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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

Reply
153 replies

Jul 5, 2013 11:33 PM in response to bengebenge

i was facing this problem since i tried to download. the solution i came up with was to change your network connection. i was using my carrier connection and it would come with done or retry. so i tried a wifi connection at my friend's and it worked. if done or retry shows up again then you can pause it and then load again and that would work and the apps would get downloaded 🙂

Sep 22, 2013 10:53 AM in response to bengebenge

Ok so, I have tried every solution in this entire thread. After restoring from icloud backup on a iPhone 5s I had this issue with three songs. After trying EVERY possible solution I tried to restore the phone again. It now errors out on different songs this time. This has to be an issue inherent to iOS 7. I tried removing the offending songs from iTunes and resyncing tghe cloud and itunes match, no dice. The "delete" functionality is gone from the download list in iOS 7 altogether, swiping to the left does nothing,. I have even tried reverting back to syncing my music on the computer, no dice. I have even rebuilt the itunes library from scratch on my computer deleting the entire app with "sudo" mentioned in another discussion -- nothing. I tried playing the songs that have the error (they stream fine but wont dload???) this doesn't help. The issue seems to be local to the iphone itself but is not the actual song files because each time I do a full restore it is different files. I am very computer savvy but have never run into an issue like this, those download errors are permanently stuck in my download que and CANNOT be removed. I've never was this stuck in iOS 6 or even any of the iOS 7 betas...only the final version on a 5s, even restoring my old iphone 5 works and I can remove the "dload errors tap to retry" just not on the 5s...Totally lost and frustrated.

Sep 22, 2013 10:59 AM in response to Dr-House

Also trying to "pause" the dload before it errors out again does not work. I have officially given up, hopefully apple recognizes this and fixes with 7.0.2. It is not corrupted data or a bad backup for sure. I have now even wiped my iphone and restored it and a new"iphone" and when I dload a large block of music 1500+ songs at least 2 error out, random tracks no matter what...???

Sep 22, 2013 1:01 PM in response to danowen79

Yeah its only 2 days old its a 5s. The only reason it doesn't seem to be hardware is that it is different songs each time I restore and it is usually only 2-3 songs out of 1900 when i restore. Also I agree its not limited to iOS 7 but all previous iOS's were capable of getting out of this "loop" of download errors I am stuck in, there is no way to delete the failed downloads which to me still points to software. Hardware shouldn't be the culprit since every time I start the process over, the phone will download the previous songs that were in error on my last restore and then error out on a different song. It seems to be a network interuption that causes the failure but why on earth is there no way to recover? Seems to me just closing the iTunes app on the phone completely or just a reboot should allow for the download to reinitiate, or simply allowing the usuer to delete failed attempt would make the most sense!! So bizarre, no way I can get a replacement 5s anywhere 2 days after launch, its sold out everywhere, not even worth the headache of that process.

Sep 30, 2013 3:43 PM in response to bengebenge

Ok so my phone is like stuck I guess. I downloaded music on my computer an went on my phone to download it on to the phone without having to plug it in. When I did that my phone just stopped wanting to download an erased all my music an now the music I try to re download is sticking in processing mode an I can't erase it or anything an it just one song stuck in processing an my phone won't let me download anything else till that one song is done downloading an it's stuck so I need help .

Sep 30, 2013 9:03 PM in response to dany.gagnon.ca

This does not resolve my problem. I wan't the download to complete. This occurs for me on my podcasts since updating to ios7. I can only download them on my PC, and not directly to my iPhone 4S. Still playing around with the settings, but haven't found the correct config. to allow me to download my podcasts directly (over 3G or Wifi.)

Sep 30, 2013 10:43 PM in response to P-ta

Three support chats with Apple Support, an appointment at the Genius Bar ... and, my songs still get stuck at the "processing" stage. Can't download previously purchased or Music Match'd songs via wifi (any wifi) or 3g.


The Geniuses reset it back to factory new condition, supposedly. It still wasn't downloading. Then one of them did a bit of voodoo, clearing the safari cache and web data (shouldn't it already be clear? It was just restored to new), setting cookies to never accept .. and, suddenly, the 3 songs we were watching downloaded. I'd been there for 2 hours and needed to go, so I said, thanks, I'll see if it's fixed. Of course it wasn't. Haven't gotten a download to pass "Processing" since. Tried repeating that ridiculous voodoo to no avail.


So, I am back to managing the iPad like it was an iPod circa 2005 - putting songs on it with iTunes. WHich is a trick once you're using Match. You have to disable music match in iTunes, disable it on the iPad, and then finally you are able to manage the syncing of songs by hand with iTunes.


To make sure it isn't my account that is at fault, I logged one of the store iPads to my itunes acccount and was able to download previously purchased songs just fine ... something I cannot do since the ios7 upgrade. (I wonder if this is specific to older hardware ... an iPad2 purchased two years ago.)


This problem really stinks and it hope that they get thousands of people at the Apple Stores requesting help with it so it will get fixed in the next bug fix release.

Oct 3, 2013 4:00 AM in response to bengebenge

Hi everyone,


I had this exact same issue. I got a replacement phone and downloaded iOS7. NONE of my purchased songs would download and it kept saying - download error, tap to retry and when I tapped to retry it kept saying '.... cannot be downloaded, please try again later'. So frustrating as I didn't want to lose over £60 worth of music!


I tried the suggestion of 'deleting' the songs from the downloads list on itunes. Swipe each song to the left (when using an iphone) and then press delete. A lot of them then played fine in itunes and the ones that still hadn't downloaded, miraculously started downloading properly once you pressed the cloud icon next to it in itunes.

PHEW!


It does work, just swipe to delete all of the ones in the download list and then click the cloud icon to download the rest. Hope this helps.

Oct 9, 2013 9:23 PM in response to bengebenge

I was so confused. I subscribe to several podcasts. A few of them would download just fine yet one of them would start the download but stopped just short of finishing and I would get the dreaded error message, "Download failed, tap to retry." I have an iPhone 4s. I don't use iTunes on my PC, just download directly from my phone. After reading some of the posts, I got the idea to disconnect WiFi and try it that way. Lo and Behold, the non-performing podcast downloaded just fine. Go figure.

Oct 21, 2013 8:07 PM in response to bengebenge

I have fixed the problem that doesn't involve quick tapping or calling apple support!

You must connect the iPhone to the computer unfortunately. If you don't want to or cannot, keep tapping and maybe you'll get lucky!
For me: I connected to iTunes (had to get the update) and went to Purchased under the store button on the side bar. I RIGHT CLICKED and selected Search for available downloads. This Re-Downloaded the song on my iTunes. I dragged the songs that weren't working to my iPhone (my settings are such that I manually manage all songs etc). I shut iTunes on my phone, and reopened it to find my downloads were clear! I went into my music list on my phone to see that the songs that I wanted were available to download from the iCloud. I tapped the iCloud with an arrow icon, and boom it downloaded.

Try messing around with that and it should clear it up.

There is no way to delete it with a swipe now that iOS 7 is here. Any fixes with this are now out of date.

Good Luck.

Oct 21, 2013 8:29 PM in response to bengebenge

The really odd thing about this issue is that it is different for different podcasts. One podcast will work fine while another won't finish. I did find a solution that works for me. I have a 4s. When I get the error message, I delete the failed download, click on download old podcasts, re-download the failed download. Then, before I press the arrow to install the podcast, I turn off WiFi. Amazingly enough, it works every time. I hope this helps.

Download Error. Tap to retry.

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