Download Error. Tap to retry.

Question

Level 1

2 points

Download Error. Tap to retry.

Whenever I try and download a song from itunes directly to my iphone I get the message: Download Error. Tap to retry.

I've checked that I don't have any t&c's to accept in itunes and that the files are under 10mb. I've also tried deauthorizing and reauthorizing my compueter which doesn't help.

Does anyone have any other ideas? I'm using a brand new 3GS which syncs with windows vista.

Thanks in advance 🙂

iPhone 3GS, iPhone OS 3.0.1

Posted on Sep 25, 2009 12:01 PM

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Answer 1

madlock

Level 1

15 points

Oct 4, 2009 12:56 AM in response to bengebenge

I have the same problem. I purchased Toby Kieth's "Courtesy of the Red White & Blue", and it just won't download. I've paid for it, but it just keeps giving me "Download error. Tap to retry".

I've rebooted the phone several times, tried repurchasing, even tried downloading via Wifi instead of 3G. I can buy other songs all day long, so space is not a problem.

Has anyone else found a fix for this? I at LEAST want my money back.

Thanks in advance.

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Answer 2

Feb 4, 2014 6:12 PM in response to magnabonzo

This is SOOOOOOOO stupid. For one, if I'm on my "home network" and all my icloud songs are already on my computer it should try synch with my computer *1st* and THEN go to iCloud. Who the heck engineered it like this? Also, why does it try to download EVERYTHING at the same time? Is there something I can do in my router to only allow it, say 2 at once and not all of them the same time? Horrible design!

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Answer 3

Oct 20, 2011 2:42 AM in response to roxsejuliet

Beautiful stuff, roxsejuliet. I can confirm that this works on my 3G running 3.13. WITHOUT HAVING TO RUN TO MY COMPUTER!

For those who don't/can't click the link, the instructions are simple:

Tap like you're downloading again.
The "Retry" button becomes a "Pause" button. Tap on the pause button (on song downloads, this could be ridiculously fast. You may wish to simply tap repeatedly. This may require a few attempts to catch the very small window of opportunity).
Tap again to "resume" the download.

For me, since I had already synched my phone to my computer's iTunes without the satisfaction of resolution, this seemed to be a quick fix.

My phone is now free of the intermittent, inconvenient "Enter your password" prompts.

Can anyone else confirm this works for them? Or "like" if it actually did? 😉

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Answer 4

Jun 13, 2013 6:26 AM in response to bengebenge

Here's the fix:

Go into iTunes on the computer, delete the offending tracks, check the box to remove from iCloud, and throw them in the trash/recycle
Go to store - update itunes match
Retreive the items from the trash and throw into a temporary place (desktop)
Re-add them to the iTunes library
Select the songs, right click and choose Add to iCloud
If any don't add right away, re-select and choose Add to iCloud until all songs are added
They should show up on your other devices now and should download just fine

The issue is that some songs aren't being correctly added/uploaded and are in a weird state of flux. Doing this flushes it and corrects the issue.

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Answer 5

sandydlc

Level 1

0 points

Nov 8, 2013 4:15 PM in response to bengebenge

This error has been frustrating me for the past month. I finally called Apple support today and they told me to do the following - and it worked!!

My issue was downloading episodes from TV show seasons that I had purchased. When restoring my iPad Air, I had to leave the office and when I arrived at home, I found that all of my pending downloads now said "download error: Tap to retry". Tapping on the arrow of couse, did not work.

go to the iTunes store on your iPad or iPhone
click on 'purchased"
find the tv series or movie that you're trying to download
click on the cloud icon
your download will resume

Be sure that when you set these items to download that you stay in the same wifi zone long enough for the download to complete.

Hope this helps someone!

Sandy

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Answer 6

Jeavany

Level 1

0 points

Oct 10, 2009 2:53 PM in response to bengebenge

I am having the same problem.
This seems to be a common problem, with no fix.
There are post from june on the web with no answer other to download them through your computer (just check for purchases or what ever it says now)
good luck

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Answer 7

madlock

Level 1

15 points

Oct 10, 2009 5:09 PM in response to Jeavany

Actually, there is a "fix". At least there was for mine.

I was made to go to iTunes on my PC and download the (what had become two) files I had purchased to the PC. Once those downloads completed, their presence was removed from the iPhone's download queue. I did this in concert with an Apple support expert who had called in response to an appointment I scheduled on the matter. I don't know whether anyone behind the scenes had to flip any switches, but both items are now gone from my phone's queue and ready to be Sync'd from my PC.

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Answer 8

Jeavany

Level 1

0 points

Oct 11, 2009 4:02 PM in response to madlock

That is not a fix.
I know how to retrieve my purchaces.(as I mentioned before)
That's not the problem, the problem is that it is not letting me download straight to my iPod, and this is happening to a lot of people!
There needs to be a real fix, I like to download on the go and so do a lot of people,it is one of my iPods functions! It should work.

