Some Apple users have been unable to produce or access backups from iCloud for more than 36 hours

It now has been more than a day and a half since a service outage has prevented some Apple users from accessing data backed up in iCloud. At the same time, new backups cannot be created due to this problem. Apple's system status website shows that iCloud has been down since 8am PDT on Tuesday. While Apple has not passed along any particular reason for the problem, the company is no doubt working on a fix that will allow users to resume using the iCloud service.

If there is a silver lining in the iCloud so to speak, it is that less than 1% of Apple users are affected. But for those who do have this problem, trying to restore data stored in iCloud results in their iOS device getting hung up while in the process of retrieving the data. And considering the millions of iOS users potentially hit by this issue, we are talking about a problem that is affecting hundreds of thousands of devices and people.                                                                                                                                       

Those purchasing a new iPhone or iPad are also affected as users hoping to move content to newly purchased handsets or tablets might be unable to move over call histories, purchases from the App Store, saved preferences for an older iOS device and iMessage threads. Meanwhile, Apple is telling users buying new iPhone and iPad units to set them up as new devices instead of restoring backed up data that has been waiting in iCloud.

source: AppleSupport via AppleInsider, MacRumors