Have you been seeing an error while trying to sign in to your iCloud or simply stuck on the load screen during a new device setup? You’re not alone. But worry no more, as the problem has now been solved. In the past 24 hours, multiple users complained about sign-in issues when setting up a new Apple device. For some users, they were unable to set up a new device such as an iPhone or iPad, while others were stuck trying to link accessories such as their Apple Watch. Apple later told some of the affected users that the iCloud system was experiencing high capacity and that the iCloud Account & Sign-in server was experiencing an issue.

Go ahead and set up the new iPhone you got as a Christmas present

Well, it appears that the problem has now been resolved after an outage that has been going on for over a day. Apple’s official System Status support page now says that the iCloud Account and Sign In issue has been resolved. A few hours ago from the time of writing this, it showed that the issue still persisted. We’ve also come across some users tweeting that the iCloud sign-in and activation issue has now vanished on their end as well.

The iCloud outage of Christmas is finally over

The issue apparently started early on Christmas day when there was apparently a device activation surge that appears to have overloaded the servers. Aside from being unable to set up new devices, some users also reported that they were unable to access their data stored on the cloud service. Checking a few forums revealed that some users came across a “Verification Failed” error message. A few affected users appear to have been stuck on the setup page, while others were simply unable to access it at all.

Thankfully, the issue has now been fixed. I just verified the same on my iPad and can confirm that the iCloud system is working just fine at the moment. The experience was frustrating for many users, especially those who got an iPhone, iPad, or an Apple Watch as a festive gift, but were unable to set it up because of a failed activation process.