App Store Bugs: App Updates Downloading Over and Over and Over Again
There appears to be a bug on Apple's iTunes App Store that's causing apps to show up as having updates available even after they've been downloaded over and over again. We've gotten quiet a few readers writing in about it now, and there's the usual huge thread up on Apple's discussion boards.
Here's what it looks like -- the App Store on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iTunes on your PC tells you you have an update for an app. You tap or click to update, enter your iTunes password, and the app downloads -- but it still shows the app in the update list. You tap or click update again, it downloads again, but again still shows the app in the update list. Or worse (as happened to me a few weeks ago), iTunes pops up a Checking for Available Downloads dialog then proceeds to try, over and over again, for days, to download 1.3GB of turn-by-turn navigation app update.
Of course, the problem seems intermittent and random -- different users experiencing the it with different apps at different times. It's also unclear if everyone is having the same problem. For some, Apple's iTunes app servers may not be properly providing the updated app file and so the new version is not successfully getting installed on the device. For others, the file might be getting installed but iTunes doesn't recognize or register it so keeps offering the same update.
Possible solutions include rebooting your iPhone or restarting iTunes on your PC, or just waiting and trying again in a day or so. On rare occasions it looks like it takes a few days to sort itself out, which for small apps isn't a show-stopper for those 1GB apps (or large games), it can be untenable, especially for people in countries with tight data caps on their home internet.
Some developers are hearing enough feedback on this that they're contacting Apple in hopes of some server-side fixing (see image of Twitter conversation above). We're hoping for some as well.
If you're having this problem, let us know in the comments, and let us know what (if anything) is fixing it for you.
Editor-in-Chief of iMore, Executive Producer at Mobile Nations, co-host of Iterate and ZEN and TECH, cook, grappler, photon wrangler.
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Same problem here for about 2 weeks, on 2 iPhones (3g & 3gs) and iPod touch (1st gen). Drives me nuts! Already had this quite a while ago (~3 months ago) but went away after couple of days.
Hi. Same here. Last.fm and battery tool. IT always loads the old version. After a few days it loads the new updated version. Tried it several days. Looks really like the app server offers the older version. Maybe apple needs a while updating all download servers?
Yes. It's happening with increasing frequency to various app updates.
It seems to be getting worse,very annoying!!!
It does seem to be getting worse. I have had this happen on many of my app updates. It appears that the updates are posted a day early every time it happens to me. The last time it happend was with iTranslate. the update notice had the date of 12/16/09, but the actual date was 12/15/09 when i had attempted installation to no avail. the app was never updated. I tried about 6 times to update, but still no update was actually put in place. It appears that the version I had installed currently was just re-installed.
Then I waited until the today 12/16/09 and the update went through just fine. this has been the case with about 6 different updates for apps.
To me it appears that the update notice is posted a day early, but the actual files for installation/update aren't put on the server (or aren't available for DL) until the date listed on the update notice.
This has been happening to me for the past 2 weeks or so. It only seems to be an issue for me for updates downloaded from the phone as downloads through iTunes work every time.
I’ve had this problem. I have tried rebooting the ipod touch, restarting iTunes, deleting the app from both the phone and the computer, but all to no avail.
The solution is to wait two days after the notification update.
I have had this issue in about 1 of every 3 upgrades. I have only updated on my iphone. It goes through the motions of downloading however when I check the app version it has not. It will do this several times before it finally updates the app.
Happening to me too --' Extremely bothering !! Occures with Doodle Jump and Rowmote Pro. Hope it will get fixed very soon. Thumbs down Apple Store =/
I have the same problem but now the apps won't even install and my iPhone just thinks about it and all I get is the circle at the top! How frustrating!
I paid $5.99 for a 145mb application I downloaded 7 times. Spending over half a day on this, and I still don't have a solution. Worst of all, my iPhone is my mobile modem at the moment. My internet cap is 6 gigs (Yes, I know Australia sucks). This is hurting me big time.
Still happening here in Australia. It said I had 4 to update on my iPhone, and what they were. On iTunes, it says I have 7, but when I go to the updates page, it says none are available. It's most frustrating. I can't believe Apple still haven't acknowledged it.
I will buy an app on the computer and it will download and just before the download is complete the download starts all over again!! So I tryed downloading it via my iPod and it does the same thing!! Really annoying!!!!!!!!
On my iPhone the app store keeps asking for my password... Whether I click cancel or put it in half my apps change from being there on my phone to paused and I have to wait for then to download again, also all apps that I ha and deleted turn up as paused aswell...
Anyone got any ideas on this or heard of it before...
This also happens if i go on the AppStore myself...
Bloddy annoying!!
Harvey
Metroview is causing this issue for me. Keeps trying to download, but once the download has finished it automatically starts over again - 500MB. Has been in a continuous loop for 7 cycles using up my wireless quota
First time it has happened in my 400 apps. Poorly written code by the app supplier.
Just go 10,80€ to 1,70€ for three 0,69€ songs
Fuck your mom
I had and iphone 3gs & my problem was that everytime I tried opening the app store, it kicked me out about 5 times before it actually let me in and if I wanted to either update or download a new app it freezed and took for ever to ask for my password and sometime even made my phone turn off and on. I thought my iphone was just old (I had it for 2 yrs) and thought I needed a new one so I purchased iphone 4. Still have the same problem with the app store. Kicks me out and takes forever to actually ask for password.
Anybody having same problem? Or is there a solution for this? I noticed that I started having this problem when I did the software update of 4.3.2 or so.