Regards
Jeavany

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Answer 9

madlock

Level 1

15 points

Oct 11, 2009 4:16 PM in response to Jeavany

Well, it managed to fix the problem I was having, as the two titles "stuck" in the download queue were creating a far greater annoyance than downloading and syncing them from a PC ever would.

Given that it's only affected two of the 500+ titles I've purchased, a clear and reliable work-around exists, and Apple was good enough to credit me for the purchase of both items, unless folks are seeing this far more frequently and although eliminating the occurence is something I'm sure is one someone's "todo" list, it's hardly the kind of thing they're likely to wake Steve Jobs over in the middle of the night.

Since it's at least something I can now clear myself, there are about a dozen other things I'd rather they focus their resources to fixing/improving before this.

Best of luck.

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Answer 10

Oct 22, 2009 12:44 AM in response to bengebenge

All I have to say is "Ditto." Any song/ringtone/video I try to download via my iPhone (3G) returns the tap to retry nonsense. What's odd to me is that it actually downloads the song (and the artwork) and then when it's finished there's suddenly the problem. Makes no sense and makes Shazam almost worthless.

I know I'm no help, but I figure the more people speak up, the sooner it gets fixed right?

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Answer 11

nlfalls

Level 1

0 points

Oct 25, 2009 1:14 AM in response to bengebenge

This just happened to me for the first time last week. I had just purchased several songs all of which were successfully downloaded except one, a Cyndi Lauper tune.

I thought that it was a problem with it, but no, when I bought a ringtone tonight I had the sane problem!

I've never had this problem before, and I've downloaded many files large and small without a problem.

Here's my question: could this have anything to do with the latest iPhone update, which I just recently installed?

I'm just concerned that this will now be an ongoing problem.

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Answer 12

Oct 25, 2009 5:36 AM in response to bengebenge

Add one more affected customer to the count. I just hit this issue last night. It's really annoying because I only run FOSS at home (the iPhone being an exception). This means I have to wait until tomorrow to listen to the music I purchased yesterday, as I don't have iTunes in my house. I'm playing around with my phone looking for a work-around, and I'll post an update if I have any luck. Otherwise the work-around appears to be "use iTunes". As previous posters have stated, that defeats the purpose of being able to download music directly from your phone.

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Answer 13

Oct 25, 2009 11:41 AM in response to bengebenge

I have an iPhone 3G, and get the Starbucks pick of the week regularly. I've had several times where the download doesn't work directly to the iPhone, but I've learned that iTunes keeps track of the request, and has been able to complete them. Two possibilities:

In some cases, I've stumbled across the pending download on the desktop iTunes, similar to other applications downloads/updates. iTunes added another entry under the STORE category, to complete the download. All info was downloaded via the PC, still shows as purchased on the iPhone.

Tap to re-try on the iPhone. I had an error in completing the download yesterday, left it, but then couldn't find the prompt to download to the desktop after I synced. So I checked the iTunes on the iPhone again, and it was still waiting there to complete the download. Tapped to retry, under WiFi conditions, and it worked fine.

So I've started treasure hunting when the download fails. It's in there somewhere! either still waiting on the iPhone, or on the desktop iTunes.

That still doesn't solve the annoyance of the download not working directly to the iPhone, so I'm not planning on forking over any money just yet to buy any tunes directly to the iPhone. It is a very high percentage that fails, in fact I can't remember the last time it worked first time through to the iPhone.

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Answer 14

Cobretti

Level 1

0 points

Oct 30, 2009 8:08 AM in response to Norman Bruland

Hi everybody. Any progress on this matter?

I just got my first iPhone (32 gb S-model, with the newest firmware installed) and I have this "Download Error. Tap to retry." -problem/error. It occurs when I try to download music from the iTunes-store (straight to my iPhone).

It looks like the songs are being downloaded, but at the end it says: "Download Error. Tap to retry" (with every song). I have tried to "reset" my iPhone S, but no avail. I have to tried to "Tap to retry", but no luck. Not sure what to do, really..

I have to add, that I can download music from iTunes via my Macbook (so my account/credit card/etc should work) - but like I said, downloading music via iPhone (and iTunes) just won´t work..

To me it feels like, that we need a new firmware-update from Apple to fix this annoying issue..?

I have to add, that I also had some problems with game downloads via Apple Store & iPhone S (games downloaded, but didn´t work), but that problem was solved after I did the basic "installation" again with iPhone & iTunes..

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Answer 15

PattyXXX

Level 1

0 points

Nov 3, 2009 8:50 AM in response to bengebenge

I encounter this problem alot when I download movies straight to my phone. When the download in question goes into the tap to retry queue over and over I quit the application. Turn on airplane mode to break all connections. Then I reconnect and open iTunes. The download should have the pause icon. Tap it and the download should complete the installation. Sometimes I have to do this several times. It's not a fix. Worst case, it will eventually and magically appear when you log into iTunes on a desktop.

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