Snapshot.ubuntu.com 503 errors?

Support and Help
1

Ubuntu Support Template

Ubuntu Version:
24.04, 26.04

Desktop Environment (if applicable):
n/a, headless VMs.

Problem Description:
I’m trying to use the Ubuntu snapshot service (https://snapshot.ubuntu.com) but am getting 503 errors. I’m not sure if this is a temporary outage, if I’m doing something wrong, or if this service is no longer available.

Relevant System Information:
Various ubuntu cloud and local VMs

Screenshots or Error Messages:

$ sudo apt update --snapshot 20260601T000000Z
Hit:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu resolute InRelease
Hit:2 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu resolute-security InRelease          
Hit:3 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu resolute-updates InRelease            
Hit:4 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu resolute-backports InRelease          
Ign:5 https://snapshot.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/20260601T000000Z resolute InRelease
Ign:6 https://snapshot.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/20260601T000000Z resolute-updates InRelease
Ign:7 https://snapshot.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/20260601T000000Z resolute-backports InRelease
Ign:8 https://snapshot.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/20260601T000000Z resolute-security InRelease
Ign:8 https://snapshot.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/20260601T000000Z resolute-security InRelease
Ign:7 https://snapshot.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/20260601T000000Z resolute-backports InRelease
Ign:6 https://snapshot.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/20260601T000000Z resolute-updates InRelease
Ign:5 https://snapshot.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/20260601T000000Z resolute InRelease
Ign:5 https://snapshot.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/20260601T000000Z resolute InRelease
Ign:6 https://snapshot.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/20260601T000000Z resolute-updates InRelease
Ign:7 https://snapshot.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/20260601T000000Z resolute-backports InRelease
Ign:8 https://snapshot.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/20260601T000000Z resolute-security InRelease
Err:8 https://snapshot.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/20260601T000000Z resolute-security InRelease
  503  Service Unavailable [IP: 185.125.189.69 443]
Err:7 https://snapshot.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/20260601T000000Z resolute-backports InRelease
  503  Service Unavailable [IP: 185.125.189.69 443]
Err:6 https://snapshot.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/20260601T000000Z resolute-updates InRelease
  503  Service Unavailable [IP: 185.125.189.69 443]
Err:5 https://snapshot.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/20260601T000000Z resolute InRelease
  503  Service Unavailable [IP: 185.125.189.69 443]
All packages are up to date.    
Warning: Failed to fetch https://snapshot.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/20260601T000000Z/dists/resolute/InRelease  503  Service Unavailable [IP: 185.125.189.69 443]
Warning: Failed to fetch https://snapshot.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/20260601T000000Z/dists/resolute-updates/InRelease  503  Service Unavailable [IP: 185.125.189.69 443]
Warning: Failed to fetch https://snapshot.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/20260601T000000Z/dists/resolute-backports/InRelease  503  Service Unavailable [IP: 185.125.189.69 443]
Warning: Failed to fetch https://snapshot.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/20260601T000000Z/dists/resolute-security/InRelease  503  Service Unavailable [IP: 185.125.189.69 443]
Warning: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

What I’ve Tried:
I’ve tried a few hosts on different internet connections, multiple releases (noble, resolute) with various timestamps in 2025 and 2026 in case it was a narrow issue, but I am consistently getting 503 responses.

1 Like
2

Seems like it’s come back to life! Just a temporary outage, then :slight_smile:

1 Like
3

Welcome to Ubuntu Discourse :slight_smile:

We are happy to hear the issue resolved itself.

I unmarked your post as the solution because, generally speaking, we discourage users from marking their own posts as such.

But not to worry, others will see the topic and know that the issue was resolved.

Thanks for being a part of the Ubuntu community.

4

I tested from multiple machines, Ubuntu releases, timestamps, and different internet connections, so this doesn’t look like a local configuration issue. A consistent 503 usually indicates a problem on the snapshot service side. I’d recommend reporting it to the Ubuntu infrastructure team and checking if others are seeing the same behavior.

1 Like
5

Where might I do that?

6

Is it to do with this or am I mixing things up in my head?
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2026/07/snap-store-offline-july-2026

7

The snap store is not the same thing. The snapshot service allows you to apt install packages fixed to a certain timestamp

1 Like
8

I get

503 Service Unavailable

No server is available to handle this request.

with firefox.

9

Ahh I see. Makes sense. Thanks for clarifying :+1:t2:

10

I am getting 503 errors from snapshot.ubuntu.com this morning. I see nothing marked on the status page.

Report from apt

W: Failed to fetch https://snapshot.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/20260615T120000Z/dists/noble/InRelease  503  Service Unavailable [IP: 185.125.189.69 443]
W: Failed to fetch https://snapshot.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/20260615T120000Z/dists/noble-updates/InRelease  503  Service Unavailable [IP: 185.125.189.69 443]
W: Failed to fetch https://snapshot.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/20260615T120000Z/dists/noble-backports/InRelease  503  Service Unavailable [IP: 185.125.189.69 443]
W: Failed to fetch https://snapshot.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/20260615T120000Z/dists/noble-security/InRelease  503  Service Unavailable [IP: 185.125.189.69 443]

Does anyone have similar problems or is it just me?

11

We have the same issue. For couple of hours right now, we are receiving 503 errors. This actually breaks our ci and we are looking for a solution to this.

1 Like
12

Looks like it was just a temporary outage. Glad it’s back up now! :blush:

13

As good an overture as any to raise awareness for the nature and purpose of HTTP status codes in the 5xx class, in general, and 503, in particular.
Since 5xx codes are server responses, it is quite likely that the party running same also knows when they happen, so reporting them is probably redundant. Particularly, 503 designates a temporary issue by its very definition. :wink: I, for one, have been seeing a fair number of those (and adjacent ones, like 502 and 504) across different parts of Canonical’s infrastructure I come in contact with on a daily basis, e.g. packages.ubuntu.com, documentation.ubuntu.com — even the Discourse issues are probably also just 5xx errors, only not immediately obvious at times; I think it’s safe to say that the whole 2nd level domain ubuntu.com is affected one way or another. Since there hasn’t been an update on the DDoS in a while, we should assume that it’s still ongoing. To make matters worse, there’s also the “Ai” scraperbot scourge.

14

As long as the response code isn’t 418 there is always hope :slightly_smiling_face:

3 Likes