I feel a little nostalgic about the Apple Support Community forums, but it was time

Yesterday brought a surprise move by Apple when it abruptly ceased write access to the Apple Support Community and announced that it would be permanently closing in just over a week. While the news does make me a little nostalgic, I do have to say that I think its time had long since come and gone … As we noted yesterday, the community has a fairly long history. It started in 1998 as the Apple Tech Exchange before being renamed Apple Discussions and finally relaunching as Apple Support Communities in 2011. There were some paid community specialists working for Apple on the forum, while the majority of the responses came from volunteers. The company’s statement was brief and didn’t give any official explanation for the shutdown. 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. Interestingly, Verizon did exactly the same thing with its own Community Forum earlier this year, with an immediate switch to read-only access, followed shortly afterwards by closing it altogether. That too had a reasonably long history, having first launched back in 2008. I suspect in both cases this was mostly about streamlining operations and reducing costs. CEO John Ternus does seem to be aiming to improve efficiency and eliminate what he views as unnecessary expenses. Additionally, community forums always run the risk of reputational damage when customers criticize decisions made by the company. I’m old enough to remember the times when the forum was one of the first places I’d turn when troubleshooting an issue with an Apple product, but in all honesty, that hasn’t been the case for a very long time now. A lot of the suggestions were very basic steps any experienced user would already have tried. There was sometimes also a snarky tone to some of the responses, essentially amounting to “Apple doesn’t promise you should be able to do X, so why are you expecting to do this?” or “Apple already provides a better way to do Y so use it.” If you were very new to Apple devices and needed very basic help, then I’m sure it could sometimes prove useful, but I have to say that for a very long time now my own starting point has always been Reddit. I don’t think too many people are going to mourn the passing of ASC. Apple TV 4K (latest model) Apple AirPods Pro 3 Apple HomeView meross Smart Garage Door Opener Logitech MX Master 4 for Mac FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.