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#1256·icloud_photos_downloader

Apple icloud.com.cn 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable issue and temporary fix solution

Author: haiquandCreated Sep 18, 2025Updated Aug 30, 2026

Hi, I’m a user of boredazfcuk/docker-icloudpd. Over the past few days, after updating to the latest version, I’ve been unable to log in to the Chinese iCloud service icloud.com.cn.

When requesting /appleauth/auth/signin/complete?isRememberMeEnabled=true, it returns 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable, which prevents me from entering 2FA to log in.

Log snippet:

...
2025-09-18 22:07:01 DEBUG    {
  "request": {
    "method": "POST",
    "url": "https://idmsa.apple.com.cn/appleauth/auth/signin/complete?isRememberMeEnabled=true",
    "headers": {
      "Origin": "https://idmsa.apple.com.cn",
      "Referer": "https://idmsa.apple.com.cn/",
      "Content-Type": "application/json",
      "X-Apple-OAuth-Client-Id": "OBFUSCATED-810530919",
      "X-Apple-OAuth-Client-Type": "OBFUSCATED-1961643734",
      "X-Apple-OAuth-Redirect-URI": "OBFUSCATED-2006632637",
      "X-Apple-OAuth-Require-Grant-Code": "OBFUSCATED-4261170317",
      "X-Apple-OAuth-Response-Mode": "OBFUSCATED-1578278625",
      "X-Apple-OAuth-Response-Type": "OBFUSCATED-1997877400",
      "X-Apple-OAuth-State": "OBFUSCATED-3525441077",
      "X-Apple-Widget-Key": "OBFUSCATED-810530919",
      "scnt": "OBFUSCATED-2748672309",
      "X-Apple-ID-Session-Id": "OBFUSCATED-2971911692"
    },
    "cookies": {
      "dslang": "US-EN",
      "site": "USA",
      "aasp": "OBFUSCATED-3299397674"
    },
    "content": {
      "accountName": "OBFUSCATED-3832775053",
      "c": "OBFUSCATED-224371163",
      "m1": "OBFUSCATED-3141626501",
      "m2": "OBFUSCATED-2028019714",
      "rememberMe": true,
      "trustTokens": []
    }
  },
  "response": {
    "status_code": 503,
    "headers": {
      "Content-Type": "text/html"
    },
    "cookies": {},
    "content": "<html>\r\n<head><title>503 Service Temporarily Unavailable</title></head>\r\n<body>\r\n<center><h1>503 Service Temporarily Unavailable</h1></center>\r\n<hr><center>Apple</center>\r\n</body>\r\n</html>\r\n<!-- a padding to disable MSIE and Chrome friendly error page -->\r\n<!-- a padding to disable MSIE and Chrome friendly error page -->\r\n<!-- a padding to disable MSIE and Chrome friendly error page -->\r\n<!-- a padding to disable MSIE and Chrome friendly error page -->\r\n<!-- a padding to disable MSIE and Chrome friendly error page -->\r\n<!-- a padding to disable MSIE and Chrome friendly error page -->\r\n"
  }
}

I also tried logging in directly with icloudpd --username [email protected] --password XXXX --domain cn --auth-only and got the same 503 error.

I’m confident my password is correct. Out of curiosity, I tried logging in with icloud.com instead of icloud.com.cn. Interestingly, my Apple devices then received the login prompt and 2FA code. The logs show that in this case, the appleauth/auth/signin/complete?isRememberMeEnabled=true request succeeded with account/password verification.

