Apple Finally Fixes Network Connection for iCloud Private Relay After Several Days of Interruption

On July 26, the privacy protection service for iCloud+ users, iCloud Private Relay, experienced an interruption. Surprisingly, it took Apple four days to complete the fix. Now, users can re-enable this feature.

Private Relay is a privacy feature launched by Apple for iCloud subscription users. When this feature is enabled, Apple uses relay servers to proxy all of the user's internet traffic, thus hiding the user's real IP address to avoid being tracked by ad networks.

The feature encrypts and forwards traffic through two sets of servers. Apple operates one set, and a third-party service provider operates the other set. Apple can know the user's real IP and then forwards the traffic without the real IP to the third-party service provider, who then uses their server's IP to provide the connection for the user.

There are many ways for Apple to obtain a user's real IP, but Apple does not store the user's real IP. The advantage of this approach is that third parties also cannot obtain the user's real IP information, avoiding the scenario where the effort to not disclose the real IP ends up leaking it to a third party.

For supported countries or regions, Apple automatically enables this feature for iCloud+ subscription users. Therefore, after the previous interruption, some users noticed slow or unavailable network connections, which could only be resolved by turning off Private Relay.

Now that it has been restored, users who manually disabled this feature can re-enable Private Relay: go to iPhone Settings, Account, iCloud, iCloud+ Exclusive Features, and Private Relay. Turn on  this option and then test if the network connection returns to normal.

Note: If you are not subscribed to iCloud+, this feature cannot be enabled.