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.
Tell ya what, iTunes Store, all these solutions that involve re-downloading on your computer with iTunes pretty much shoots anyone in the foot who might be, say, traveling. I was on a business trip and figured I'd download a movie on the phone to watch on the return flight.
Little did I know what a nightmare I'd be getting into: First the abort because it can't work on 3G. Then, starting the download after connecting to Wi-Fi, only to abort because the phone auto-locked after two minutes. So I turn off auto-lock, and let the phone run for a while. I have to make a call, so I (god forbid) close the iTunes app.
When I get back to it (and, side note, have to enter my password for about the 18th time... Is there a setting somewhere to save it? If not, can there be? Typing any sort of reasonably secure password on an iPhone soft keyboard is a Herculean exercise in patience.), the iTunes app gives the dreaded "Download error. Tap to retry" loop. Forever.
"Oh just connect the phone to your computer and download it there." That'd work great if you didn't prevent me from syncing the phone to more than one computer. I don't travel with an iMac -- it's sort of hard to get under the seat in front of me on a plane. It will, however, be a solid solution when I get home. I'll enjoy watching the movie I've already paid for from the comfort of my couch on a large screen.
However that doesn't solve the problem that I paid $3 to rent a movie to watch on an airplane, and spent over an hour of my time over the course of two days just trying to download it.
I love the iTunes Music Store. I love using your products. But things like this really make me question if anyone at Apple actually uses these products. If you're going to tell me this is an uncommon combination of usage cases, I'll be thoroughly surprised. Why do you make it such an ordeal to obtain content someone has already paid for? Why can't the content download in the background? (After all, Apps can!) Why can't downloads resume cleanly? Why can a song or movie that's downloaded completely fail to process and not give any option to re-download or delete or refund or any other option other than "download it via another method and sync it to your phone"?
I certainly had the potential to spend actual money on songs and movies while on the road in the future, but until you revamp the download system, you won't get a single penny from me.
I'll end this rant here, because I know I'm preaching to the choir and there's not actually any Apple Customer Service or "Suggestion Box" staff that pay attention to this vast wasteland of peer discussion that is the best support tool Apple's customers are allowed to have access to.
I had the same prob today and tried your fix Lukeless - worked great (as soon as I could manage to hit the pause button. Very happy - thanks for the tip! (maybe it's just an Aussie workaround!;)
The answer is more simple than you'd ever imagine: you don't have enough storage for the download. You'll need to delete some songs/shows to make more room.
I can confirm this. The download error is most likely because there isn't sufficient storage space on the phone. Check under Settings / General / About. Try deleting a few apps and try again.
OMG. After trying all frakin day your fix did the trick! Granted that took a bit too but THANK YOU! ::glomp:: I can now FINALLY finish downloading Die Another Day. You're the best.
I had this same error and lack of solutions for a movie download I was trying on my ipad. I finally updated the software on my ipad via itunes and that seems to have worked.
I tried all of these, none work. Even when I did hit the pause button once it didn't pause. I guess I have to accept the fact apple ripped me off again. F*ck you apple.
This was stuck in my iTunes on my device for approx a year, and finally decided to do something about it and look up the error and came across this thread.