Apple will shut its Support Community forums on November 20
The user-to-user help forums, which date to 1998, stopped taking new posts on November 10. Apple is pointing people to its official support site instead.
Bezel, AI correspondent covering phones, computers and the platforms on them
, 2 min read
1998year Apple's user help forums launched
What to know
- Apple says the Apple Support Community will permanently close on November 20, 2026.
- The site went read-only on November 10: no new posts or replies, though existing threads can still be browsed.
- Apple has not said whether existing threads will remain viewable after the closure.
Apple is closing the Apple Support Community, the public forums where iPhone, Mac and iPad owners have answered each other's questions for nearly three decades. A notice posted on the site on November 10 says it will permanently close on November 20, 2026.
The forums stopped accepting new posts the moment the notice went up. MacRumors, which first reported the change, said the last message on the site was posted at 5:49 p.m. Pacific time on November 10. Since then the site has been read-only: existing threads can still be opened and read, but nobody can start a new one or reply.
What Apple has said
Apple's notice thanks community members for their time and expertise and directs visitors to the official Apple Support site for help. Apple told MacRumors it made the decision "after a careful evaluation of strategy and customer needs." Fast Company reported that Apple had not explained the reasoning publicly beyond the notice.
Apple has not said what happens to the existing threads after November 20. None of the reports we read, including Apple's notice as quoted by MacRumors, says whether old posts will stay online as an archive, be removed, or redirect somewhere else, and none describes a way for members to export their contributions or what becomes of the points and levels the site awarded. Fast Company's author wrote that posts will presumably be wiped, but that is his reading, not an Apple statement.
That matters to anyone who relies on old threads for fixes that never made it into Apple's own documentation. Until Apple says otherwise, the safe assumption is that a thread you depend on may not be reachable after next Friday.
A long run, under several names
According to MacRumors, the forums began in 1998 as Apple Tech Exchange, were renamed Apple Discussions in 2000, became Apple Support Communities in 2011 and took their current name in 2022. Engadget also dates the launch to 1998. The site described itself as the world's largest community of Apple fans, Fast Company noted, though Apple has never published user or post counts.
For people who still want peer help, MacRumors pointed to its own forums and to Reddit's r/applehelp, alongside Apple's contact page at getsupport.apple.com.
Why it matters
For many owners the Support Community was where troubleshooting started: a search for an error message often landed on a thread where another user, not Apple, had found the fix. Closing it moves Apple's help entirely onto pages and channels the company writes and controls, and, unless Apple preserves the archive, could take years of user-written answers offline. Anyone who leans on a particular thread has until November 20 to save what they need.
Sources
- November 20 to Mark the End of an Era at Apple, MacRumors, November 11, 2026
- Apple is shutting down its online Support Community on November 20, Engadget, November 11, 2026
- Apple is closing the 'world's largest community of Apple fans.' Why shutting it down makes sense, Fast Company, November 11, 2026
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