If you're having trouble setting up and signing in to your new Apple devices this holiday weekend, you're not alone: Apple is currently having an issue with the "iCloud Account & Sign In" portion of its cloud system. . This is according to Apple's System Status page early in the morning of December 26. “Some users are affected,” the pop-up notification alert says. "Users may experience a problem with this service." We haven't heard anything official from Apple as of this writing, but according to AppleInsider, the problem has persisted for a few hours. If Apple provides an update on the situation, we'll add it here. It's unclear how widespread the problem is, which devices are affected, or what kind of problems it's causing. Twitter users reported having trouble activating the device and HomePod minis, which could be related.
The waiting game
A social media report reports problems activating an Apple Watch if you have already set up other Apple devices. The advice from Apple Support is to wait until the downtime is over and try again later. That seems pretty much the only option at this point: stick around until Apple can fix whatever's wrong. At the moment we do not have an estimate of the date, but it is weekends and holidays. In addition to the Apple Watch 6, you may have unboxed a new iPhone 12 or perhaps an iPad Air 4 in the past few days. The past few months have been busy with new equipment from Apple, so there are undoubtedly a lot of users busy trying to set up their new devices. According to Apple's system status page, there are no issues with other parts of the iCloud network and it appears that some users are able to successfully activate their devices. We will keep you posted as we learn more.