeweler, wrote on X, “Coincidentally Apple Cash stopped magically working, and my $5K transaction is nowhere to be found?!”
Meanwhile, StatusGator, which tracks service disruptions across major online platforms, also recorded a spike in reports related to Apple Cash beginning around 4:40 pm ET. “Apple Pay users from around the globe are reporting an Apple Cash outage,” it posted on X.
Apple reacts
When reached for comment via email, an Apple spokesperson directed Newsweek to the company’s system status page, which said some users were experiencing issues with Apple Cash beginning at 4:19 pm ET.
“Some users are affected. Some users may experience issues with Apple Cash at this time,” the notice said.
Apple Pay allows users to make contactless purchases and online payments using iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad and Mac devices. Apple Cash is Apple’s peer-to-peer payment service, allowing users to send and receive money through Messages and Wallet.
While Apple Cash balances can be used through Apple Pay, the two services operate separately and can experience different technical issues, Newsweek reported.
What is ‘Unable to Connect to Wallet Services’ Error?
Many users affected by the disruption reported seeing an “Unable to Connect to Wallet Services” error message when attempting to access Apple Wallet or complete transactions.
The message generally indicates that the Wallet app is unable to communicate with Apple’s back-end systems, preventing users from adding cards, verifying payment methods or processing purchases.
What should users do?
Users experiencing issues may want to avoid sending duplicate transactions while the outage is ongoing and should check Apple’s System Status page for updates.
Customers can also review their transaction history in Wallet and contact Apple Support if a transfer remains incomplete after service is restored.
