iPhone 18 Pro pre-orders hit by errors as customers struggle to place orders

Customers attempting to pre-order the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are reporting errors, failed payments and other problems as Apple’s new flagship iPhones go on sale.

Pre-orders opened at 5 a.m. PT (1 p.m. in the U.K.) on Saturday, with demand sending large numbers of customers to the Apple Store website and Apple Store app at the same time. Soon after orders opened, reports of problems began appearing across social media and online communities.

Some customers say they repeatedly encountered unexpected errors during checkout, while others reported the Apple Store app or website remaining unavailable for several minutes after the scheduled opening time. Several users said retrying eventually allowed their orders to go through.

Reports on Reddit include customers in the United States and Canada saying checkout failed through both conventional payment methods and Apple Pay. Other customers reported orders apparently completing without immediately appearing in their order history or generating a confirmation email.

In some cases, delayed confirmations appear to have created additional confusion. Customers who assumed an order had failed and tried again later reported discovering that their original purchase had also been processed, leaving them with duplicate orders to resolve.

U.K. customers have also reported difficulties, particularly when attempting to finance an iPhone through Creation. Users have described applications failing with technical errors, pages timing out and being unable to complete the finance process despite repeated attempts.

The reports do not necessarily indicate a widespread outage affecting every customer. Many buyers have successfully completed their orders, including some within minutes of pre-orders opening, while the problems being reported appear to vary depending on region, payment method and financing choice.

Apple has not indicated that the Apple Store is experiencing a broader outage. The volume of reports, however, suggests at least some customers have faced a frustrating start to this year’s iPhone pre-order process.

Anyone whose order appeared to complete but has not received confirmation may want to check their Apple order history before placing another order, particularly given reports that confirmations have taken longer than expected to arrive for some customers.

Customers who have been unable to secure their preferred model still have other options. The Apple Post has outlined what to do if you missed out on an iPhone 18 Pro pre-order, including checking alternative configurations and watching for changing pickup availability ahead of launch.

Apple announced that iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max pre-orders would begin Saturday, September 12, with the devices arriving in stores and reaching customers beginning Friday, September 18.