Apple Support Community Deserved a Proper Goodbye

Honestly, I never found them useful. I’d end up there trying to find a fix for an odd issue. Others would have already posted a thread about it. I’d get excited because they would describe the issue just the way I was experiencing it. Then the answers were always the most generic, unhelpful replies.

Apple on Tuesday abruptly placed the Apple Support Community ('https://discussions.apple.com/welcome') into a read-only state and announced that the forums will be permanently closing on Friday, November 20 ('https://www.macrumors.com/2026/11/10/apple-support-community-closing-november-20/'). Those who contributed to the site — some for more than two decades — were blindsided by this decision and had no chance to post farewell messages.




Even if you felt the Apple Support Community contained too many generic or unhelpful answers from users trying to boost their post counts and earn points ('https://support.apple.com/en-us/102167'), the people volunteering their time to the site still deserved a proper goodbye.

Below, we have highlighted some of those people and their experiences.

Jeff Donald ('https://discussions.apple.com/profile/Jeff+Donald/participation') from Florida was a member of the Apple Support Community since November 2000, when the forums were still known as Apple Discussions. This past year, Apple recognized his efforts by inviting him to the Apple Community+ program ('https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-250009628'), which launched in 2022 and provided members with a few extra perks and experiences.

Leroy Douglas ('https://discussions.apple.com/profile/leroydouglas/participation') was a member since July 2009. He said he was a bit shocked to see Apple's sudden announcement, but he saw the writing on the wall.

Here is a fun fact that you might not have known: In addition to English, Tobias Steen ('https://communities.apple.com/de/profile/tobias501/participation') in Germany said there were also Apple Support Communities in Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish ('https://communities.apple.com/de/docs/DOC-250006812'). For some reason, the French and German versions do not have closure notices, but we are told they will meet the same fate.

The forums brought together people of all ages, from 16-year-old Evan Bato Rousseau ('https://communities.apple.com/fr/profile/batorousseauevan/participation') in France to 83-year-old Nobel Prize winner Sir Tim Hunt ('https://royalsociety.org/people/tim-hunt-11666/') in England, who told us he found it to be a helpful resource, even if some of the answers were wonky.

John Daniel ('https://discussions.apple.com/profile/etresoft/participation'), the Canadian developer of macOS diagnostic tool EtreCheck ('https://etrecheck.com/en/index.html'), said he was active in the Apple Support Community for more than two decades. Users like him who reached "Level 6" or higher based on their contributions received access to The Lounge, a private category of forums where Apple employees sometimes participated.

Prior to 2020, John said Apple occasionally hosted in-person meetups for Support Community members, including a special visit to Apple Park.

"I don't agree with comments that so many are making about the Apple Support Community right now," he said, in response to those who described it as useless. "We regularly solved problems, identified significant issues with Apple projects, traced the cause of bugs and fixed them, and always learned new things. That's what I'm going to miss."

Elías Rojano Núñez ('https://communities.apple.com/es/profile/MrRojano97/participation') of Chile participated in the Spanish forums. He told us that he found it deeply satisfying when he was able to help others, and he was saddened that the Spanish forums were shuttered without any advanced notice, but he is grateful for the opportunity that he had and will always value the interactions he had with fellow contributors.

Rojano Núñez shared a photo of some of the items he received from Apple over the years, including a 5-year Apple Support Community anniversary pin. There were also 10-year, 15-year, and 20-year pins. Over the years, merchandise given out included Apple-branded hats, shirts, tote bags, and even umbrellas once.




Whatever its shortcomings, the Apple Support Community was more than just a place to ask questions. For some, it was a place to belong.

To that, we say goodbye and thank you, not good riddance ('https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/11/11/apple-support-community-ding-dong').

Article Link: Apple Support Community Deserved a Proper Goodbye ('https://www.macrumors.com/2026/11/11/apple-support-community-deserved-a-proper-goodbye/')

Thank you, sincerely, to all who positively contributed over the years.

Unfortunately, my repeated experience was that the Apple discussion site was an utter abomination - the search function was sadistically bad in multiple obvious ways, the “advice” so regularly consisted of gaslighting that the problems and issues knowledgeable users spent time detailing somehow weren’t problems at all, “experts” rushed to link to worthless Knowledge Base articles based on bizarrely callous misreadings of the original post and deemed the matter “Solved”, and unresolved issues got conspicuously Closed while duplicate cruft abounded.

The only thing more embarrassing for Apple than the Discussions site is the fact that instead of actually fixing what was conspicuously broken, they just effectively said “screw off” to a dedicated community of longtime users seeking to proactively highlight, discuss, and fix issues (both their own and for others) with Apple’s products, services and software, and eliminated the most logical resource for less knowledgeable Apple customers looking for non-obvious help.

I’ve used Apple products almost exclusively for 30+ years (even through some bleak years), and have never been less impressed than now.😬

While I didn’t frequent the forums on a regular basis , to me it’s a sad day in Apple history.

you guys are the support community now..

Honestly, I never found them useful. I’d end up there trying to find a fix for an odd issue. Others would have already posted a thread about it. I’d get excited because they would describe the issue just the way I was experiencing it. Then the answers were always the most generic, unhelpful replies.

Same. Whenever I try googling for an issue online, Apple forums seemed like the worst place to provide any sort of assistance. Their advice bordered on sheer uselessness (many were just copying and pasting the same instructions), forget about trying to troubleshoot anything more complex beyond "have your tried resetting your computer", and I swear the bulk of comments revolved around "I haven't experienced this issue myself, so you must be mistaken".

I am glad there are people who legitimately found it helpful. It just wasn't the place for me, and I think it means something when Macrumours is the more sane, more helpful community by comparison. 😛

The Apple Support Communities suffered the same fate as the rest of today's, corporate driven internet. Content is munched through legal departments, policies everywhere, everything slick and without edges, but overall not authentic, not helpful and full of generic answers. Never admit that there's something wrong that could expose you to getting sued.
It's a sad state - once the web was open and full of content to explore.