Users who visited Apple’s support community tonight were greeted with a message informing them that the platform will be permanently shut down on November 20. Here are the details.
If you’ve ever had a question or encountered a problem with an Apple product, chances are you’ve come across the Apple Support Community, the company’s official discussion forums where users from around the world help each other solve problems and share tips.
The platform has a history dating back to at least 1998, when it was known as the Apple Tech Exchange. Since then, it was renamed Apple Discussions before being relaunched as Apple Support Communities in April 2011, with a redesigned interface, personalized profiles, and a reputation system that rewarded users for helping others.
Tonight, however, users who tried to access the platform were greeted with the following message:
The AppleCare support community will permanently close on November 20, 2026. Starting today, the site will no longer accept new posts and is available in a read-only state.
You can continue to find reliable guidance and support on the official Apple Support site.
We want to thank community members who have contributed their time and expertise to help others with their Apple products.
At the moment, the portal still displays a “Sign In” button, although it only leads to an AppleConnect login page labeled “AC Communities Web – Internal,” suggesting that access is now limited to Apple employees.
Interestingly, Apple’s message refers to the “AppleCare Support Community” rather than the “Apple Support Community,” which is how the platform is officially named.
However, the forums are already in read-only mode, with users able to browse existing threads, search for answers and interact with posts via the “Me too” and vote buttons, but can no longer post new questions or answers.
At the time of writing, the most recent post was published just 57 minutes earlier, suggesting that Apple has only recently disabled new postings.
9to5Mac has reached out to Apple for comment and clarification on the scope of the shutdown, and we will update this story if we hear back.
(h/t Tim Harbison)
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