2025-09-18 22:27:34 DEBUG    {
  "request": {
    "method": "POST",
    "url": "https://idmsa.apple.com/appleauth/auth/signin/complete?isRememberMeEnabled=true",
    "headers": {
      "Origin": "https://idmsa.apple.com",
      "Referer": "https://idmsa.apple.com/",
      "Content-Type": "application/json",
      "X-Apple-OAuth-Client-Id": "OBFUSCATED-810530919",
      "X-Apple-OAuth-Client-Type": "OBFUSCATED-1961643734",
      "X-Apple-OAuth-Redirect-URI": "OBFUSCATED-1866116011",
      "X-Apple-OAuth-Require-Grant-Code": "OBFUSCATED-4261170317",
      "X-Apple-OAuth-Response-Mode": "OBFUSCATED-1578278625",
      "X-Apple-OAuth-Response-Type": "OBFUSCATED-1997877400",
      "X-Apple-OAuth-State": "OBFUSCATED-3525441077",
      "X-Apple-Widget-Key": "OBFUSCATED-810530919",
      "scnt": "OBFUSCATED-4094548094",
      "X-Apple-ID-Session-Id": "OBFUSCATED-3299397674"
    },
    "cookies": {
      "dslang": "US-EN",
      "site": "USA",
      "acn01": "OBFUSCATED-1857296798",
      "aasp": "OBFUSCATED-1195383617"
    },
    "content": {
      "accountName": "OBFUSCATED-3832775053",
      "c": "OBFUSCATED-2407858111",
      "m1": "OBFUSCATED-3236630602",
      "m2": "OBFUSCATED-1417157248",
      "rememberMe": true,
      "trustTokens": []
    }
  },
  "response": {
    "status_code": 409,
    "headers": {
      "Content-Type": "application/json;charset=UTF-8",
      "X-Apple-I-Request-ID": "OBFUSCATED-1616819422",
      "scnt": "OBFUSCATED-193020478",
      "X-Apple-TwoSV-Trust-Eligible": "OBFUSCATED-4261170317",
      "Location": "/auth",
      "X-Apple-ID-Session-Id": "OBFUSCATED-1195383617",
      "X-Apple-Auth-Attributes": "OBFUSCATED-718733999",
      "X-Apple-Session-Token": "OBFUSCATED-4221137067",
      "X-Apple-ID-Account-Country": "OBFUSCATED-609829649"
    },
    "cookies": {
      "dslang": "US-EN",
      "site": "USA",
      "acn01": "OBFUSCATED-280781132"
    },
    "content": {
      "authType": "hsa2"
    }
  }
}
2025-09-18 22:27:34 DEBUG    {
  "request": {
    "method": "POST",
    "url": "https://setup.icloud.com/setup/ws/1/accountLogin",
    "headers": {
      "Origin": "https://www.icloud.com",
      "Referer": "https://www.icloud.com/"
    },
    "cookies": {},
    "content": {
      "accountCountryCode": "CHN",
      "dsWebAuthToken": "OBFUSCATED-4221137067",
      "extended_login": true,
      "trustToken": "OBFUSCATED-0"
    }
  },
  "response": {
    "status_code": 302,
    "headers": {
      "Content-Type": "application/json; charset=UTF-8",
      "x-apple-user-partition": "OBFUSCATED-841265288",
      "X-Apple-Request-UUID": "OBFUSCATED-2986201000",
      "X-Apple-Edge-Response-Time": "OBFUSCATED-300230734"
    },
    "cookies": {},
    "content": {
      "domainToUse": "iCloud.com.cn"
    }
  }
}

However, since my account is a China-only account, I need to use icloud.com.cn in order to actually proceed.

In addition, I noticed that in a private browser tab, I can’t open icloud.com.cn, but I can open www.icloud.com.cn.

Looking into the browser developer tools, I found that when logging into www.icloud.com.cn, the request to appleauth/auth/signin/complete?isRememberMeEnabled=true is sent to idmsa.apple.com instead of idmsa.apple.com.cn.

That explains why logging in without --domain cn works (it sent to idmsa.apple.com), while the cn domain keeps failing.

Temporary Fix

My guess is that this is caused by a DNS configuration issue on Apple’s side for icloud.com.cn. No idea when (or if) they’ll fix it.

As a temporary fix, I forked the repo and made the following changes:

  • In src/pyicloud_ipd/base.py replace idmsa.apple.com.cn with idmsa.apple.com (self.AUTH_ROOT_ENDPOINT and self.AUTH_ENDPOINT).
  • In src/pyicloud_ipd/sms.py, replace .com.cn with .com (Not sure need to change or not, just change all .com.cn to .com).

This solution allows login to proceed correctly. Hopefully it helps others who are facing the same issue.

Source: icloud-photos-downloader/icloud_photos_downloader

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