Apple's Mac app notarization service is experiencing issues

What you need to know
- Apple's Mac app notarization service is suffering through ongoing issues.
- Apple confirms the issues through its Sytem Status page.
- Many developers have taken to social media to voice their frustrations with the issues.
When Apple unveiled macOS Catalina during WWDC 2019, it announced that all apps distributed outside of the App Store must be notarized through Apple's new developer tool. However, that service is having some serious issues now that macOS Catalina has been released.
First spotted by MacRumors, developers have run into issues with the notarization process. Apple has acknowledged the issues on its System Status page (opens in new tab) that marks the Developer ID Notary Service with the "Issues" tag.
Many developers have taken to Twitter to voice their frustration with the ongoing issues that still have not been resolved.
mood: angry. @Apple requires apps notarization for macOS Catalina but their servers can't keep up with all submitted files and you have to wait for hours for successful notarization. What a shame.mood: angry. @Apple requires apps notarization for macOS Catalina but their servers can't keep up with all submitted files and you have to wait for hours for successful notarization. What a shame.— Vladislav Rassokhin 🤍💙🤍 (@Vlad_P53) October 10, 2019October 10, 2019
Ok, so now that everybody is notarizing their apps at the same time.. it's painfully slow. Who would have thought that Apple would build a required feature that does not scale?Ok, so now that everybody is notarizing their apps at the same time.. it's painfully slow. Who would have thought that Apple would build a required feature that does not scale?— Frank Reiff (@frankreiff) October 10, 2019October 10, 2019
If you need to use the notarization system, check with Apple's System Status page (opens in new tab) to see if the issues are resolved.
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